Sunday, September 6, 2026

A devotional for the long season between pleading and healing.

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.” Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.
John 11:1–6

Mary and Martha do not send Jesus a polished explanation; they send a plain message: the one he loves is sick. Their plea rests on affection, yet the answer does not arrive at once. That is the wound of delayed healing: love is present, but relief is not. The verse refuses to let us call the delay proof of indifference.

Jesus hears the message, yet remains where he is for two days. The logic is startling: the sickness is interpreted in relation to God’s glory, and the delay is placed beside explicit love for Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. The verse does not say that pain is imaginary or that waiting is easy. It says that Jesus’ staying cannot be read as absence of affection. I often measure love by speed, and that measure makes every delay feel like rejection. Scripture corrects that instinct without giving a timetable: the beloved may be sick, the plea may wait, and the Lord may still be acting according to a purpose larger than immediate relief.

That love is not merely a sentiment attached to the name Jesus. At the cross, he gives himself for sinners; in the resurrection, he defeats death—the horizon already signaled by his words about this sickness. Delayed healing does not mean absent love; in Christ, love has already come near. The message has been heard by the Savior whose greatest work passes through suffering before glory, and grace—not our ability to predict the answer—holds it there.

Delayed healing does not mean absent love; in Christ, love has already come near.
Prayer

Lord Jesus, for every person who is sick, keep near the assurance that those you love are not forgotten when you stayed two days. Let the glory of God be known through your cross and resurrection, and receive our message in the mercy that has already come near.