Faith is one of those words we hear so often that its meaning can become a little hazy. What does faith actually look like when life doesn’t go the way we expect?

John 11 gives us a powerful example through the story of Lazarus. Lazarus was sick, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus. They knew Jesus loved their family and that He had the power to heal. And yet, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He intentionally stayed where He was for two more days. That detail is easy to overlook!

Jesus knew what was going to happen. He knew Lazarus would die. He also knew what He was going to do. But from Mary and Martha’s perspective, Jesus’ delay must have been incredibly difficult to understand.

When Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

When God’s Timing Doesn’t Make Sense

Martha’s response to Jesus is remarkably honest:

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
John 11:21 (NIV)

There is grief in those words, disappointment. Perhaps even a little accusation. Haven’t we felt the same way? God, why did You let this happen? Why didn’t You answer sooner? Why are You silent? I thought You loved me!

Martha had every reason to be confused. She knew Jesus could have prevented Lazarus’ death, yet He didn’t. But there is something else in Martha’s response that is easy to miss. Even in her disappointment, she says:

“But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
John 11:22 (NIV)

Martha didn’t understand what Jesus was doing, but she still had a foothold of faith. She didn’t know what would happen next and couldn’t see the end of the story, but she could remember what she already knew about Jesus.

That is often what faith looks like. We don’t always get to see what God is doing, but we can remember who He is.

“I Am the Resurrection and the Life”

Jesus responds to Martha with one of the most profound statements in John’s Gospel:

“I am the resurrection and the life.”
John 11:25 (NIV)

Jesus doesn’t merely say that He knows about resurrection or that He can explain the resurrection. He says that He is the resurrection and the life.

For Martha, resurrection was something she understood as belonging to the future. Jesus shows her that resurrection and life are standing right in front of her!

Then He asks: Do you believe this? The question isn’t simply whether Martha understands everything Jesus has said. Jesus is calling her to trust Him. And that is important for us as well.

Faith doesn’t mean that we understand everything God is doing, but that we are willing to trust Jesus even when we do not. Sometimes our faith needs to be challenged. Sometimes our understanding of Jesus needs to grow and change as we discover more about who He really is.

The challenges we face can become opportunities for that growth.

Faith Requires Action

Eventually Jesus arrives at Lazarus’ tomb and tells the people to remove the stone. He could have moved the stone Himself, but He didn’t. The people standing there had to act on the faith that had just been expressed.

Then Jesus called out: Lazarus, come out. And Lazarus came out of the tomb alive. The miracle was entirely dependent on Jesus’ power, but the people were still called to participate.

This gives us another important picture of faith: faith requires action.

James puts it this way:

“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
James 2:17 (NIV)

Jesus does the heavy lifting, but He invites us to demonstrate our trust in Him through what we do.

Faith isn’t merely believing something about Jesus intellectually, but rather allowing what we believe about Jesus to change how we live.

God’s Love and Our Faith

This brings us back to the difficult question from the beginning. Why would Jesus wait? How could allowing Martha and Mary to experience even more grief possibly be an act of love?

From our perspective, God’s love can sometimes look like unnecessary suffering. We don’t always understand why He allows certain things to happen, or why He doesn’t intervene according to our timing. However, the story of Lazarus gives us another way to think about God’s love: God’s love provides opportunities for our faith to grow.

As our faith grows, we learn to trust Him more completely. Acting on that faith shapes our character and deepens our relationship with Him. Like any relationship, trust isn’t something that is built once and then finished. It grows over time.

Sometimes the circumstances we would most like God to remove become the very circumstances through which He teaches us to trust Him more deeply.

What Do We Do When We Can’t See?

The story of Lazarus leaves us with some important questions:

• When do I feel like God has forsaken me?
• Why do I feel that way?
• What challenges am I facing right now that might become opportunities to trust God more completely?
• What promises has God given me in Scripture that I can hold onto when hardship comes?

Martha may not have understood everything Jesus was doing, but she remembered what she knew. She held onto what she had already learned about Him.

We can do the same. We don’t have the benefit of seeing the end of our stories. We don’t know exactly what God is doing or how every difficult circumstance will turn out.

But, we do know Jesus. We know what He has revealed about Himself, we know His promises, and we know that He is “the resurrection and the life.”

Sometimes faith means trusting Jesus when we can’t see what comes next, and sometimes the next step of faith is simply rolling away the stone and trusting Him with what happens afterward.

Remembering Life Out of Death

The story of Lazarus points us toward an even greater reality. Jesus told Martha, I am the resurrection and the life and He would soon demonstrate that truth in an even greater way through His own death and resurrection.

In communion, we remember the sacrifice of Jesus: His body and blood given for us. We also remember His power to bring life out of death.

The story of Lazarus gives us a glimpse of that promise. We may not always understand what God is doing or feel His presence, but we can trust who He is and we can continue taking steps of faith, confident that the God who brings life out of death is still at work.