God's Glory Church

Very soon we, as believers, will celebrate one of the most significant holidays – Easter. This event is not only the foundation of our faith, but also indicates to us that without preparation on our part, we may find ourselves in the category of those people who lived during the time of Christ, but did not accept Christ Himself and did not receive from God the most important gift – salvation through the death of His Son. Therefore, the call of John the Baptist is still relevant for us today: “…prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mark 1:3)

Today I would like to continue talking about preparation for the implementation of God’s Passover and God’s Purim in your and my life, because these events themselves will not change our lives, since it is very important how we treat them and whether we, on our part, prepare the way for the Lord in our lives.

On the eve of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, Jesus performed one of the most famous miracles – he raised His friend Lazarus on the fourth day after his death. This happened in the village of Bethany, about three kilometers from Jerusalem, on one of the slopes of the Mount of Olives. Now there is an Arab village called Al-Azaria, which, in fact, means “Lazarus” in Arabic.

Hearing about this miracle and becoming convinced of its reality, many followed Christ. In addition, the Jews expected, according to prophecies, that the Messiah and Savior of Israel should appear precisely on Passover. Many met Him this way – as the Messiah and Savior.

But the story itself began not with triumph and rejoicing, but with many questions and doubts, to which, at first glance, there were no answers. In the Gospel of John we read:

“A certain Lazarus was sick from Bethany, from the village where Mary and Martha, her sister, lived. Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was the one who anointed the Lord with myrrh and wiped His feet with her hair. The sisters sent to tell Him: Lord! Behold, the one You love is sick. When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness is not for death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:1-4)

Lazarus died soon after the messengers returned from Jesus; his death was an irreplaceable loss for his sisters, for whom he replaced parents. The mysterious promise of the Lord – to reveal His Divine glory in Lazarus’ illness – was not understood, and therefore could not deliver the consolation it contained. When they remembered the resurrections of the young man of Nain (Luke 7:11-15) and the daughter of Jairus (Matthew 9:18; Mark 5:22), performed by Jesus in Galilee, a ray of hope could instantly illuminate hearts darkened by sorrow, but this hope weakened the more the longer Lazarus continued to lie in the tomb, and Jesus hesitated. The signs of complete destruction found in the soulless corpse prompted us to abandon the last hope of seeing him animated again; and now, four days after the death of Lazarus, Jesus, apparently, was no longer expected in Bethany, believing that if He came to console His friends, it would be just before the holiday, when He would go to Jerusalem, or after it, upon His return to Galilee.

The rumor about the Divine Teacher and Wonderworker always preceded His arrival. Martha (probably leaving the house to do household chores, which she was especially busy with (Luke 10:38-42)), was the first to hear that Jesus was approaching Bethany, and immediately, without going into the house to notify her sister, she hurried to meet Him along the path that the Lord should have taken. He was still outside the village when sad Martha fell at His feet. At the sight of Christ, a thought awoke in her soul: how different everything would have been if Jesus had come at the right time, that is, when Lazarus was still alive. “Lord! if you had been here, my brotherwould not have died. But,” Martha continued, wanting to correct her thought and show that her faith in the Teacher had not changed, “But even now I know that whatever You ask God, God will give You.” (John 11:21-22)

It is this conversation between Martha and Jesus that reveals our expectations of Christ and how we typically believe and trust Him. Indeed, only under such circumstances does it become clear that our faith in God is often limited by how we understand His will, and is often based solely on our religious knowledge and what we have seen before, and not on what the Lord can actually do for us. “Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

This story clearly shows all our human expectations, as well as our disappointments when God does not come exactly at the moment at which, in our opinion, He should have come. But the truth is that the Lord is never late!

“Jesus says: Take away the stone. The sister of the deceased, Martha, said to Him: Lord! already stinks; for he has been in the tomb for four days. Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”(John 11:39-40)

It is in the light of today’s events in our country and the approach of Easter that this story takes on special relevance, and faith in the words of Christ points us to the key that opens the door to the manifestation of God’s glory and miracles. After all, our Lord is never late and can resurrect what is already dead and hopeless, from the point of view of people!