Right now the hearts and minds and prayers of my extended family are focused on my youngest brother, Graham. He is apparently in the last stages of his fight with cancer. I say apparently because just a little over a week ago he felt well enough to come to America from Australia for an extended visit. Very suddenly he took a turn for the worse and now we are being told that he will not live more than a few days to a few weeks. I am still praying for the miracle that I have prayed for from the beginning of this ordeal. I know that God can say the word and Graham would completely healed. Along with that prayer, I am also asking God to spare him at least until my parents and brother can arrive in Australia tomorrow. Some may see this as a lack of faith on my part, but I don't see it that way. I believe very strongly that God still heals people today. But I also believe just as strongly that God has a perfect plan for each of our lives that will ultimately benefit us and glorify Himself. How our ultimate benefit fits together with God's glory is often difficult for us to understand and accept, but God is able to weave both together in supernatural fashion.
I have heard people say that Jesus healed everyone he met who needed healing. I don't believe you can prove that from scripture. I know of at least one occasion when He definitely did not. When Jesus heard that his very good friend Lazarus was extremely ill, He said;
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it" (John 11:4).
The bottomline is that Jesus allowed Lazarus to die so that He could come along in a few days and raise him from the dead. There is no doubt as one reads John chapter eleven that the disciples, along with Mary and Martha, had difficulty understanding why Jesus did not heal Lazarus. They all knew that He could. They all knew that Jesus loved Lazarus very much.They put these two truths together and assumed that Jesus would heal him, but He didn't. And when Jesus didn't, it was very disturbing for all involved.
The answer to why Jesus did not heal Lazarus is, first of all, that in every situation of our lives, God seeks to glorify Himself. His glory is the most important thing in this universe. Nothing is greater than that. And not only that, but God is always doing what will ultimately, in the end, glorify Himself the most. Healing Lazarus would have no doubt brought glory to God, but raising him from the dead brought even greater glory to God.
In addition to bringing glory to Himself, God is, at the very same time doing what is ultimately best for us. It may not appear in our best interests at the time, and that is why we struggle with it, but God, because He is God, is able to accomplish both. By not healing Lazarus, and then raising him from the dead, Jesus brought the greatest glory to God, and He also increased the faith of the disciples and Lazarus' sisters. Lazarus suffered for a little while, but then had the opportunity to live again.
I know that God can heal the sick, and even raise the dead. I know that God loves my brother infinitely more than I do. In my mind and heart, this adds up to God healing my brother, even now. But I have to understand and accept that God is going to do what glorifies Himself the most and what is ultimately best for Graham.
If Graham dies in the next few days or weeks, it will be one of the saddest situations for our family and his church family that I can imagine. Only God will be able to sustain us in our grief. But I have no doubt that God will bring incredible glory to Himself, and Graham will live again, only better. May your will be done, O Lord, and give us the grace to accept it!
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