Why did Jesus wait for two days after receiving the news of the sick Lazarus?

One of the most difficult verses that I have encountered in the Bible is John 11:5-6

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

– John 11:5-6 NKJV

Mary, her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus of Bethany, was a family that was very close to Jesus. Jesus also had a good relationship with the family as is evidenced in the gospels.

Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”

– John 11:3

Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus. What’s more the family knew that Jesus loved them! So when Lazarus fell sick, the sisters sent word to Jesus. Because of the close relationship they shared with Jesus, they referred to Lazarus as the one whom Jesus loves, in the message that they sent to Jesus. It is obvious that they expected Jesus to rush to their aid and heal their sick brother, because of the loving relationship that this family shared with Jesus.

It is therefore difficult to understand why Jesus seems to give such a lukewarm response, when He received the news that Lazarus was sick. If Jesus truly loved this family, then shouldn’t He have rushed to their aid and healed Lazarus, when the family needed His help the most? Or shouldn’t Jesus have spoken the Word from where He was and healed Lazarus even at a distance, just like He had healed the centurion’s servant from a distance? Matthew 8:5-13. Or perhaps like how He had healed the nobleman’s son? John 4:49-53. Why did not Jesus do anything like that for Lazarus? Perhaps Jesus did not love Lazarus enough?

Or was Jesus guilty of trying to show case His miraculous powers at the expense of the death of Lazarus? Did Jesus intentionally delay returning to heal Lazarus, so that He could perform the greater miracle of resurrecting a dead Lazarus? Did Jesus intentionally let Lazarus die, when He could have easily saved him?

Or perhaps was Jesus afraid of the Jews? We read in the gospel according to John.

Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.
And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed.

– John 10:39,40

John states that before the Lazarus incident Jesus had escaped from the hands of the Jews who were trying to kill Him, and had gone to the place beyond the Jordan where John the Baptist used to baptize i.e. Bethabara.

These things were done in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

– John 1:28

These are reasonable doubts, but we are here to see whether they hold water, and to see whether we can find the true reason why Jesus delayed going to Bethany.

Did Jesus intentionally let Lazarus die, when He could have saved him? Lazarus and his family lived in Bethany. When the news of Lazarus sickness reached Jesus, Jesus was at the place called Bethabara beyond the Jordan. The distance between Bethany and Bethabara is around 15 to 20 miles, i.e. a day’s journey. After receiving the news Jesus stayed there 2 more days before returning. When Jesus reached Bethany, He was told that it had been 4 days since Lazarus died. Let us trace the chain of events systematically albeit backwards.

1. Day 4 since Lazarus died. -> Jesus makes the 1 day journey from Bethabara to Bethany, i.e. around 20 miles and raises Lazarus.
2. Day 3 since Lazarus died. -> Jesus spends day 2 of 2 days at Bethabara.
3. Day 2 since Lazarus died. -> Jesus spends day 1 of 2 days at Bethabara.
4. Day 1 since Lazarus died. -> Jesus receives news about Lazarus’s sickness. Messengers take at least 1 day to make the around 20 mile journey and to find Jesus.
5. Day Lazarus died. -> Messengers depart to find Jesus to tell Him about Lazarus sickness. Lazarus probably dies soon after they depart, and is buried the same day.

So by tracing this chain of events we see that Lazarus probably died almost immediately after or in the very least on the very same day the messengers left to find Jesus, and was buried the very same day, as per Jewish regulations. So when the messengers reached Jesus at Bethabara the next day, Lazarus had already died the previous day itself. It is therefore impossible to support the claim that Jesus intentionally let Lazarus die, just so that He could perform the miracle of raising him from the dead. Because when Jesus received the message of Lazarus’s sickness, Lazarus was already dead and buried!

This actually helps us to understand why Jesus would wait at Bethabara for two more days even after receiving the urgent summons.

Whatever happened, it turns out that Jesus had reached Bethany just in time. It was 4 days since Lazarus was buried, and if there was a good time to perform the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, it was now. According to Jewish belief the soul of the departed person hung around the body for 3 days after it’s death. The soul would depart after 3 days and then the body would start decaying.

If the raising was performed within those 3 days, the Jews would have claimed that there was no miracle involved, as the spirit had simply returned to the body within the requisite time. By the time time Jesus reached Bethany, 4 days had passed and the body had started decomposing, evident by the stink referenced.

By performing the miracle on the 4th day after Lazarus death and burial, Jesus was demonstrating his power and authority over death itself, that even a dead person could be raised from the grave, even after rot and decomposition had set in the body,  by His express command.

Did Jesus not love this family? The tender dialogues between Jesus and the sisters we see in this chapter, and also in accounts across the Gospels, we see that Jesus did love this family intimately, and so it was not a lack of love, that delayed the coming of Jesus.

Was Jesus afraid of the Jews? If the gospel accounts are to believed, it was quite the opposite. Jesus knew why He had come to planet Earth – To die for the sins of mankind, so that those who accepted His sacrifice would be forgiven and justified in God’s sight. So He knew where His path would lead Him, and He was aware that it would cost Him His very life.

Was Jesus trying to show off His miraculous powers? On contrary, the gospels show that all that Jesus did was for the glory of God.

What do we get out of this? We read in Hebrews that Jesus prayed for deliverance from the cup of suffering He was about to endure. And while God didn’t immediately answer His prayer, God did raise Him from the dead 3 days after His death. Maybe it is too late for us, but for God it is never too late.

These are dangerous times to be a Christian. Sometimes it may seem that God is absent when we need God the most. When we are overcome and we need God to act, God is conspicuously absent. And while we wait for hope, we grow old and withered and finally depart on that lonely bleak journey to the opposite shore after death, and all light and joy and hope is extinguished. It may be too late for us now. But its never too late for God.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

 – 1 Corinthians 15:51-55