The story in John 11:1-16 of the raising of Lazarus from the dead serves as a catalyst to what this chapter centers upon and that is faith. I find there are two great obstacles on the road of faith:
•Vs. 1-6 The fear of delay: Have you ever noticed that our faith never seems to waiver as long the answers are on time? It is the “wait and the delay,” that seems to usher in our discouragement. But we see the antidote to delay is to remind ourselves that no amount of delay dampens the fervency of His love.
•Vs. 7-16 The fear of the journey: The “what if’s” are another thing that always seems to cause us to falter in our faith. But again we will see Jesus will use the “truth” as the antidote to fear.
The most challenging situation we face as Christians is when God does not do what we think He was going to do when we thought He was going to do it. Some call these crises of faith but no matter what you call it we will all have to go through it more than once. The story before us will go down next to His own resurrection as the greatest of all of Jesus’ miracles yet He didn’t do it the way most thought He would or when they thought He would.