Sickness for the Glory of God

This morning I was doing part of my daily Bible reading while sitting on “the porcelain chair.” I heard Greg Ohly call it by that name years ago while making a presentation for Longaberger baskets at John and Kathleen Yarsinsky’s. Somehow that has stayed with me over the years. Now I know some of my readers could do without such details. However, I do have a serious point to make with it and that is, that if you are busy and you really want to do your daily Bible reading, there are times and places to do it. You just have to be creative. Most of us have seen pictures of The Thinker, the famous French sculpture by Auguste Rodin. The Thinker is positioned just like someone sitting on “the porcelain chair.” I wonder if Monsieur Rodin had that in mind. You see, it is a great place to meditate. And a great place to do your daily Bible reading.

Now this is not a blog about maximizing time spent on “the porcelain chair.” It is about what I saw today, while doing my Bible reading there. I was reading John 11 and I was profoundly struck by something in verse 4. Let’s begin by reading the first four verses of John 11 leading up to our verse.

John 11:1  Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
2  (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
3  Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
4  When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

Lazarus was extremely sick. He was so sick that his sisters sent for the Lord Jesus in hopes that He would come and heal him. In fact, he was so sick that he died from it as the account goes on to relate. And yet, in the face of this great extremity of human tragedy, our Lord had this to say about Lazarus’ sickness: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”

How could our Lord make such a statement in the face of the fact that Lazarus died? Well, as the narrative continues we learn that our Lord used this as an occasion to show Himself as “the resurrection, and the life.” Our Lord knew in advance what He would do. He was in perfect control of the situation. In fact, when Lararus’ sisters sent for Him, Jesus did not rush to the scene but “abode two days still in the same place where he was” (John 11:6). Does it ever seem to you that the Lord is taking His sweet time when you call for His help in an emergency? Well, He is and He has good reason for doing so. Our Lord Jesus was so in control of this situation, He could even say this when He knew Lazarus had died:

John 11:14  Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
15  And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

Just look at the juxtaposition of those two statements: “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad.” GLAD??? Glad when Lazarus’ family and friends are in such grief? No, He was not glad that they were sad. He was rather glad for the opportunity that this tragedy provided for the display of His saving power and for the strengthening of the faith of His disciples.

As the narrative goes on to relate, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead by His life-giving voice and gained such renown for Himself, that the chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council and decided to have Him put to death. It was the decision of this council that led to the death of Christ on the cross of Calvary for the redemption of His people. Indeed, Lazarus' sickness was “for the glory of God” in the most far-reaching sense of the word. God’s children will be with Him in glory because Jesus died on the cross because the Pharisees consulted to have Him put to death because He raised Lazarus from the dead because Lazarus had died because he had been sick! Of course, behind all of this was “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23), without which Jesus Christ would not have been delivered up to die for the salvation of God’s elect.

Now the point that I want to stress to my readers is that sometimes we are faced with experiences of extreme tragedy, things that are beyond our ability to fix. We tend to see these things like a “sickness unto death.” But the Lord sees it quite differently. He sees that this is not “a sickness unto death,” but, rather, it is a sickness “for the glory of God.” How many times God has glorified Himself in bringing about deliverance when our resources have been completely exhausted and we have despaired of ever seeing a way out? Whenever such deliverance occurs, we stand on the other side of it in awe and praise God realizing that it was He that saved us and not we ourselves. Well, you see, that was the reason God brought us that that extremity in the first place. It was for His glory. He wants us to know His power and to trust Him wholly. Our extremities of weakness and want are God’s opportunities to display His power. We have a limit. He has no limit.

Jeremiah 32:17  Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:

So whatever extremity of tragedy you may find yourself in today, know that you are never beyond the power of God to save.

Hebrews 7:25  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we bear the hope that not even the extremity of death is the end for us as our Lord put it so well:

John 11:25  Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?