The cross comes before the crown. Suffering comes before relief. Immaturity comes before maturity. Unbelief comes before belief. Darkness comes before light. Chaos before order. War before peace.

In John 11, Lazarus dies. He was Jesus’s friend. Indeed, Jesus was not only friends with Lazarus but his two sisters, Mary and Martha. They send word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick and near death. It says very strangely that Jesus hears the news and because of his love for them he delays his response for two days knowing that Lazarus will die. Or to put another way, he delayed so that he died.

It states clearly that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. However this act doesn’t seem loving at all. When Jesus has the power and availability to stop this he decides the best thing for those whom he loves is to see his glory. But to see his glory they must experience a great deal of pain. Pain that could have been avoided but pain that was necessary.

We all know how the story ends but are we okay with how Jesus loves here? Is Jesus on some ego trip to make himself look good? How is pain like this in our best interest?

The Bible often uses the birth of a child to explain this. When the baby arrives the pain is forgotten about. No doubt the joys of life swallow up the pain. The sting of death doesn’t get the final word. God does. And he will burst open the graves and clothe us with a new body that will never die again.

The second death is the worst and eternal death. If you want heaven NOW hell comes later. If you want light now darkness will come later. If you avoid suffering now it will come later.

There are two paths or we might say two ways of life: a crown now and a cross later. Or a cross now and crown later. The death of Lazarus gives us a visual picture of that reality.

And Jesus wasn’t on an ego trip, he was giving them and us the best thing he could possibly give us—himself.