Who Is The God Who Does Not Heal A Child With Cancer?

 Who is this God who does not answer the prayer of a Christian mother whose daughter is dying of cancer?

 Who is this God who does not answer the prayers of a Christian mother for her addicted son?

Who is this God who does not answer the prayer of a Christian husband who wants to find a job that will provide for his family?

 Who is God?

 There is one thing here we can say with certainty. God is not a God who helps Christians the way we want to be helped. That is not reality. 

 We want blessings - peace, prosperity, health, happy marriages, clever children…we want God to help us have the sort of life we want.

 And that doesn’t happen.

 Maybe it’s happened to you. You were expecting God to help you.

 He hasn’t and you are disappointed. 

 There is a simple truth here that can bring clarity.

 It is this:

 Wanting God to be God is very different from wanting God to help me.

 So we come to this question. Do I want the God who helps me? Or do I want God?

 In our heads we say we want God. It is the only logical answer. But in our hearts, we desperately want a God who will help us the way we want to be helped.

 We are not alone. Let’s consider the story of Mary and Martha in John 11.

Here we learn that when God does not help us as we want Him to, there is an invitation to lean in and trust God as He is.

 How is He then in this story? What is He like? There are several characteristics.

 1. He knows

 Mary and Marth wanted the God who would help them. Their brother was sick. They were worried. They wanted help. So they sent a message to Jesus to come. You can understand their thinking. We are close friends of Jesus. We have welcomed him into our homes. Mary thought to herself, I have sat at his feet and listened to his teaching. Martha thought to herself, I have cooked for him and all of his friends. They were thinking, we have been loyal friends of Jesus, now He should come and help us.

 And He doesn’t come.

 It is the same for us. God doesn’t come to help us when we want Him to.

 But that doesn’t mean God isn’t there and it doesn’t mean God is not involved.

 In fact we see that Jesus heard the message and pondered it, twice – he heard the news (v4, v6)

 Who is God? He is the God who knows every detail of our life, who hears every prayer we ever breathe. He is involved.

 2. Committed to His glory

 Jesus then told his disciples that Lazarus’ illness was for the glory of God. And because the illness is for the glory of God, he stays where he is. In Mary’s mind, in Martha’s mind, the God who helps should have got the first train to Bethany. But he doesn’t move.

 Because of the glory of God.

 Right at the start of this story the two Gods separate. There is the God we want to help us. He is not real. He doesn’t exist. And there is the real God utterly committed to the glory of God.

 God’s glory is the only item on His agenda. – helping the victims of an earthquake, serving the poor, healing the sick, feeding the hungry…and on and on. We have so much for God to do.

 However God only has one plan: His glory. The entire universe, every living being, giving glory to God, exalting God above all.

 When God is truly God, when all glory goes to God, that is best for everyone.

 When God is less than God, that is worse for everyone.

 So when Jesus hears about his friend Lazarus being sick his first thought is not, ‘I must go and help Mary and Martha’; no, it is the glory of God.

 Who is God? He is the God who is solely committed to the glory of God

 3.God is OK with our anger

 Jesus waits because of the glory of God – and Lazarus dies.

 Well done Jesus. Look at what has happened because of your concern for the glory of God. I was told to trust in you, I was told you were kind, I was told you would help.

 But…

 Lazarus is dead.

My child has cancer.

I can’t pay the rent.

I have lost my job.

 There is anger with God. Certainly both Mary and Martha were angry. As soon as they see Jesus they both say the same thing:

 ‘If you had been here my brother would not have died’

 You can hear the anger. We sent you the message. You had plenty of time, but look, you have come too late. Now he’s dead. It’s over. If only you had been here…but you weren’t.

 I expect some of you reading this have been where Martha and Mary were. Perhaps some of you listening right now are there. And deep down you are angry with God.

All this anger explodes in Jesus’ face, and let us notice something. He does not get upset with them. He could have said, look I am risking my life and the lives of my friends by coming to Bethany. You are so near Jerusalem where my enemies want to kill me, and instead of thanking me for coming, you are angry with me?

 Jesus is patient. We can shout out our anger at Him. It’s OK.

 Who is God? He is patient with us when we are upset.

 4. No explanation

 You would expect Jesus to apologise, to explain why He is late. He doesn’t. Not a word. Neither to Martha nor Mary. They are shouting at him – why weren’t you here?

 He gives no answer.  Remember Job. After all his suffering, and all his complaining, when God eventually speaks there is no explanation for the suffering. Instead God tells Job off because by complaining Job was implying he could do a better job than God at running the world. So God says, OK…so ‘where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?’

 You might have had the same experience.

 Who is God? He is the God who does not have to explain anything to his creatures.

 5. He comes – with hope and love

 God does not explain, but that does not mean He does not love us intensely, wanting the very best for us. See his love for Mary and Martha

 For both He comes. Yes for them it seems too late, but He comes even though it is dangerous, even though his disciples very definitely did not want to come. It is the same for us. God might not help us in the way we want to be helped; but He does come. Suddenly the two sisters heard the news – Jesus is here.

 Who is God? He is the God who comes to us. Always.

 And what does He bring? Hope and love

 For Martha he brings hope. She says to Him: ‘My brother is dead. That’s it. There is no more. Just memories and photos.’

 Jesus says: ‘No, you are wrong Martha. Death does not have the last word. Death is not the end for a human being. There is a resurrection. There is another life. The best is yet to come.

 Jesus points us to the resurrection. That is the most beautiful truth any human being can grasp. We want help – more money, a ticket to Florida, a great job…but none of these are going to deal with the one certainty of life - death. What does it matter which country are in when you are on your death bed? What does it matter how rich you are when you are on your death bed? They don’t matter.

 What does matter is the resurrection. Soon all of us will be facing death. And here is what God is saying – ‘I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live’.

 Jesus asks you to lean in and believe this truth this morning, that death does not have the last word, that there is a resurrection, that a time is coming when every tear will be wiped away, every wrong put right.

 Who is God? He is the God who brings the dead back to life to enjoy life with Him forever.

 For Martha hope; for Mary, tender care and tears.

 When Jesus gets to Bethany, only Martha goes out to welcome him. Mary wouldn’t go. She was too upset. She was upset. And Jesus notices this and this matters to Him. And so He sends a message and Martha comes and whispers in her sister’s ear – ‘The teacher is here, and is calling for you’. She is important. She does matter to Him. And she jumps up and runs out to the village where Jesus is still standing. falls at his feet and weeps.

 And Jesus also weeps. He is there with her in her sadness. This is not religion with neat answers; this is relationship. Jesus’ love for Mary is not academic, it is not theory. It is the reality of tears pouring down his face.

 And those tears are an invitation for Mary to believe that God is good, that He is for us, that He will do the best for us.

 Who is God? He is a God who cares deeply for us.

 6. The God Who Dies For Us, So We Might Live.

 And then - in this story - Mary and her sister and the others saw something they would never have seen if Jesus had come and done what they wanted. Their brother was raised from the dead. Mourning ) is replaced by joy. Not just the joy that their brother is alive, but the even deeper joy of the certainty that the true God can be trusted.

 Yes, the ‘Help me God’ disappoints, because He is not real. The real God, the God who is committed to His glory, not our needs, He does not disappoint. He hears our prayers; He comes into our situation; and while offering no explanation, He hears our anger; He points us to the reality of the resurrection; and even when we are upset, He shows us tender love – and at the end of the story we are shown how great that love was.

 A report about the miracle goes back to Jerusalem. The council meets. And Caiaphas, the leader, announces that Jesus must die. Lazarus’ resurrection causes Jesus’ death. That’s how great God’s love for Mary and Martha and Lazarus is.

 That’s how great His love is for us.

 Who is God? He is the God who dies for us.

 It is normal for many people to want the sort of God that Mary and Martha wanted at the start of this story, the ‘God who must help me God’. There is an invitation here to understand that this God does not exist, but to lean in and trust the God who does exist. The God as revealed in Christ in this story.

 The God who lives for his glory, not our needs

 But -

 Who hears all our prayers

Who comes into our story

Who brings hope

Who cares for us and weeps with us

Who loves us so much He died for us

And who promises us resurrection