One of the most enduring questions in the account of the raising of Lazarus is why Jesus remained two days before leaving for Bethany; and why this was such a significant point to include in the Gospel account.  After all, as Martha later said: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

He wanted us, and the disciples, to know that He was waiting.  The Lord has promised us that He hears the cries of the poor, that our Father knows what we need even before we ask Him, and that He will give whatever those who believe in Him ask.  But we need reminding that He is not at our personal beck and call.  He has placed Himself as our servant, but did not come to serve us in the way that the world sees.  He does not serve us by telling us what we want to hear, by giving us what we desire at every moment, or by dropping whatever He is doing to some running at the sound of our voice.  He serves us by saving us, by humbling Himself, but also by helping us remember our humility.  

We can become narrow visioned and our confidence in the Goodness of the Lord become an expectation.  And we can do this in our relationships with other people, taking their generosity and love for us, and turn it into an obligation that binds them, and really transform (deform) what was originally an act of love, into an act of slavery and obligation.  We can turn—at least in our own minds and vision—the Savior of the world into MY savior.

The Lord makes us wait, also as a matter of faith.  Almost every parent has at some point dealt with an impatient child, getting caught in the middle of something and telling them to wait just a moment.  As a parent, you know that you are going to take care of your child’s need (or request) and it may be in just a minute or two.  As children, we are more likely to think that someone is ignoring us and doesn’t care about us, that an answer of “wait” may actually mean “no”, or that they don’t really understand how important we think something is to us.

When the Lord tells us to wait, He is also saying: Have faith in me.  Have faith that He knows how serious the situation is; have faith that He knows how important it is to you; have faith that your personal salvation and the salvation of the world are not at odds with one another, but actually work together; have faith that His Will is done and that this is the Will of the Father: that none of what has been given to (him) shall be lost.

Sometimes He will tell us to wait, for the sake of waiting, to forge our faith and because the waiting, along with all of the emotions it brings, is itself an essential part of the work and revelation of the Kingdom.