John 11:17-22
Martha and Mary
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Mark 2:1-12
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man,carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
When we suffer or in the midst of suffering, we sometimes do not think quite clearly or rationally...Sometimes we question God when we suffer like Job did...Jesus' death on the cross is about suffering...It seems that Jesus and God teach us that when we need Them the most They are there to help us...This is a difficult teaching, because when we are feeling our worst, things often seem much out of order...We are often out of balance...Trusting when we need our greatest help is hard...It doesn’t matter if it is the need of two sisters grieving like Mary and Martha when their brother died, or the paralyzed one who needed Jesus to walk again...Martha and Mary and the one paralyzed, as well as their friends believed and trusted that Jesus could heal them...Those in need were helped by Jesus, not because the time was right in their lives, but because that is what God and His Son do...God's timing is always right, and yet we do not always understand God and His Son's timing of things...