The Lazarus story begs a lot of questions. Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, were very close friends of Jesus. Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus that “the man you love is ill.” That man was Lazarus. So their request came with an implied reaction that Jesus should come and heal him. Hence, we are understandably taken aback by Jesus’ seeming lack of response to Lazarus’ illness and the request to come and heal him. As Jesus approaches the village where Lazarus has died, he is met by Martha and then, later, by Mary. Each, in turn, asks him the question: “Why?” Why, since you loved this man, did you not come to save him from death? Jesus doesn’t offer any theoretical apologia in response. Instead, he asks where they have laid the body, lets them take him there, sees the burial site, weeps in sorrow, and then raises his dead friend back to life. So why did he let him die in the first place? Why didn’t Jesus rush down to save Lazarus since he loved him? The answer to that question teaches a very important lesson about Jesus, God, and faith, namely, that God is not a God who ordinarily rescues us but is rather a God who redeems us. God doesn’t ordinarily intervene to save us from humiliation, pain, and death; rather, he redeems humiliation, pain, and death after the fact. This is one of the key revelations inside the resurrection: We have a redeeming, not a rescuing, God. Jesus never promised us rescue, exemptions, immunity from cancer, or escape from death. He promised rather that, in the end, there will be redemption, vindication, immunity from suffering, and eternal life. But that’s in the end; meantime, in the early and intermediate chapters of our lives, there will be the same kinds of humiliation, pain, and death that everyone else suffers. The death and resurrection of Jesus reveal a redeeming, not a rescuing, God.