In almost every narrative-based game there are invisible “triggers” built into the landscape that aren’t visible to the player until we cross them, and typically when we step over that invisible line or activate that switch it launches a cutscene or an event that cannot be undone. These “cutscene triggers” are typically points of no return, either providing new information or launching actions that irrevocably changes the landscape of the game. And while those moments are typically appreciated for pressing us forward into a new direction or providing a solution to a mystery that previously perplexed us, it also means that we can’t go back to the way things were before.

Once these wheels have been set in motion, there may be incomplete quests in our log that we are no longer able to go back and finish. Allegiances of characters may change… some may have even been removed from the equation. And because of this, there is a reason that the game doesn’t simply let us casually saunter across that event horizon… there are prerequisites we typically have to fulfill, specific skills and assets we must acquire, and many times we are even warned to “save our game” because there is no turning back from here. The music, the mood, the entire FEEL of the game is about to shift when we touch that button… and to prevent that from happening prematurely, the ability to trigger these events is placed outside of our ability to do so until we are at the right place in the game for it to happen. Because the game is protecting us from experiencing a game-breaking paradox in which we have advanced into a place we aren’t ready for yet, there are many doors we can’t open, computers we can’t access, and areas of the map we can’t explore yet. Not because the game is cruel… much to the contrary. It is because it is ensuring we are fully prepared before these game-changing events are finally unlocked.

One of my largest personal challenges in life is accepting why the Father delays in answering many of my prayers. I know what He is capable of… I have experienced many miraculous answers to my cries for help firsthand. But… it is rarely right away, or even the same day I asked for it. Sometimes it’s days, weeks, months, or even years after I have reached out to Him before He replies. For a long time I struggled with this, wondering why there was so much variability in the way He responds to me. And in the twin resurrections of Lazarus as well as Jesus Himself, a pattern emerges that sheds light on the reason for the delay.

John 11:1-6 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

John 11:38-46 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.

John 11:53-54 Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death. Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.

In the resurrection of Lazarus, which was the final recorded public miraculous work Jesus performed before His death on the cross, there was something different that was going to happen… it was not the first time Jesus performed a resurrection on a person who had passed away (He did this several other times), nor was it the most well-attended miracle He demonstrated (He fed thousands of people miraculously on two separate occasions). But it WAS the miracle that was going to set into motion a series of events that would lead to His crucifixion a very short period of time later… it didn’t just change His ministry or the way that He previously travelled. It was the final trigger that would launch a cutscene that would change not just the rest of His life, His follower’s lives, and the entire world.

So… what do my wait times for answered prayers, Jesus’s resurrection of Lazarus, and the empty tomb of Jesus have to do with each other? Everything… because each of these are fixed events in time that will completely change the lives of not just those directly involved but countless others as well. The Lord is not delaying the solutions to our problems because He is manipulative, cruel, or unjust… it is because He knows what events these answers to prayer will trigger in our lives. He who sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) knows what we are truly asking for even if we don’t fully comprehend it at the time… He knows what that answered prayer REALLY means to us and those around us. He knows what that new car, job, home, relationship, child, ministry expansion, healing, or ANY other change to our status quo will impact. And in His grace, He doesn’t answer our prayers until we as well as all the others who will be impacted are fully ready to receive both the answer AND the ramifications of the “cutscene” that will be triggered when His solution has been unveiled.

Matthew 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

If I can’t access a certain area in a game or move forward into a place that I can’t open at this time, I don’t get angry at the game… I simply understand that I will be coming back here later and that I must not be ready for this yet. And when I do finally come back to that locked door that I now possess a key to, I realize why there was a delay… because I wasn’t ready to pass through that doorway earlier in the game. There was still other missions I needed to accomplish, items I needed to gather, and people I still needed to assist in my current state. Once I placed the key into that doorway, I may not have the option to go back and do ANY of those things… I may be taken to a new place and unable to ever return to the simple life I was leading before this transition occurred.

The answering of Mary and Martha’s prayers and the resurrection of Lazarus was the beginning of the endgame for Christ’s earthly ministry, and Christ’s death and resurrection was the answer to an entire planet’s prayers that launched the new covenant… while both of these were wonderful things, it also meant that the disciples days of simply sitting and learning at the Master’s feet was OVER. Their ministries and the full implications of that were about to launch as well… and their previously normal, anonymous lives would never be the same. And in the prayers we are praying, here is simple question for each of us as we ponder the delay in His response… are we TRULY ready for what this answer brings? Sure, we want the tomb to be opened and to see a miracle occur in our lives… but when the Father brings dead things to life, these events do not occur in a vacuum. Just like in my videogames, locked doors typically means there is a prerequisite I haven’t fulfilled or perhaps another event that must be triggered first… or perhaps it simply isn’t the right time yet (Matthew 7:6). Let’s continue to bring our prayers to Him, but in the space between our ask and His answer let’s open our hearts to understanding what we still need to be doing on THIS side of that unmoving door that holds the responses we seek. He hears us as soon as we reach out to Him, and He intimately cares about everything that affects us. And in His infinite love for us, He doesn’t open EVERY door until we are fully prepared to walk through them… because in His infinite wisdom He knows that these answers may change more than we think.

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