Too late?

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. (John 11:21)

As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!” (32)

I’d always seen Mary’s and Martha’s words as a kind of rebuke of Jesus. “Why didn’t you come earlier? If you had come earlier, Lazarus wouldn’t have died.”

Now I’m not so sure.

Lazarus had been in the grave four days when Jesus arrived. Which means even if Jesus had left right away, Lazarus would have still been in the tomb two days when Jesus arrived.

And so it seems more likely to me that they were saying, “I wish you hadn’t been so far away when Lazarus got sick. If you had been here, he wouldn’t have died.”

But one thing that’s clear to me is that when Jesus arrived, Mary and Martha had no thought that Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead. It never entered their heads to ask him.

Even when Martha told Jesus, “I believe God will give you anything you ask,” looking at her words in verses 24 and 39, it’s very clear she wasn’t thinking Jesus would raise Lazarus right then and there.

It just made me think. Do I ever think, “It’s too late; it’s no use praying anymore”?

Is my Jesus so small, that I don’t think he can raise the things I consider dead and beyond hope to life again?

Do I truly believe he is able to do far more than I can ask or imagine? Or is my thinking as to what Jesus can do still too small?