The Rabbi’s School of Time Management

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” (John 11:5-7 MSG)

If you’ve ever read Steven Covey, or if you’ve sat under the instruction of one who has, you’re no doubt familiar with the urgent/important matrix. More than just a time management principle, it’s strong basis for prioritizing most anything in life. The principle breaks our activity into four quadrants that looks something like my crude sketch below:

Managing your life or your work this way depends on being able to distinguish between important and not, and urgent and not. The “Important and Urgent” quadrant represents things that are important (must be done) but are also urgent (must be done now). Often the activities in this quadrant relate to crises, whether of our own making or not.

“Not Important and Urgent” tasks tend to be more like interruptions or distractions. Things that really don’t need to be done but capture our attention because if they’re going to be done at all they need to be done now.

The “Not Important and Not Urgent” quadrant houses activities that are all around meaningless things that don’t contribute to meeting our goals, but somehow lure us away into dorking around with them so we don’t get anything done that actually matters.

The observation has been made that high performing people and groups are those who are able to devote the greatest share of their time and resources to the “Important and Not Urgent” quadrant. The prize behind Door Number Two. The “Important and Not Urgent” things are those that don’t typically have so much time-sensitive urgency but are the true high-value activities that are so crucial to accomplishing what we desire and becoming who we long to be. High-value activities like planning, training and preparation. High-value activities like exercising and eating right. High-value activities like prayer and study and being with Jesus.

The sad thing is that the activities that pack the biggest punch for impact are the quickest to be thrown out the window in favor of the things that scream out loud and demand our immediate attention. So we spend more of our time on thing things that matter less.

Long introduction to get to my point. Sorry. Here it is: Jesus got it.

Jesus understood the impact of “Important and Not Urgent.”

Now, I’m not teaching a class on time management here today, though I truly wish I’d have thought of Lazarus the last time I did. Because long before there was a Steven Covey, Jesus was already practicing one of the most foundational principles of time management ever known to man.

As we read the story of Lazarus, we see that word was sent to Jesus that the one that He loved, His dear friend Lazarus, was sick. The one He loved was sick. The message must have come with a dire tone, for Jesus immediately assured those who were with Him that “This sickness will not end in death.”

But despite His assurances, there was clearly an urgency to the message. Lazarus did not have a cold. He didn’t have a migraine. He didn’t have the chicken pox. Lazarus was going to die. Those who sent for Jesus believed that Lazarus was near death, and they wanted Jesus nearby.

Lazarus was Jesus’ good friend. This was important.

Lazarus was dying. This was urgent.

And so Jesus waited a couple of days before He did anything.

What?

This was a crisis if ever there was one. Why wasn’t Jesus dropping everything to go and be with His friends who needed him so desperately? Didn’t He know about the quadrants? Didn’t He understand “Urgent and Important”? This is the thing that must be done and must be done now!

I like the addition that The Message makes of a single word to the text which, while it’s not in other versions, certainly states the obvious. It’s the word that we’re all thinking about Jesus’ decision to stay put and not to rush to the aid of His friends, but maybe we’re not sure we should be saying out loud about something Jesus did.

“…but oddly, he stayed where he was for two more days.”

Oddly indeed.

Jesus did explain Himself. He explained His seeming lack of urgency. Remember, back in verse 4, Jesus had told them that “This sickness will not end in death.”

But I’ll tell you what. We’ve read ahead. We know that Lazarus most certainly did die. He was entombed before Jesus even arrived, in fact. He was not “mostly dead” and needing a big pill from Miracle Max. He was dead dead. Dead.

So was Jesus mistaken? Was it wishful thinking? Why did He say it wouldn’t end in death when it so clearly had done just that?

Go back and read the text again. Jesus didn’t say that Lazarus wasn’t going to die. He didn’t say that at all. He said that the sickness would not “end in death.” He knew that there was more to Lazarus’ story. He knew that sickness and death were not the end, but rather the beginning.

He had something much more important in mind than the urgency of his friend’s most certain death.

He knew that this was an opportunity for God to be glorified. He went on in verse 4 to tell us that “it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Later, in verse 14 and 15, He told His disciples that Lazarus had in fact died, but that for their sake “I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.” It was an opportunity for God’s power to be displayed for the purpose of creating belief and building faith. And just before He ultimately called Lazarus out of the tomb, He told them, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

It was all about God’s glory revealed.

Jesus comprehended the importance of the moment at least as well as He grasped the urgency. But He bypassed the urgent call to rescue Lazarus from the grip of death in favor of the importance of revealing God’s glory. The Importance was so far greater than the Urgency.

Now, let me tell you something. This all ended well. Since we’ve read ahead, we also know that Lazarus exited the tomb fully alive. The sisters had their brother back, Jesus had His friend back, they all stopped their mourning, God got His glory, and all was well in Bethany.

But it doesn’t always work that way, does it? Usually people don’t come back. Sometimes illnesses don’t heal. Sometimes finances aren’t restored. Sometimes relationships aren’t mended. Sometimes scars are still visible. Sometimes floodwaters don’t recede. Sometimes the new job just isn’t there. Sometimes the old one still stinks.

Sometimes the suffering goes on and on and on. Sometimes the pain doesn’t end.

We see the urgency. We cry out for immediate relief. We have it in our “Urgent and Important” quadrant, with big bold letters, flashing lights and a blaring siren. How can God not see the urgency?

Sometimes He doesn’t see the Urgency because the Importance gets in the way.

There is something so monumentally important that He longs to do.

At times like that, we have to set aside our Urgency so that we can see the Importance too.