Heard, Before the Stone

"So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me." (John 11:41)

Here is the strangest line in the whole chapter. Standing in front of a sealed tomb with a dead man inside it, before anything has happened, before a single thing has changed, Jesus thanks the Father for having heard him. Not for having answered. For having heard. And only then does he call Lazarus out.

The gratitude comes first. It comes while the stone is still warm from being moved, while the crowd is still holding its breath, while Martha is still protesting that by now there will be an odor. He gives thanks before there is anything to show for it.

That is the exact opposite of how most of us pray. We want to see it and then thank him. We want the report, and then the worship. It seems only reasonable, even honest. But he was not thanking the Father for a result. He was thanking him for a relationship. I have been heard. That is enough. That has always been enough, and the rest of it is the Father's business. So learn to say the thank-you before the stone moves. Not as a trick to move it, but because being heard by God is itself the answer underneath all the other answers, and a person who knows he has been heard can wait in front of any tomb.