Why Fixing You Isn’t Enough

When Fixing Isn’t Enough: The Problem We Don’t Want to Face

We spend our lives trying to fix things. We work on our relationships, adjust our finances, attend to our mental health, and constantly tweak our circumstances. Sometimes it works—for a while. We solve the problem, make progress, feel better. But then something else breaks. Something else feels off. And we’re back at it again, wondering if life is just an endless cycle of problems to solve.

What if the issue isn’t that we need better solutions? What if the problem is that we’re trying to fix the wrong thing?

The Crowd That Missed the Point

In John chapter 12, a massive crowd gathered in Jerusalem. News had spread that Jesus was coming, and people flooded the streets with palm branches, shouting words from Psalm 118: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Save us!” The atmosphere was electric. Victory felt imminent. Finally, someone was going to fix everything.

And they weren’t wrong to want help. Their expectations were understandable—Rome’s oppression was real, their suffering was genuine, their desire for change was legitimate. But in all their shouting and celebrating, they completely missed what they actually needed saving from.

They wanted a savior who would fix their circumstances. Jesus came to defeat something far deeper: death itself.

The Misunderstanding We All Share

We do the same thing. We pray, “Jesus, if you could just fix my marriage, I’ll be okay.” Or “If my finances stabilize, I’ll finally have peace.” We say, “If my mental health improves, I’ll feel whole again.” We invite Jesus into our stories, but only to patch things up, not to make us entirely new.

We believe Jesus can help—with our stress, our relationships, our situations. But death? That feels final. Too far gone. Beyond repair.

This is exactly where the story of Lazarus becomes crucial. Just days before the palm branches and the parades, Jesus had demonstrated something the crowd didn’t know what to do with.

When Jesus Shows Up “Late”

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, had died. By the time Jesus arrived, he’d been in the tomb for four days. Martha met Jesus with words that echo what we all think: “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Notice what she’s saying: Jesus, you can help—but only up to a point. You can heal the sick, but death? That’s different. That’s final.

We trust Jesus to help us through difficulties, but when something feels too far gone, we start to believe it’s too late. The student lives into the label. The parent accepts the growing distance. The worker wonders if this exhaustion is just permanent. The older adult looks back more than forward, as if life has already said its final word.

But Jesus isn’t late. He’s intentional.

The Real Problem Revealed

Before Jesus raised Lazarus, he said something that redefined everything: “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.”

This is the shift we miss. We think death is something that happens at the end of life. Jesus reveals that death is something we’re already living under right now.

We can be busy but empty. Successful but restless. Surrounded but alone. Everything looks alive on the outside, but something’s off on the inside. That’s not just brokenness—it’s spiritual death.

And here’s what’s remarkable: when Lazarus walked out of that tomb, he was still wrapped in burial clothes. He was alive, but still carrying evidence of death. More importantly, he would one day return to the grave. The miracle was amazing, but it wasn’t final. Lazarus was a sign, not the solution.

The King They Didn’t Expect

That’s why when the crowd celebrated Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem, they completely misunderstood what was happening. They praised the miracle but missed its meaning. They honored the sign but didn’t grasp what it pointed to.

They wanted a king who would fix their problems. Jesus came as a Savior who would suffer and die.

In the middle of their celebration, Jesus said something jarring: “Unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”

The crowd wanted renovation. Jesus was talking about demolition and complete reconstruction. They were ready to follow him into victory, but not into death.

The Invitation to Surrender

This is where it gets uncomfortable for us. We want Jesus to patch up our lives, to make things smoother, to reduce our stress. And yes, he cares about all of that. But he always leads us deeper—to die to ourselves, to let go of control, to surrender what we’re clinging to.

The life we’re trying to preserve is often the very thing keeping us from real life.

It’s like hiring a contractor to update your kitchen, only to have them tell you the foundation is damaged and the whole house needs to be torn down. That’s not what you signed up for. That sounds costly and painful. But it’s the truth.

If our problem were just bad behavior, we could try harder. If it were just mistakes, we could do better. If it were just circumstances, we could change our situation. But if the problem is death—spiritual death that has infected everything—then our effort won’t touch it.

Where Are You Asking Jesus to Fix What Only He Can Raise?

We don’t need a better version of our lives. We need something we cannot produce on our own: resurrection.

Maybe you’ve been coming to church, collecting principles, trying to modify your behavior, adding good habits. That’s all fine, but you can do all of that and still not have a surrendered heart. You can love Jesus and still have sealed-off areas of your life—tombs you’ve learned to live with.

Jesus is standing there saying, “Open it up. Let me in.”

The truth is, we have areas in our lives that need more than fixing. They need God to breathe life back into them. And that starts not with effort, but with honesty. With admitting, “I can’t fix this. I’m laying it down. I’m inviting you in.”

Because if the problem is death, we don’t need self-improvement. We need a Savior.

And the good news—the news we’ll celebrate at Easter—is that Jesus didn’t just face death. He defeated it.