John 11:38-45

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39"Take away the stone," he said.

"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

40Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

The Plot to Kill Jesus

45Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.



Dig Deeper

The one thing that I’m certain has already or will eventually touch the life of every one of us is death. We all have family or friends that were taken away from us when it seemed all too soon. We all have our stories, our grief, our memories, our wishes that we could somehow reverse the great irreversible sting of death. Why them, why then? We all have people that we wish we could see one more time or maybe even for the first time. For me it’s my two grandmothers and my grandfather that I had such a short time with, especially my grandmother that died when I was thirteen; it’s my Uncle Joe who I wish I could hear read "The Night Before Christmas" just one more time; it’s my two high school friends who died tragically before they even reached the age of thirty; it’s my other grandfather that died two months before I was born, the man everyone else in my family remembers but who I never got to meet. Death is a thief, and a cruel one at that. It’s not something we can lessen or act like it’s not cruel or doesn’t matter. It does and it can be devastating.

Many people have different ways of dealing with death but it seems that we can simplify that into two primary responses. Some people are absolutely panicked by the mere thought of death. They will avoid it at all costs and fear everything about it. When loved ones die it is often a painful experience, not just because of the loss but because of the reminder that their own death might be just around the corner. Other people, often Christians, minimize death. We convince ourselves that, whatever happens after death, we’ll be fine and live forever with Jesus so death is no big deal. We don’t have to worry about it. We don’t have to grieve, in fact we should have a party and celebrate when someone dies. The truth actually seems to be somewhere in between those two extremes.

The early Christian communities believed strongly that Christians who believed in resurrection should view death differently than the pagan world around them. Writing around 200 AD, the early church father, Tertullian, declared, "Since then, there is certainty as to the resurrection of the dead, grief for death is needless. . . For why should you grieve, if you believe that your loved one has not perished? . . . We wound Christ when we do not accept with equanimity the summoning out of this world of anyone by Him, as if they were to be pitied." In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul informed his Christians brothers that "we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope." It’s not that Christians are to not have grief over the fact that we will not see our loved ones in this age again. Paul doesn’t say to not have grief, he says to not grieve like men who have no hope. Christians don’t have a pointless and empty grief with no hope. We can still grieve and mourn over those we have lost, but we a hopeful grief because we know that we will see our brothers and sisters in Christ again. We can grieve for our very real and bitter loss but we don’t pity those who have died in Christ because they are where we all desire to be one day.

Of course, none of this was in view for those at Lazarus’ grave. There was a vague hope in resurrection, but no one knew what or when that would be except for it was something that would happen on the last day. Yet, there was no firstfruits of that resurrection. There was no one who had walked into death and strolled right out the other side to a new sort of life, giving us the guaranteed hope of resurrection. We might think that this is what Jesus was doing here with Lazarus, but we’d be wrong. This was an act of raising Lazarus from the dead, of restoring his life, it wasn’t resurrection. Lazarus would still grow older and die from one thing or another. This sign was intended to show the Father’s power over life and foreshadow Jesus’ own death and resurrection. Throughout this story, look for the echoes and parallels that John has described between this seventh sign of the new creation and Jesus’ resurrection, the moment when the new creation arrived in it’s full glory.

As Jesus approaches the cave that (using caves for tombs was a common first-century practice) was turned into a tomb, we are told that once again he was deeply moved. Even though Jesus knew precisely what he was about to do, the emotion of being that close to death stirs up deep emotions in him. We can speculate that there was a combination of God’s disdain for death and a the mixed emotions of his own impending suffering and death.

Jesus gives a short and sweet command to take away the stone. He’s not interested in any histrionics or putting on a big show. That’s how the magicians of Jesus’ day worked, not the one who was doing the very will of the Father. Jesus wants it to be very clear that what is about to happen is the will and doing of the Father, not through his own sorcery or ability. He does the work of the Father. This is further evidenced by the prayer that Jesus offers up at the doorway of the tomb. Jesus thanks God that He has heard him and answered his prayer. He knows that God has answered his prayer, but offers that up publicly so that people will know this is the work of God and may believe that Jesus has been sent by God and does only His will. Even When Jesus yells to Lazarus to come out in a loud voice to come out, he does so to distinguish himself from the magicians and wizards of his day that mumbled incantations.

As we read this powerful passage, we are left with a mystery. Martha begs Jesus not to open the tomb because of the bad odor of the surely already decomposing body. Jesus never really answers her but somewhat cryptically reminds her that he has already told her, although we are never told when he told her, that if she would believe she would see the glory of God. We need to couple this mystery with the enigmatic prayer that Jesus offers up, thanking God having already heard him (the original language is clear that the prayer and the hearing were done in the past). We’re never told anything more about the odor and John never explains why Jesus speaks of already having been heard by the Father. He expects us to connect the dots for ourselves.

John wants us to see what Jesus was doing for those two days before he left to come to Lazarus’ tomb. He was earnestly praying to the Father, seeking and aligning himself with the Father’s will. He was praying that Lazarus would be preserved and prepared to be raised to show the Father’s glory. John doesn’t mention any odor coming from the grave because there wasn’t any. As soon as they rolled the stone away and there was no odor, it was confirmed for Jesus that the Father had heard and answered his prayer. But, we may ask, why did the Father always hear Jesus’ prayers when it seems at times that He does not hear ours? Because Jesus always did the will of the Father. When he prayed, he prayed for the will of the Father, and so God always answered His prayers. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked that the cup of suffering be taken away if possible, Jesus prayed that the Father’s will be done and it was, as Jesus marched directly from that prayer into his own death. Just as those at the tomb would see God’s glory in Lazarus’ death and raising, so would God’s glory be displayed through the death and resurrection of the Messiah. But not all who saw this sign believed. Jesus said, in Luke 16:31, that if someone would not listen to God’s Word and believe, then "they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." This was absolutely true in this case. Many saw Lazarus rise from the dead but not all saw God’s glory in the event and believed.

There are many striking similarities between this event and Jesus’ own death and resurrection, as we have already noted, but there is one (although there are more) striking difference that should not be missed. As Lazarus comes out of the tomb, Jesus orders those present to take of the strips of linen that were wrapped around Jesus’ body and the cloth from his face. Lazarus had been raised but he still needed help to untie the grave clothes. John will tell us in 20:5-8 of a similar situation, but tells us that Jesus has taken his grave clothes off himself and left them behind. Lazarus had been raised from the dead, but lived in a world where death still stalked and loomed. He had staved off death through the power of God but had not defeated it. This is simply a shadow of Jesus who will go into death but come out boldly and with power into a new world beyond death, the new creation where death has been defeated and had it’s stinger completely removed. The new creation has not yet come, but this seventh sign has shown us in shadows and echoes something of what it will look like.



Devotioinal Thought

Jesus knew that he was standing and walking firmly in God’s will because of his constant prayer. He knew that God heard him because he always sought to do God’s will and prayed that God’s will be done. Could the same be said of you? When you pray, do you spend more time praying that God will show you His will or do you spend more time trying to get God to fulfill your will? If you don’t have the type of confidence that Jesus had, perhaps it’s because we spend a lot more time praying about our will than we do seeking God’s.