Jesus Raises Lazarus

Context

Bethany was a village near Jerusalem, home to three siblings—Martha, Mary, and Lazarus—a family Jesus loved. By this point, returning to Judea was dangerous because people there had recently tried to stone Jesus. Martha and Mary knew him as both Lord and beloved friend. When Lazarus became ill, their trust in Jesus met the painful realities of danger, delay, grief, and death.

Story

The sisters sent Jesus a simple message: “Lord, the one you love is sick.” Jesus said the illness would not end in death. Instead, it would display God’s glory and bring glory to the Son of God. Yet although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he remained where he was for two more days.

Then Jesus told his disciples they were returning to Judea. They reminded him that people there had recently tried to stone him. Jesus answered with an image of walking in daylight: those who walk in the light can see their way, while those who walk in darkness stumble.

Jesus then said their friend Lazarus had fallen asleep and that he was going to awaken him. The disciples thought ordinary sleep would help Lazarus recover, so Jesus told them plainly that Lazarus was dead. For their sake, he said he was glad he had not been there, so that they might believe. Thomas responded, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

By the time Jesus arrived near Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Many people had come to comfort Martha and Mary. When Martha heard that Jesus was approaching, she went to meet him, while Mary remained in the house.

Martha told Jesus that if he had been there, her brother would not have died. Even now, however, she trusted that God would give Jesus whatever he asked. Jesus told her that Lazarus would rise again. Martha understood this as the resurrection at the last day.

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

Jesus said that those who believe in him will live even though they die, and those who live and believe in him will never die. Then he asked Martha whether she believed this. She answered that she did. She confessed that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, who had come into the world.

Martha returned and quietly told Mary that the Teacher had arrived and was asking for her. Mary rose quickly and went to him. The mourners followed, thinking she was going to weep at the tomb.

When Mary reached Jesus, she fell at his feet. Like Martha, she said that if he had been there, Lazarus would not have died. Jesus saw her weeping, along with the people who had followed her. Deeply moved and troubled, he asked where Lazarus had been laid. They invited him to come and see.

Jesus wept.

Some who saw him spoke of how much he had loved Lazarus. Others wondered why the one who had opened a blind man’s eyes had not kept Lazarus from dying.

Still deeply moved, Jesus came to the tomb, a cave sealed with a stone. He ordered the stone to be taken away. Martha warned that after four days there would be an odor. Jesus reminded her that if she believed, she would see the glory of God.

The stone was removed. Jesus looked upward and thanked his Father for hearing him. He said this aloud for the sake of those standing nearby, so they might believe that the Father had sent him.

Then Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were wrapped in burial cloths, and another cloth covered his face. Jesus told the people to unwrap him and let him go.

What We Learned

• Jesus’ delay did not mean he had stopped loving Martha, Mary, and Lazarus; the story holds his love and his timing together.
• Martha spoke honestly about her loss while continuing to trust Jesus and confessing him as the Messiah and Son of God.
• Resurrection hope rests in Jesus himself, not merely in a future event.
• Jesus wept with the mourners. His authority over death was joined to genuine compassion for those who grieved.
• Raising Lazarus displayed God’s glory and called the witnesses to believe that the Father had sent Jesus.