John 11

Jesus came to bring life. The very best sign of His mission came in His own resurrection to immortality. Prior to that great Sunday morning there were many other signs of what was to come, but surely among the most wonderful of these was the resurrection of His friend Lazarus from the dead. Jesus knew that Lazarus was very ill, and he loved this man and his sisters, Mary and Martha, yet He stayed for two days longer in the place where He was rather than come quickly to save Lazarus prior to his death. The reason for this is now clear, that the Lord had determined that this illness would not have the final victory in a sad loss of life, but that it would instead lead to an amazing display of God’s glory. Jesus had determined to glorify Himself through this display of raising His friend back to mortal life.

Lazarus lived in Bethany, a town near Jerusalem in Judea, and Judea was now a dangerous place for Jesus to travel. His disciples were curious about His willingness to go there, but Jesus Himself displayed an awareness of Himself, and a trust that the timing of God in His approaching death would be perfect. He is the light of the world, and He knew why He was going to Bethany, and what He would do there. The disciples did not share this awareness. When Jesus told them that Lazarus had fallen asleep, they assumed that this was a good sign of His eventual recovery. Jesus knew what they did not know. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus was going to Bethany to call him forth from the tomb. At least one of the disciples, Thomas, imagined that Jesus and His little army would fall in battle there as noble soldiers of a good dream, a dream of a Messianic Kingdom that just could not be. How else can we understand His resolve that they should all die with Jesus? It would appear that He was counting on a noble defeat, but His Master was actually walking toward a great display of victory over death.

What they found when they arrived in Bethany was a sight that was far from victorious. Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. His sisters were grieving deeply, especially knowing that if Jesus had been there when Lazarus was sick, our Lord could have healed him. Jesus first spoke with Martha, who said, “Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” We cannot suppose that Martha was suggesting an immediate bodily resurrection for Lazarus, since her conversation with the Lord seemed to preclude such an amazing possibility for a man who had already been in the tomb for that length of time. Instead she may have been thinking about the existence of Lazarus beyond death, about their own comfort in the midst of grief, and about all of the normal requests that we might bring to God at a time when we lose someone we love. Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” She naturally assumed that He was comforting her with the hope of the coming resurrection at the end of this age, an important fact that she firmly believed in. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection.” What she did not seem able to fathom at that moment was that the presence of the Christ, the Son of God, the One in whom we must believe in order to live forever, the One who is coming again into the world to bring the great resurrection of humanity, that this presence could actually mean resurrection right then and there for her brother.

Martha returned to Mary and told her that Jesus was calling for her. She went quickly and she said the same hard words that Martha had spoken, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Those who were with them comforting the sisters had the same question in their own minds, the obvious question. “Why were you not here? Why did you let this happen?” His disciples knew that His waiting to come to Bethany was intentional. What were they to think? Jesus clearly loved this man and his sisters. He wept at this loss and at their grief, even knowing the great miracle that He was about to perform.

And then it happened. “Lazarus, come out.” Jesus is the Resurrection! He has the power to speak to a dead body, and to return that body to life. This is a shockingly wonderful display of His glory. It is a display of the coming fact of His own resurrection. It is a display of the truth that the Father hears the Son, a display that caused some to believe in Him. And it was one display too many for some of the Pharisees.

They did not know what to do. As the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together to make a determination, there was one man who knew what had to be done. He said something very true, “Do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” What he meant by this was that the danger of Jesus to the political stability of the Jewish nation was substantial, and that it was better for Jesus to be put to death rather than to face the might of Rome coming against them and their Messiah. God meant something different by this special pronouncement, that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. Elect Jews and Gentiles, the true Israel of God, would live, because Jesus would die for them. They were concerned about Roman armies coming against this vassal state of the empire. Jesus was thinking about the wrath of God coming against the elect because of our sin. The result was the same, both Jesus and His enemies knew what had to be done. He had to die. The angry group of leaders was operating out of envy, fear, and hatred. The true King of the Jews was operating out of the fullness of divine holiness and love.

Through it all, the One who declared Himself to be the Resurrection was in charge. Finally now the time was at hand, for the Passover was coming. The great miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead would set in motion the events that would bring about the most amazing death in all the sorry history of decay upon this planet. One Man would die for the nation, and the nation of God’s people throughout the world would live forever.