Christ raises Lazarus from the dead
11
📚Now a certain man was sick. He was Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.11:1 The name Lazarus is a form of Eleazar and means “God has helped”. Bethany was a village on the Mount of Olives just east of Jerusalem.⚜
2 📚It was this Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
11:2 See John 12:3. There are several women named Mary in the Gospels – John 19:25; Matt 1:18; 27:56.⚜
3 📚Therefore his sisters sent word to him, saying, “Lord, look, he whom you love is sick”.
11:3 This is what all believers should do in time of trouble. Evidently Jesus knew the members of this family well and had shown special affection for them. The sisters did not even need to give Lazarus’s name.⚜
4 📚When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that through it the Son of God might be glorified”. 📖
11:4 Observe that even one whom Jesus especially loved fell sick. The Lord did not prevent it or heal him, though He had healed multitudes of others. See also Job 2:4-8; 2 Cor 12:7-10; 1 Tim 5:23; 2 Tim 4:20.⚜
5 📚Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 📚So when he heard that he was sick, he remained two days more in the same place where he was.
11:6 Though the Lord Jesus loved them He did not rush to their home to help and comfort them. He had something better in mind and wanted it to occur at a better time. They who leave their case in His hands and await His time will always receive His best for them. Delays are not denials. For what He knows are good reasons He sometimes permits us to suffer (2 Cor 4:17; 12:7-10; Rev 2:10; note at Job 3:20). His waiting like this in the case of Lazarus may have been intended as a trial of faith for the sisters and His disciples. Compare 1 Pet 1:6-7.⚜
7 📚Then after that he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again”.
11:7 Judea was the province of which Jerusalem was the capital.⚜
8 📚His disciples said to him, “Teacher 📖, lately the Jews tried to stone you, and will you go there again?”
9 📚Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 📚But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light around him”.
11 📚He said these things, and afterwards he said to them, “Our friend 📖 Lazarus is asleep 📖. But I will go to awaken him from sleep”.
12 Then his disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better”.
13 📚However, Jesus spoke of his death. But they thought that he spoke of resting in sleep.
11:12-13 As so often Jesus’ words were taken too literally and therefore misunderstood.⚜
14 📚Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
15 📚And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him”.
11:15 The Lord Jesus was going to perform a mighty miracle which would result in an increase of faith in the disciples. This was the cause of rejoicing, not the fact that Lazarus was dead.⚜
16 📚Then Thomas 📖, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him”. 17 📚When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
11:17 Lazarus must have died shortly after the sisters sent their message (v 3). The message must have taken a day to reach Him; He waited two days before starting His journey and it took another day for Him to reach Bethany.⚜
18 📚Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about three kilometers away. 19 📚And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.
11:19 Evidently this family was well-known and highly regarded.⚜
20 📚Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary still sat in the house.
11:20 Martha was the more active of the sisters, Mary the quiet one (Luke 10:38-42).⚜
21 📚Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
11:21 She meant that Jesus would have healed Lazarus if He had been there. But can we think He would have? We can see (as Martha could not at the time) that He had something greater in mind. And we know that He does not always choose to heal people. The Lord has always been with His believers (Matt 28:20), indeed, He has been in them (John 17:23; 2 Cor 13:5; Col 1:27), yet through the centuries they have all died and many have suffered much sickness and pain.⚜
22 📚But I know that even now whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you”.
11:22 She knew the Lord could do marvelous things, but it is very doubtful that she thought Jesus would raise Lazarus to life then. See v 39. She believed Lazarus would rise on the day of resurrection (v 24), but that is a different matter. See note at John 5:28-29. Perhaps the thought that Jesus might possibly raise Lazarus then was trying to find root in her mind and she was struggling to believe it. It seems that Jesus’ words to her in vs 23,25,26 were to encourage her to believe it.⚜
23 📚Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again”.
24 📚Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day”.
25 📚Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though he dies, yet he will live.
11:25 See John 5:21-29. The Lord Jesus has God’s own life in Him and He is the life of believers (Col 3:3-4). It is in Him and in Him alone that men can obtain eternal life (John 3:16, 36; 6:53-54; 14:6). He is also the resurrection. He is saying He had the power and authority to raise anyone at any time He chose, including Himself (John 5:21; 10:17-18). Believers in Christ will live forever in God’s presence (John 14:3; 1 Thess 4:17). Death is not the end of life for them but only the beginning of a far better life (2 Cor 5:6-8; Phil 1:21-23).⚜
26 📚And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 📚She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ 📖, the Son of God 📖, who should come into the world”.
28 📚And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you”.
29 📚As soon as she heard this, she quickly got up and went to him. 30 📚Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha had met him.
11:30 It seems that the Lord waited there so that He could see Mary alone to comfort her and encourage her faith. But the Jews followed her and gave little time for that.⚜
31 📚Then the Jews who had been with her in the house comforting her, when they saw Mary getting up quickly and going out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there”.
32 📚Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell prostrate at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”.
11:32 Verse 21. Both Martha and Mary spoke as if Christ’s bodily presence was necessary for healing to take place. But see John 4:47-53; Matt 8:5-13.⚜
33 📚So when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he groaned in spirit and was troubled,
11:33 Why was He so moved, so troubled? Perhaps because He entered fully into the sorrow of His friends who were suffering (compare Isa 63:9). Perhaps He sorrowed for Lazarus who must be brought back from a state of peace only to die again at some future time. Perhaps Jesus was thinking of death in general, how it entered the world because of sin and as an enemy crushed and enslaved the whole human race (Rom 5:12, 21; Heb 2:14-15). Perhaps He was thinking of the price He would very shortly have to pay to defeat this enemy, death – His own dying in agony on the cross for the sins of the world. Perhaps He was thinking of so many who would die in sin and be lost forever in spite of His sacrifice. Perhaps it was at this moment that He made His earnest prayer for the raising of Lazarus (v 41), and His prayers were not cold and unfeeling (compare Heb 5:7. Compare too the prayers of Christ’s Spirit for believers – Rom 8:27).⚜
34 📚and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see”.
11:34 Asking this question does not mean that Jesus did not know. See v 14, which is just one example of His supernatural knowledge. Compare God’s question to Adam in Gen 3:9.⚜
35 📚Jesus wept.
11:35 This is the shortest verse in the Bible, but one of the longest in meaning. The Creator of the universe, the Savior of men is no cold, unfeeling, impersonal deity. He loves, He cares, He weeps for men in their misery (Luke 22:41-44; Jer 48:31-32; Ex 2:24-25).⚜
36 📚Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 📚And some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”
11:37 Verses 21,32. They were all correct. Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying, but He had another purpose in mind (v 4) which they did not yet understand.⚜
38 📚Then Jesus, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
11:38 Verse 33.⚜
39 📚Jesus said, “Take away the stone”. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be a bad smell, for he has been dead four days”.
11:39 He who raised Lazarus could have caused the stone to roll away of itself. But He gave them a small part in the work of raising the dead. And they could testify later that their hands had taken away the stone and that inside the tomb the dead body of Lazarus lay. Obviously Martha did not understand what Jesus was about to do, and could see no sense in removing the stone. All she knew was that Lazarus was undoubtedly dead and not merely in a coma. The body had started to decompose.⚜
40 📚Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?”
11:40 Verse 4. In the conversation between Christ and Martha these exact words do not appear, but we cannot assume that everything He said is written down. He may, however, have been referring to the words of vs 25,26. Observe in this verse that faith comes first, then seeing. Men want to reverse this – John 4:48.⚜
41 📚Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was lying. And Jesus raised his eyes 📖, and said, “Father, I thank you 📖 that you have heard me. 📖 42 📚And I know that you always hear me, but because of the people standing here I said this, that they may believe that you have sent me”.
11:42 He knew God the Father always answered His prayers because He always prayed in the will of the Father (compare 1 John 5:14-15). He gave thanks publicly to the Father for hearing His prayer because He wanted the Jews there to know an important truth – He was not raising Lazarus on His own initiative; the miracle was evidence that God had sent Him.⚜
43 📚And when he had said this, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
11:43 He called in a loud voice not so Lazarus could hear but so all the people could hear. Here was no magic, no mantra, no muttered spells. Jesus simply gave a clear word of command to a dead man. And, as He said in John 5:21-27, the dead lived again.⚜
44 📚And he who had died came out, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and with his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, 📖 and let him go”.
11:44 Here is a mighty miracle done publicly in the presence of many people and in broad daylight. It reveals that the Lord Jesus has authority over life and death. In John 5:21-27 He said He had this authority. Here He proved it. He has power in the physical realm – He raised a body dead four days and decomposing. He has power in the spiritual realm – He called back the spirit of the dead man where it rested and reunited it with his body.⚜
Religious leaders plot to kill Christ
45 📚Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him.
11:45 They believed in Jesus because of the evidence. They could not escape the facts. He had shown forth the power of God and they knew it.⚜
46 📚But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
11:46 Apparently these people refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah in spite of this miracle, and they wanted to see what the Pharisees would do. Even so mighty a miracle did not overcome the hostility, prejudice, and unbelief of those hardened in their sins (see Luke 16:31). This is seen clearly in the verses which follow.⚜
47 📚Then the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled the council 📖, and said, “What shall we do? For this man is performing many miraculous signs. 48 📚If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation”.
11:48 See what an excuse they made for their rejection of Christ! They were afraid that if the mass of people believed in Christ they would make Him their leader and rebel against the Roman Empire which was ruling their country then. Then, they thought, the Romans would come in great force and bring disaster on Jerusalem, the temple, and the whole nation. They were afraid of men but had no fear of God (Rom 3:18).
And this fear of the Romans was not justified. The Lord Jesus had already refused to be a political leader (John 6:15). His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). His purpose was to establish a spiritual kingdom in people’s hearts, not to lead a political rebellion against Rome. But see the hypocrisy and wickedness of these people. They suggested that they were the ones to save the nation, and at the same time were hoping to kill God’s Son. Eventually the very thing they feared came on Jerusalem, not because the nation accepted the Lord Jesus but because it rejected Him. See Matt 23:37-39; 24:1-2; Luke 19:41-44.⚜
49 📚And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,
11:49 Caiaphas meant that they did not understand what the situation required. In the next verse he plainly stated what he thought they needed to do.⚜
50 📚and do not consider that it is expedient for us, that one man die for the people, and not that the whole nation perish”.
11:50 Here he boldly gives his solution – “one man die”, and he meant that Jesus was a troublemaker who would stir up the Romans to take action against the Jewish nation, and so He had to die. He was no more interested in truth and justice than the Pharisees or Pontius Pilate (John 18:38).⚜
51 📚And this he did not say on his own, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for that nation, 52 📚and not only for that nation, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
11:51-52 Here is a very remarkable thing. An unbeliever, an unsaved man, a rejecter of Christ, uttered a prophecy of spiritual things – the formation of Christ’s church. It is plain that he did not know that God was using him to utter a prophecy. He spoke out of the unbelief and wickedness of his heart, but his words meant far more than he could imagine. He spoke as the high priest of God’s nation Israel, and God used him in that office to give counsel concerning His Son that had very great consequences. For other examples of bad men prophesying see notes at Num 23—24 and 1 Sam 11:9-11. God can use any instrument He chooses to accomplish His purposes.⚜
53 📚Then, from that day on, they plotted to put him to death.
54 📚Therefore Jesus no more went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a region near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and remained there with his disciples.
11:54 Jesus did not act in fear. He knew that His time to die had not yet come (John 7:30), and He had things to accomplish before it did come.⚜
55 📚And the Jewish Passover was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. 56 📚Then they looked for Jesus, and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Will he not come to the feast?”
11:56 This is an indication of the fame of Jesus at this time. He was the great object of conversation among those who had come from all over Israel to the feast.⚜
57 📚Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it so that they could seize him.