The Raising of Lazarus
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
The last recorded miracle of Jesus
The story of the raising of Lazarus is only in the gospel of John; it’s not in any of the other gospels!
The gospel of John is all about the authority of the Son of God. The incident of the raising of Lazarus happens shortly before the last week of Christ’s life. It is the last of Jesus’s miracles that is recorded.
John 11:1–2 APNT:
1 Now there was a certain [man] who was sick, Lazarus from the town [of] Bethany, the brother of Mary and Martha.
2 And it was this Mary who anointed the feet of Jesus with perfume and wiped [them] with her hair. Lazarus who was sick was the brother of this [one].
In verse 2, where it mentions Mary anointing Jesus’s feet, that has not happened yet! She doesn’t anoint his feet until the time during his last week. Importantly, this shows that this is the Mary who spent a lot of money on preparations for Jesus’s burial.
John 11:3–5 APNT:
3 And his two sisters sent to Jesus and said, “Our Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”
4 Now Jesus said, “This sickness is not to death, but rather for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified because of him.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.
This gives us a wonderful picture of the special, loving relationship Jesus had with all three of them, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. It’s no surprise that Mary and Martha would think to call for Jesus when Lazarus became sick.
John 11:6 APNT:
And when he heard that he was sick, he remained in the place that he was [for] two days.
This does not sound like the “normal” thing someone would do. This is such a remarkable thing about Jesus Christ; he would look to the Father for guidance even aside from his own compassion and love for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He always did the Father’s will. He must have immediately asked God what he should do, and God told him to stay there (among other things). Whatever God told him gave him confidence that what he would do would result in God’s glory.
That’s the same job we have every day; we should be asking God what to do that would be for His glory. Am I just doing this because it’s the thing to do? Or am I doing what God wants me to do?
It also probably took a bit of time for the messengers to get to where Jesus was, to tell him that Lazarus was sick. As it turned out, Lazarus died the day the messengers left.
John 11:7–8 APNT:
7 And afterwards he said to his disciples, “Come, let us go again to Judea.”
8 His disciples said to him, “Our Master, the Judeans now are seeking to stone you and you are going there again?”
The last time they’d been in Jerusalem, the Jews had tried to stone him, but he had just walked through the crowd. But he hadn’t been back there since. It’s understandable that the disciples were concerned about going back there.
On the one hand, you see Jesus being very clear and faithful as to how he should be and what he should do. On the other hand, you see the disciples being anxious about things. The contrast is very interesting.
John 11:9–10 APNT:
9 Jesus said to them, “Are [there] not twelve hours in a day? And if a man walks in the day he will not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 But if a man should walk in the night, he will stumble, because he has no illumination.”
He’s using this picture of walking in the day versus walking in the night to show what it’s like to walk by God’s revelation. If you walk in the day—listening to God—then you’ll have light and know what to do and how to do it. Walking by your five senses is like walking in the night.
Jesus was probably continually looking to God, not only for what to do, but to understand what was going on around him. It’s interesting to watch Jesus’s life because he was continually aware of what people were thinking or feeling, or why they were doing what they were doing. You have to consider, in between the lines, that Jesus was constantly looking to God for things. Why did they say that? Oh, they must be afraid. God was showing Jesus what he needed to understand in order to know what to say and how to say it.
John 11:11–15 APNT:
11 These [things] Jesus said and afterward he said to them, “Lazarus, our friend, sleeps, but I am going to wake him.”
12 His disciples said to him, “Our Lord, if he sleeps, he will be healed.”
13 But Jesus spoke about his death, yet they thought that he spoke about sleeping on a bed.
14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus has died.
15 And I rejoice that I was not there for your sakes, so that you may believe. But let us walk there.”
He showed the reason why he stayed—so they would believe. This whole incident emphasizes resurrection and what resurrection means. It was not only so that the disciples could believe, but so that a lot of other people could believe too. But primarily the disciples, because they still didn’t understand what Jesus’s dying was all about. He had told them before, and would tell them again, that he would die, but they didn’t need to be afraid because he wouldn’t stay dead. They didn’t get it.
The raising of Lazarus was a physical picture in front of them about how a man could be dead and buried for three days (or more) and could still get up out of it.
John 11:16 APNT:
[Then] Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go [and] die with him.”
People often assume that Thomas was being sarcastic. I think it was more like Thomas saying, if this is what you say we should do, then we will go with you. And if you are going to die, then we’ll be willing to die with you.
Think about it. The disciples gathered around Jesus and followed him to Jerusalem. The only time they got scattered was near the end, in the garden of Gethsemane. Up until that time, they were with Jesus through everything. I think this shows us a picture of Thomas’s heart and his willingness to die with Jesus.
Clearly, the disciples had no problem believing that Jesus was the Messiah. They knew he was the Son of God. They just didn’t understand how it was all supposed to happen.
We have the same problem. We want to walk with God, to walk by the Spirit, to walk in love. But our vision is limited, and we often don’t get it. If we could just learn to be a little more like Jesus and a little less like the disciples.
John 11:17–18 APNT:
17 And Jesus came to Bethany and found him to have been in the tomb for four days.
18 Now Bethany was near to Jerusalem, being about fifteen furlongs [about two miles] away from it.
According to Rabbinical tradition, a person was “officially” dead after they had been buried for three days and three nights. Because this was the fourth day, no one could say that Lazarus was not really dead. The other records of Jesus raising someone, the person had been dead for less than 24 hours. This was the first record of where someone was “officially” dead.
John 11:19 APNT:
And many of the Judeans were coming to Martha and Mary to comfort their heart[s] because of their brother.
Mark 5:38 APNT:
And they came to that house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw that they were troubled and weeping and wailing.
Wailing was a common cultural sign of mourning.
Jesus does not go directly to the house. He goes toward the house, but Martha goes out to meet him. Jesus would have been walking by revelation here, too. He doesn’t just go running into the house where all this wailing is going on.
John 11:20–24 APNT:
20 And Martha, when she had heard that Jesus had come, went out to meet him, but Mary was sitting in the house.
21 And Martha said to Jesus, “My Lord, if only you would have been here, my brother would not have died.
22 But even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give to you.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise up.”
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise up in the resurrection in the last day.”
Martha is not saying this in an accusatory manner, but she is showing where she’s at in her believing. She knows Jesus is the Messiah and that her brother will be raised up on “the last day.” But she has no sense of the possibility that he could be raised right now. The way Jesus responds to her helps her get over this hump of thinking it’s all future.
John 11:25–27 APNT:
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even if he should die, will live.
26 And everyone who is alive and believes in me will not ever die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to him, “Yes, my Lord. I am a believer that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who has come into the world.”
He’s trying to get her away from thinking about the future and to realize that Jesus is the resurrection! This is also to help her understand that when Jesus dies, he is not going to stay dead. It is in the resurrection where the life is.
Why did Jesus have to die and then be raised? What does “resurrection” mean?
Romans 4:24-25 APNT:
24 but also on our behalf, because he is also prepared to count [uprightness to] those who believe in him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead,
25 who was delivered up for our sins and rose in order to justify us.
God has a standard for what is right or just. Man is unable to reach that standard. Jesus died and rose again so that God could count us as having been raised up to that standard. It is as though we died with him, were buried with him, and then rose with him. When we rose with him, it’s like God is saying He won’t look at our sins anymore. He will raise us up to be free from blame, thus meeting God’s standard for righteousness. He has made us right and just in His eyes. He raised us up together with Christ. That’s why the result of the resurrection is justification. Romans 5 goes on to say that he is our peace, because justification brings peace.
John 11:28–29 APNT:
28 And when she had said these [things], she went [and] called Mary her sister secretly and said to her, “Our Master has come and calls for you.”
29 And Mary, when she heard [it], rose up quickly and came to him.
Again, they are meeting outside of the house where all the wailing is going on.
John 11:30–31 APNT:
30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in that place that he met Martha.
31 And those Judeans also who were with her in the house, who were comforting her, when they saw Mary, that she quickly rose [and] went out, followed her. For they thought that she was going to the grave to weep.
Mary must have been very comforted by the fact that Jesus had called her.
John 11:32 APNT:
But Mary, when she came [to] where Jesus was and saw him, fell down at his feet and said to him, “If only you had been here, my Lord, my brother would not have died.”
She said the same thing that Martha had said.
John 11:33 APNT:
And when Jesus saw her weeping and those Judeans who had come with her who were weeping, he groaned [az] in his spirit and was moved [in] his soul.
The Greek word for “groaned” means something like to snort like a horse, which sounds like he got angry. But the Aramaic word, az, indicates the depth of Jesus’s feelings. This word is also used when he revealed that one of his disciples would betray him.
John 13:21 APNT:
Jesus said these [things] and he groaned [az] in his spirit and testified and said, “Truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
John 11:33 APNT:
And when Jesus saw her weeping and those Judeans who had come with her who were weeping, he groaned [az] in his spirit and was moved [in] his soul.
The word “moved” comes from the word that we get our word “earthquake” from. He was shaken, moved, troubled. He’s not shaken by the reactions of the people around him. He’s not shaken by wondering about what he should do. He’s moved and shaken because he realizes that all these same emotions are going to be stirred up by his own death in the near future.
John 11:34–37 APNT:
34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” And they said to him, “Our Lord, come [and] see.”
35 And the tears of Jesus came.
36 And the Judeans were saying, “See how much he loved him.”
37 Now some of them said, “Was not this [one] able, who opened the eyes of that blind man, to do [something], so that this [man] would not have died also?”
The reactions show us three different kinds of people:
- Those who believe.
- Those who mock.
- Those who will hear again later about this matter.
John 11:38–40 APNT:
38 And Jesus, groaning [az] in himself, came to the tomb. And that tomb was a cave and a stone was placed on its entrance.
39 And Jesus said, “Take away this stone.” Martha, the sister of that dead man, said to him, “My Lord, he already stinks, for it is the fourth day.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?”
He had previously said that this incident was going to be so that they could believe; so, now he prays.
John 11:41–43 APNT:
41 And they took away that stone and Jesus raised up 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 this crowd that stands [here] I have said these [things], so that they will believe that you have sent me.”
43 And when he had said these [things], he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come outside.”
That’s what’s going to happen at the return when we are gathered together.
John 11:44–45 APNT:
44 And that dead man came out, his hands and feet being bound in swathing and his face bound in burial cloth. Jesus said to them, “Untie him and allow [him] to go.”
45 And many of the Judeans who had come with Mary, when they saw what Jesus had done, believed in him.
This time of mourning turned into a time of great rejoicing. Word of it spread like wildfire. Many people concluded that he must be the Messiah. Later, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, this would have been on the people’s minds. Many people believed because of what happened with Lazarus.
John 11:46–48 APNT:
46 And some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 And the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together and were saying, “What will we do? For this man does many signs,
48 and if we allow him [to continue] like this, all men will believe in him and the Romans will come [and] take away our land and our nation.”
This miracle cemented the determination of the Pharisees to kill Jesus.
John 11:49–53 APNT:
49 But one of them, whose name [was] Caiaphas, was the high priest for that year and he said to them, “You do not know anything.
50 And do you not realize that it is better for us that one man should die for the nation, than [that] the whole nation should be destroyed?”
51 Now he did not say this from his own will. But because he was the high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
52 and not only for the nation, but that he should also gather together into one the sons of God who are scattered.
53 And from that day, they decided to kill him.
This is the last great miracle before Jesus’s death, and it shows his authority over death. That’s the reason it is in the gospel of John. And Jesus is the one who is going to call everyone forth at the resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:54–58 APNT:
54 Now when this [one] that is corrupted puts on incorruption, and this [one] that dies, immortality, then the saying will happen that is written: Death is swallowed in victory.
55 Where is your sting, death? Or where is your victory, grave?
56 Now the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.
57 But blessed [be] God who gives us the victory by way of our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my brothers and my beloved [ones], be steadfast and do not be moved [earthquake, shaken], but excel always in the work of the lord, knowing that your labor is not fruitless in the lord.
We should ask God for understanding and not be shaken. We can walk with God day by day.
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