1-2 A man by the name of Lazarus was sick in the village of Bethany. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. This was the same Mary who later poured perfume on the Lord’s head and wiped his feet with her hair. 3 The sisters sent a message to the Lord and told him that his good friend Lazarus was sick.
4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.”
5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and brother. 6 But he stayed where he was for two more days. 7 Then he said to his disciples, “Now we will go back to Judea.”
8 “Teacher,” they said, “the people there want to stone you to death! Why do you want to go back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in each day? If you walk during the day, you will have light from the sun, and you won’t stumble. 10 But if you walk during the night, you will stumble, because you don’t have any light.” 11 Then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.”
12 They replied, “Lord, if he is asleep, he will get better.” 13 Jesus really meant that Lazarus was dead, but they thought he was talking only about sleep.
14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead! 15 I am glad that I wasn’t there, because now you will have a chance to put your faith in me. Let’s go to him.”
16 Thomas, whose nickname was “Twin,” said to the other disciples, “Come on. Let’s go, so we can die with him.”
17 When Jesus got to Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many people had come from the city to comfort Martha and Mary because their brother had died.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Yet even now I know that God will do anything you ask.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will live again!”
24 Martha answered, “I know that he will be raised to life on the last day, when all the dead are raised.”
25 Jesus then said, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. 26 And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord!” she replied. “I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God. You are the one we hoped would come into the world.”
28 After Martha said this, she went and privately said to her sister Mary, “The Teacher is here, and he wants to see you.” 29 As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went out to Jesus. 30 He was still outside the village where Martha had gone to meet him. 31 Many people had come to comfort Mary, and when they saw her quickly leave the house, they thought she was going out to the tomb to cry. So they followed her.
32 Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset 34 and asked, “Where have you put his body?”
They replied, “Lord, come and you will see.”
35 Jesus started crying, 36 and the people said, “See how much he loved Lazarus.”
37 Some of them said, “He gives sight to the blind. Why couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”
38 Jesus was still terribly upset. So he went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled against the entrance. 39 Then he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha said, “Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell.”
40 Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?”
41 After the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, “Father, I thank you for answering my prayer. 42 I know that you always answer my prayers. But I said this, so that the people here would believe that you sent me.”
43 When Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of burial cloth, and a cloth covered his face.
Jesus then told the people, “Untie him and let him go.”
Read John 11:1-44 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Most times I read about Jesus raising Lazarus back to life, I am fascinated at many of the details that are included. However more than just simply looking at the details, I enjoy looking behind these details to themes that tell me more about what God and Jesus are like.
The big idea that challenges me as I read this event directly relates to who Jesus is: Jesus is a Life-Giver. All throughout the gospels, Jesus heals people, restoring them into a new life; He teaches people, helping them begin a new life and relationship with God; and He was trying really hard to train some difficult people (known as the disciples) how to live dependant on God – which was a new life compared with the life they left behind after accepting His call.
Jesus is a life-giver, and because of this, He is not afraid of death. Jesus first describes Lazarus as sleeping, which may give us a clue into what He wanted us to think of death. Verse 11 shares this initial description: “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.” However, like what usually seemed to happen, the disciples don’t get what Jesus is trying to say, leading Jesus to talk directly to them a few verses later with the fact that “Lazarus is dead!” (Verse 14)
One thing that challenges me is in this event has to do with how Jesus responds to the news that Lazarus is sick. In verse 4, Jesus responds to the news by saying “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.” Verse 4 and verse 14 contradict one another, because Jesus said the sickness wouldn’t end in death, but then Lazarus died.
But when we look at what Jesus says, from the perspective He is trying to teach the disciples to grasp, we see something interesting.
For much of His ministry, Jesus was trying to help the disciples understand life from God’s viewpoint. God’s perspective on life looks at it through the lens of eternity, and knowing the whole story, or at least the portion of the story that John shares, Lazarus’ sickness included death as a pit-stop or detour on the path to a new God-given life. Lazarus’ sickness did not “end” in death, because death was not the end of His story.
Instead, Jesus gives us another insight into God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, death is like a sleep. A few verses later, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” (Verses 25-26)
There are two directions we could understand Jesus’ words in these verses. We could understand this to mean that those who believe in Jesus will never “fall asleep” like Lazarus did; or we may understand Jesus’ words to mean that those who believe in Him will not have their stories end in death, even if death happens to be a temporary resting place on the path.
Looking at the broad story and how in each conversation Jesus is trying to teach people truths from God’s perspective, and that Jesus begins by pointing us to the big picture by saying that Lazarus’ sickness won’t end in death, I am inclined to believe that Jesus describes what we call death as a sleep. This sleep-death is not the end, but merely a pause on life that will later be resumed when the resurrection happens. Death in Jesus’ eyes is when someone’s future contains no more life in it while sleep in Jesus’ eyes holds the promise of resurrection.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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