A man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. [Lazarus was their brother]
The sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When He heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Yet when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two more days. Then He said to His disciples, ”Let us go back to Judea…Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” So He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” John 11:1-7; 11-14
The account of the resurrection of Lazarus is a beautiful picture of compassion – a picture of God’s love.
From the fall of Man in the Garden, our God has mourned our decision to stray from His love and has watched as we chose death over life and loss over redemption. As Jesus wept for Lazarus, He also wept for mankind, imprisoned by the chains of death. But He says to Martha, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
Lazarus was not the first person to return from death. Both Elijah and Elisha restored life to one who had died and Jesus had raised the son of the widow of Nain and Jarius’ daughter. But Lazarus’ resurrection would foreshadow the miracle which would bring redemption to mankind and victory over the grave. Only Jesus returned from the dead under His own power, never to die again. It was His victory that would seal the fate of evil and end the power of death.
Jesus’ conversation with Martha before going to the tomb is surprising, not that it took place, but that it was this sister who recognized the Messiah. It was Martha who had complained to Jesus that Mary was not helping to prepare for guests but, instead, chose to sit at the feet of Jesus, listening to His teaching. It was Mary who would anoint the head of Jesus with precious ointment and wipe his feet with her tears. And yet, it is Martha who recognizes the unity of Jesus and God and who voices that powerful confession of faith. “Even now, I know God will give You whatever You ask… I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God.”
Martha lived in the expectation of a miracle. And yet, she was not ready for the revelation she was about to experience. “Did I not tell you,” Jesus asked her, “that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
“I know,” she replied, “that my brother will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
And Jesus said to her ”I am the resurrection. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
In these words are the promise of the miracle that would be sealed with the resurrection of Christ. Lazarus would be raised from the dead that day only to die again in his earthly life. But those who believe in Jesus, who understand Who He is, who accept His Lordship, will join Him in eternity
The resurrection of Lazarus was witnessed by many Jews who had traveled the short distance from Jerusalem to Bethany to comfort the two sisters. As witnesses to the miracle, many would believe, but there were those who would return to Jerusalem as informers to the Pharisees. It was this miracle that would force the hand of Caiaphas, the high priest, to determine that “it is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” Fearful that the Romans would see the Messiah as a potential rebellion, from that day on, they plotted to take His life.