All things serve the glory of God. Many times this is dif­ficult to discern, especially in the midst of our struggles and losses. Yet God can use dark circumstances, even death, and evil people, to glorify His name. There is clearly no power greater than God, not even Satan or hell; in fact, God can use both for His glory. But how He does it is not according to our thoughts, timetable, and plans, and therein lies the difficulty. Through it all, Christ brings His people to see that the weakness of God is stronger than man (1 Cor. 1:25), as He did in the case of the resurrection of His friend Lazarus.

The Savior Delays⤒🔗

"God is my helper": that's what Lazarus's name means. That's what his parents named him, and how appropriately, for one day he fell sick: "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany" (11:1). Will God, the Son of God, prove Himself true to this man's name — and true to His own name?

We encountered death before in the narratives of John. John 2 mentioned the destruction and rebuilding of the tem­ple, referring to Christ's body. John 3 mentioned the lifting up of the serpent so that sin-sick souls would be saved. John 4 records a servant at the point of death being brought "to life" by the word of God. John 5 also saw the turning back of the sentence of death on a lame man's feet, as an occasion for Christ to say: "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live" (5:25).

All the while, the authorities were plotting the death of this Son of God because they could not endure Christ's message. We read it in 5:16, 18, and it has only intensified of late (8:59). In the previous chapter, Christ Himself started referring to laying down His own life in order to take it again (10:15-18). This is the commission He received of His Father.

But before this transaction would take place, Christ shows His conquering power over death in the case of a friend. That Jesus loved Lazarus is clearly highlighted three times at significant places: "he whom thou lovest is sick" (v. 3); "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus" (v. 5); "Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!" (v. 36). By focusing on Christ's love, John helps us see Christ's delay in the proper perspective. In love, Christ desires to show His power not just against the backdrop of sickness, but death! Christ wants all His people to know this. People of all times and places need concrete evidence of Christ's power over death; otherwise, while they might not fear sickness much because they know Christ can heal, they would fear death. But truly, love is stronger than death (compare Songs 8:6).

If love lay behind the miracle, the glory of God lay ahead of the miracle. Christ tells the disciples: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby" (v. 4). So too, both love and glory would also lie behind and ahead of the cross of Christ, as John will emphasize, especially in the next two chapters. Thomas needs to find this out, because in his melancholy, he says, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (v. 16).

This delay, however, is not just out of the love and for the glory of God, but needs to be met with faith, and Christ takes a lot of time to emphasize this. The whole gospel of John is aimed at one goal: "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through his name" (20:21). John 11 is a huge part of how Christ nurtures the plants of faith in His heavenly garden.

First of all, Christ calls His disciples to believe. "I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him" (v. 15). We see it secondly in Christ's challenge to Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (vv. 25-26). Thirdly, we hear it in Christ's prayer to the Father: "And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me" (v. 42). Finally, we see it in the response of the Jews: "Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him." Instead of grumbling, complain­ing, and disbelieving God's Word, we need this same faith that trusts the Lord despite His delays.

The Savior Weeps←⤒🔗

After these introductory verses, we listen in to an interchange between Christ and His friends Mary and Martha. With Martha, Christ's efforts are focused on His "I am" statement, declaring Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life (v. 25). In other words, He embodies the resurrection and the life. He can work these things because He is these things. What an astounding claim! Can Martha believe that? Do you and I believe that? If someone believes on Christ, death must give way to life. In fact, death cannot touch the believer, for life is his or hers. Ask people who stand next to the grave of a loved one whether this takes faith! It's much more than a concept then. It must be a reality or it makes no difference at all. Martha does believe and she confesses she believes, but that doesn't keep her from seeking clarity from the Lord: "Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days" (v. 39). Martha is a practical woman, and the issues of faith seem to collide entirely with practice. And yet she, too, is a believer! Jesus loves her through and through; there is room for people like Martha in the kingdom.

Mary on the other hand, is not practical, but highly emotional. Mary simply laments. She weeps, though at Christ's feet, in worship (v. 32). We can lament and complain, but the best place to do that is at Christ's feet. Her soul puts forth her complaint: "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" (v. 32). Jesus answered her lament, and that of the Jews around her, with His own lament. He takes Mary's lament on His own lips, and with it all His people's lament. He "groaned in the spirit, and was troubled" (v. 33). Though Jesus is a rock and a fortress, He is not immune to human emotion. "Jesus wept" (v. 35).

Clearly, the fountain in the Savior's heart opens here. Here lies an ocean of sympathy, as Scripture elsewhere proves (Heb. 4:15). There is also a holy trouble over the misery sin has brought, death specifically. More than all that, His weeping is paired with a wonderworking word. Here is the Word made flesh — weeping, groaning — not powerless grief, but weeping that calls for rocks to move, death to flee, and corruption to be turned back. Jesus' weeping brings life and immortality to light. His weeping lifts His eyes and thanks God for the constant ear the Father has for the Son. His weeping that testifies of His Father's constant love (v. 42) and speaks to the Father first and to His friend next. Lazarus is in the grave, but he hears the voice of the Son of God. Death must turn back at the voice of the Son of God addressing His friend, Lazarus, whom He loves.

The Savior Triumphs←⤒🔗

The raising of Lazarus unfolds remarkably. The grave clothes don't fall off immediately. Though he is alive at the word of Christ, the next word of Christ is: "Loose him, and let him go" (v. 44). Family and friends enter hands-on into the miracle, discovering it layer by layer until we read: "many of the Jews which ... had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him" (v. 45).

Clearly, Christ would not do the miracle without cultivating, strengthening, and evoking faith. The miracle wasn't for Himself, but to unfold to the world how He is the resurrection and the life. The point is to have faith, whereby "though we be dead, yet shall we live" (v. 25). The point, as Christ said, is to have faith, whereby "whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (v. 26). In other words, "Christ is the Son of God, which should come into the world" (v. 27). Faith "should see the glory of God" (v. 40), as the prologue stated: "we beheld His glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (v. 14).

The Savior Will Die←⤒🔗

The conclusion to this chapter starkly contrasts with what has just happened. Christ has raised the dead; but the religious authorities, represented by the High Priest Caiaphas, want Him dead. All this is happening as Passover is drawing close.

In fact, John makes Caiaphas a spokesperson of what will actually happen, though Caiaphas doesn't embrace any of it with true faith: "It is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not" (v. 50). He is speaking of the sacrifice principle, or the scape-goat principle, which the Passover lamb represented. He doesn't speak as a believer, but simply as a religious man. Yet, he speaks far beyond his own intention and insight, even to the point that the truth he is stating will extend to "the children of God that were scattered abroad" (v. 52). Jesus had said He would do that with His sheep: "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd" (10:16). He will take Lazarus's place in the grave, and the place of all His children on the basis of this very principle Caiaphas invokes. He will not do it because His enemies are triumphing; He will do it because of love, to give them hope, faith, and life. He is, after all, the resurrection and the life. He is never out of answers.

Sometimes we envy how non-believers can live so easily, without emotion, while believers have such ups and downs, and their outlook is often so clouded with tears and confusion. Life seems so easy for unbelievers; but for believers, life can be often heart-wrenching. But would you prefer to be Caiaphas, or Mary or Martha? Caiaphas will one day enter the grave and no life awaits him; for Mary and Martha and Lazarus, love is behind them, glory ahead of them, and faith is there in the present, even though it is often weak and assaulted. The Savior has come into this world, bringing hope and forgiveness, but also resurrection and life. He unpacks all these gifts for needy souls all over the world. Every one of His gifts comes at His time, not sooner and not later, for His glory.

Questions←⤒🔗

1. Mary and Martha must have felt forsaken by Jesus. Where else in the Bible do we read of believers who thought God had forgotten them? How are Martha and Mary examples for us?
2. This was the climactic miracle in the gospel of John; it falls right before Christ's passion and death. How does it help us put Christ's suffering and death in proper perspective?
3. Why did Jesus weep? What message is there for us in this shortest verse of the Bible?
4. Jesus prays as if He had already been answered. What can we learn from this in the way we pray?
5. Why do you think the Savior may have wanted the people to unwrap Lazarus's grave clothes?
6. God works through Caiaphas, who was against Him. In what way is this an example of God's rule in this world? Is He above even His enemies?