The Raising of Lazarus #5

The raising of Lazarus is the account of Jesus bringing his friend Lazarus back to life after he had been dead and buried for four days. It takes place in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem and appears only in the Gospel of John (John 11:1-44), where it is the last and most dramatic of Jesus’s public signs before his arrest.

The Account

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha of Bethany, fell seriously ill, and the sisters sent word to Jesus, saying that the one he loved was sick (John 11:3). Jesus stayed where he was for two more days, then told the disciples that Lazarus had died and that he was going to him. Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16).

By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. Martha met him and said that if he had been there, her brother would not have died. Jesus told her that her brother would rise again, and then said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:” (John 11:25). Martha confessed him as the Christ, the Son of God. When Mary came weeping, Jesus was deeply moved, and John records the shortest verse in many English Bibles: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).

At the tomb, a cave with a stone across it, Jesus had the stone removed, prayed aloud, and cried, “Lazarus, come out.” Lazarus came out still wrapped in linen burial cloths, and Jesus told the people to unbind him and let him go (John 11:38-44).

Setting and Context

John notes that Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem (John 11:18), which is why many mourners were present. In Jewish practice mourning lasted several days, and John stresses that Lazarus had been dead “four days” (John 11:17, 39), leaving no doubt that he was truly dead. The miracle prompted many to believe, but it also alarmed the chief priests and Pharisees, who gathered the council. Caiaphas argued that it was better for one man to die than for the nation to perish (John 11:47-53). John later adds that they planned to kill Lazarus too (John 12:9-11).

What It Reveals

John presents the miracle as a sign that Jesus has power over death, and that resurrection is a person, not only an event on the last day. His words to Martha reframe hope in the future resurrection as hope in him. Christians of all major traditions see the raising as a foretaste of Christ’s own resurrection and of the general resurrection of believers, and the account is often read at funerals. The story also shows Jesus’s human side: he weeps, is troubled, and loves his friends. Lazarus was restored to mortal life, unlike Christ’s resurrection, which the New Testament presents as a different kind of life.