Bible for Gen Z
Download Bible for Gen Z on the App StoreGet Bible for Gen Z on Google Play
John 11:1–44

Lazarus raised

Jesus waits two days, arrives after the funeral, cries at the grave, and then calls a dead man out of his tomb. John 11, retold plainly.

The story

Lazarus was sick, and his sisters knew exactly who to call. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus, and the message wasn't a request so much as a hint: the one you love is ill. They lived in Bethany, a couple of miles from Jerusalem, and Jesus had been close to that family for a while. Everyone assumed he'd come.

He didn't. Not straight away. John says plainly that Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and then in the very next sentence says that when he heard, he stayed where he was for two more days. The text puts those two facts side by side and doesn't soften either of them.

When he finally said it was time to go, the disciples pushed back. Judea was where people had recently tried to stone him. Jesus told them Lazarus had fallen asleep, they took it literally, and he had to say it flat: Lazarus is dead. Thomas, who usually gets remembered for doubting, said the bleakest loyal thing in the Gospels: let's go too, so we can die with him.

By the time they arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. The house was full of mourners. Martha heard Jesus was on the road and went out to meet him, and the first thing out of her mouth was the thing everyone in grief thinks: if you'd been here, this wouldn't have happened. Then, in the same breath, she said she still trusted him. Jesus told her that her brother would rise again. She heard it as a line about the far future, the resurrection at the last day. He told her he was the resurrection, right now, and asked if she believed that. She said yes.

Mary came out next and said the same words her sister had. If you'd been here. But she fell at his feet and wept, and the crowd wept with her, and John says Jesus groaned in his spirit and was troubled. He asked where they'd laid him. They said, come and see. And then the shortest verse in the English Bible: Jesus wept. The people watching read it two ways. Some saw how much he loved him. Others asked why the man who'd healed a blind stranger couldn't keep his own friend alive.

At the tomb, a cave with a stone across it, he told them to move the stone. Martha, practical to the end, pointed out that it had been four days and there would be a smell. He reminded her what he'd said about seeing God's glory. They moved it. Jesus prayed out loud, and said he was praying out loud for the benefit of the crowd, so they'd believe he was sent. Then he shouted into the dark: Lazarus, come out.

And the dead man walked out, still wrapped hand and foot in grave cloths, a cloth over his face. Jesus's last words in the scene are to the people standing round: untie him, and let him go. The text doesn't record what Lazarus said, or what those four days were like for him. It just moves on. The next thing John reports is that the religious leaders, having heard about this, started planning to kill Jesus.

The verse to keep

John 11:25–26WEB
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Gen Zsame meaning, your words

Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever trusts me will live, even if they die. And whoever is alive and trusts me will never really die. Do you believe that?'

He says this to a woman whose brother has been dead four days, before he's done anything about it. It's a claim, not a comfort blanket, and he asks her to answer it.

What it actually means

For the first people who heard this story, the point wasn't only that Jesus could do a miracle. It comes near the end of John's account of Jesus's public life, the last and biggest of the signs, and it sets up the crucifixion: the leaders decided that a man who could do this was too dangerous to leave alive. Raising Lazarus is the thing that gets Jesus killed. John wants you to feel that irony.

What it means: the story refuses to let you choose between a God who cares and a God who has power. Jesus cries at a grave he's about to empty. He knows what he's going to do and he still weeps, because the grief in front of him is real and he's not above it. The delay is the hardest part, and the text doesn't explain it away. It just says he loved them and he waited, and lets you sit with both.

What it doesn't mean: that if you pray hard enough, your person will come back. Lazarus died again eventually. This is a sign pointing at something, not a policy. Martha's line, 'if you had been here', is allowed to stand as an honest thing to say to God. She said it, she wasn't told off for it, and she still got an answer, just not the one she'd have written herself.

Worth arguing about

  1. 1Jesus waited two days when he could have gone. What do you do with a delay that looks like neglect and turns out not to be?
  2. 2Martha and Mary say the exact same sentence to Jesus and get very different responses. Why might that be?
  3. 3Jesus weeps at a tomb he's about to open. Why cry if you know how the story ends?
  4. 4Jesus tells the crowd to untie Lazarus rather than doing it himself. What does that leave for the people standing round?

Read it yourself: John 11:1–44

World English Bible. 44 verses.

1Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. 2It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.” 4But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.” 5Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was. 7Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.” 8The disciples asked him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you. Are you going there again?” 9Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.” 11He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.” 12The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep. 14So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead. 15I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.” 16Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s also go, that we may die with him.” 17So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away. 19Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. 20Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house. 21Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.” 28When she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here and is calling you.” 29When she heard this, she arose quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him. 31Then the Jews who were with her in the house and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.” 32Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” 33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, 34and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!” 37Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?” 38Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?” 41So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me. 42I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”

Whole book: John

Keep going

🌅 The resurrection💧 The woman at the well🌊 Jesus calms the storm🕯️ Bible verses for grief🌱 Bible verses about faith🌫️ Bible verses about doubt🌅 Bible verses about hope