Jesus raising of Lazarus

Today’s gospel is about a story that all Christians know by heart, that it was one of the greatest miracles our Lord Jesus Christ did during his Galilean ministry. If you read your Bible thoroughly, ask yourself, how many prophets in ancient times raised a dead man to life? So let’s go and read once more about the raising of Lazarus on John 11: 3-7, 20-27, 33-45.

“The sisters [of Lazarus] sent word to [Jesus], saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” 4 When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” 35 And Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” 37 But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”

38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days. 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice. “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands and his face was wrapped with a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.” 45 Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.”

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The raising of Lazarus from the dead was prophesied in today’s first reading in Ezekiel 37: 12-14, “Therefore, prophesy and say to them. Thus says the Lord God: O my people. I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you shall know that I, am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them. O my people! 14 I will put my spirit in you that you may live and I will settle you upon your land, thus you shall know that I am the Lord. I have promised and I will do it, says the Lord.”

This passage was obviously in the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Jews who were learned in the Torah who also knew this prophesy, which is why our Lord Jesus did not respond immediately to the news when Lazarus was ill. This is why our Lord Jesus said earlier in this scripture passage to his disciples; “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” So what the Lord Jesus Christ merely did was fulfill this prophesy from Ezekiel. 

But above all, Jesus brought up Lazarus from the dead first of all because Martha and her family believed that our Lord Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. More importantly because the Lord had to send a message to the Jews when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

Compared to the miracle of the wine in Cana, the raising of Lazarus made a lot of Jews believe in Jesus for many of them were witnesses to the raising of Lazarus from the dead. They even helped unwrap the burial bands of Lazarus as he walked out of his tomb. What about you… do you believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life? That he can raise our mortal bodies to eternal life? 

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