Passage: John 11:3-4, 11-15, 23-26, 38-44. Jesus listened to his Father and obeyed him. He did not act alone and on a whim, with this resurrection.

Jesus never presumed to “name it and claim it” out of sympathy or citing Scriptural precedence (e.g. Elijah raising people from dead). He listened to his Father. Let’s not presume, either, but also follow the Spirit’s directions.

The translations are mine, but if you would like to see many other translations, please go to biblegateway.com. I include the Greek text to bring out the nuances, but readers may ignore the left column, if they wish.

Let’s begin.

Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead
John 11:3-4, 11-15, 23-26, 38-44
3 ἀπέστειλαν οὖν αἱ ἀδελφαὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγουσαι· κύριε, ἴδε ὃν φιλεῖς ἀσθενεῖ. 4 ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· αὕτη ἡ ἀσθένεια οὐκ ἔστιν πρὸς θάνατον ἀλλ’ ὑπὲρ τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ δι’ αὐτῆς. […] 11 Ταῦτα εἶπεν, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο λέγει αὐτοῖς· Λάζαρος ὁ φίλος ἡμῶν κεκοίμηται· ἀλλὰ πορεύομαι ἵνα ἐξυπνίσω αὐτόν. 12 εἶπαν οὖν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτῷ· κύριε, εἰ κεκοίμηται σωθήσεται. 13 εἰρήκει δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς περὶ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ἔδοξαν ὅτι περὶ τῆς κοιμήσεως τοῦ ὕπνου λέγει. 14 τότε οὖν εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς παρρησίᾳ· Λάζαρος ἀπέθανεν, 15 καὶ χαίρω δι’ ὑμᾶς ἵνα πιστεύσητε, ὅτι οὐκ ἤμην ἐκεῖ· ἀλλ’ ἄγωμεν πρὸς αὐτόν. […] 23 λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἀναστήσεται ὁ ἀδελφός σου. 24 λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ Μάρθα· οἶδα ὅτι ἀναστήσεται ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. 25 εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀνάστασις καὶ ἡ ζωή· ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμὲ κἂν ἀποθάνῃ ζήσεται, 26 καὶ πᾶς ὁ ζῶν καὶ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμὲ οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. πιστεύεις τοῦτο; 27 λέγει αὐτῷ· ναὶ κύριε, ἐγὼ πεπίστευκα ὅτι σὺ εἶ ὁ χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἐρχόμενος. […] 38 Ἰησοῦς οὖν πάλιν ἐμβριμώμενος ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἔρχεται εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον· ἦν δὲ σπήλαιον καὶ λίθος ἐπέκειτο ἐπ’ αὐτῷ. 39 λέγει ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἄρατε τὸν λίθον. λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ ἀδελφὴ τοῦ τετελευτηκότος Μάρθα· κύριε, ἤδη ὄζει, τεταρταῖος γάρ ἐστιν. 40 λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· οὐκ εἶπόν σοι ὅτι ἐὰν πιστεύσῃς ὄψῃ τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ; 41 ἦραν οὖν τὸν λίθον. ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἦρεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἄνω καὶ εἶπεν· πάτερ, εὐχαριστῶ σοι ὅτι ἤκουσάς μου. 42 ἐγὼ δὲ ᾔδειν ὅτι πάντοτέ μου ἀκούεις, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν ὄχλον τὸν περιεστῶτα εἶπον, ἵνα πιστεύσωσιν ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας. 43 καὶ ταῦτα εἰπὼν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ ἐκραύγασεν· Λάζαρε, δεῦρο ἔξω. 44 ἐξῆλθεν ὁ τεθνηκὼς δεδεμένος τοὺς πόδας καὶ τὰς χεῖρας κειρίαις καὶ ἡ ὄψις αὐτοῦ σουδαρίῳ περιεδέδετο. λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· λύσατε αὐτὸν καὶ ἄφετε αὐτὸν ὑπάγειν.	3 The sisters sent for him, saying, “Lord, see the one whom you love is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard, he said, “This sickness is not for death but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” […] 11 He said these things, and after this he said to them, “Lazarus our friend sleeps, but we go so that I may awaken him.” 12 So his disciples said to him, “If he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” 13 But Jesus had not spoken about his death, but they thought that he was talking about the natural sleep. 14 At this, Jesus spoke plainly to them. “Lazarus has died. 15 And I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” […] 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one believing in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone living and believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I do believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” […] 38 So Jesus again had a strong feeling of concern in himself and came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay on it. 39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone!” The sister of the deceased man, Martha, said, “Lord, he already smells, for it has been 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 removed the stone. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 And I have known that you always hear me, but I said this because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you have sent me.” 43 After he said these things, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The deceased man came out, though his feet and hands had been bound with strips of cloth, and his face was wrapped with a face-cloth. Jesus said, “Unbind him, and allow him to go.”

Comments

This is a resuscitation, not a resurrection in the sense that Jesus was resurrected. His resurrection renewed and transformed his body, so that it would never die. Lazarus’s body was restored to life, but not renewed or transformed so that it would never die. He did die.

Jesus introduces a little paradoxical theology. A paradox places together two seeming conflicting ideas, but somehow they belong together. Jesus said that Lazarus’s sickness is not for death, but then Lazarus actually dies (v. 14). Jesus is simply saying that Lazarus’s sickness does not lead to a permanent death, because he will be raised from the dead. Then God and the Son of God will receive more glory.

Why the delay? (1) Jesus wanted people to understand that Lazarus really was dead so they could witness of resurrection. (2) Jesus delayed because of the Jewish belief that a soul lingered three days wanting to get back into the body, so Jesus came on the fourth day to ensure that Jews would not believe it was a soul returning, but a true resuscitation. (3) Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem was self-determined. No one pinned him down, but he followed the Father’s will. He and no one else determined the right time (Mounce, comments on vv. 5-6). My take: I like all three explanations. As for the second one, I don’t believe Jesus gave in to Jewish popular belief.

John informs his readers that Jesus was actually referring to Lazarus’s death, but they were thinking of the “sleep of sleep” or natural sleep. Then at their deficient thinking, he told them plainly that Lazarus had died. “Sleeping” is used eighteen times in the NT and four of them are literal (Matt. 28:13; Luke 22:45; John 11:12; Acts 12:6. The other times it is a euphemism or circumlocution of dying or death. Anyone who has seen a dead body in the casket sometimes get the impression that he could go up to the deceased and wake him up. But then it hits you. There is no waking him up by natural means. So from a spiritual point of view, it is as if Lazarus is sleeping, but from a natural point of view he really was dead. Jesus is glad—rejoices—for their benefit that they were not there. Now they can see the glory of God because Jesus is about to awaken Lazarus by supernatural means.

“life”: this is more than mere existence. This is life of the next age, that age, which has partly broken into this age or right now. In other words, eternal life happens now, but we must be careful not to believe that everything in the new age, in everlasting life, is happening now. This is called over-realized eschatology (study of ends times and new ages). Not every new-age blessing becomes realized or accomplished right now. But let’s not remain negative. We get some benefits of the next age or new age right now. We get some benefits of eternal life, right now.

5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully

“face-cloth”: it was used for the face to wipe perspiration (BDAG). It was a sweat cloth. It comes from the Latin sudarium, which in Greek here is soudarion (a loan word), Jesus will also have a face-cloth on him at his burial (20:7).

D. A. Carson reminds us that Lazarus was wrapped at the ankles, so it was possible for him to shuffle or hop, but scarcely walk. When Jesus commanded him to come out, Lazarus did exactly that (comment on vv. 43-44).

Application for Ministry Today

We can learn and apply the practice of ministry which Jesus used to our own ministry today. Let’s see what they are. In this section I number my points for clarity and order.

1.. Jesus is troubled or groaning or feeling deeply concerned inwardly, with perhaps a slight touch of anger (same verb as in v. 33). Why anger possibly? It is not clear but he may be angry at how sickness and death take people down. The kingdom of God in its quiet advance, after he inaugurated it, can only do so much. People, with their current bodies, cannot be perpetually resuscitated, so that they live for five hundred years in their present bodies. They have to get a new and transformed body. The first step to this ultimate goal is to die and shuck off this old body.

2.. He reminds Martha of her profound and real faith, because she went back to her natural way of thinking. Lord, he will have the odor or stench of decomposition. She immediately forgot that he was the resurrection and the life. But he says he is the resurrection and life. focus on this, Martha.

3.. Then he commands something practical. Let’s not skip over it. He did not perform the miracle of levitating the stone. “Stone, arise!” Instead, he ordered the men to take it away from the opening. Jesus’s miracles were designed to help people in their need, not show off with unredemptive miracles.

4.. In any case, he prays a great prayer of faith. He knows the Father hears him. In fact, the Father has been guiding him behind the scenes, from what we know of their tight relationship. He is so confident in his Father’s guidance that he thanks the Father that he hears his Son. Often when we pray, do we thank the Lord for his hearing us and seeing our need before we ask?

5.. The larger purpose of this resuscitation is not only to help Lazarus, but to boost the faith of the crowd so that they may believe that the Father sent him.

6.. I really like the way Jesus shouted with a loud voice. This expresses such confidence. If you have ever seen healing ministry up close and personal, done by people whom were not fund-raisers or showboats (I mean real healing), then you know how scary it can be. What if God does not break through and heal after the “human healer” shouts with a loud voice? So typically, those who pray for healing do so without the shouting. However, they also may pray in front of people, so the step of faith is also scary. Therefore, the mature man or woman who prays for healing will say something like, “I don’t heal. God does. So let’s do this together and see what the Father does.” Very wise. However, with a crowd watching and with total confidence that Jesus was doing the Father’s will, he shouted out the command for Lazarus to out of the cave-tomb. And he came out!

7.. I would like to point out that many people were walled up in tombs after they died. They were probably buried near Lazarus. Jesus did not raise them up. However, I like this promise: “Do not be amazed at this because the hour is coming when those in their tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out” …. (John 5:28-29). At that time, on the last day, everyone’s body will be transformed and no one will ever get sick again and die, if they believe in Christ, the resurrection and life.

7.. As I write in all the healing posts (and Lazarus’s raising is definitely a healing!):

Let it be noted that Jesus never went in for “decree and declare.” Name one time he used such verbiage during his prayer for the sick. Nor did the disciples use those formulaic words in Acts.

Instead, God the Father through his Son who was anointed by the Spirit performed miracles of healing. Jesus clarified that he does only what he sees his Father doing (John 5:19). He lives because of the Father (John 6:57). He speaks only what the Father taught him (John 8:28). He does what he sees the Father do (John 10:37).  What Jesus says is just what the Father told him to say (John 12:49-50, 57). Perhaps the most important verse about miracles: “Many good works I have shown you from My Father” (John 10:32). (In John’s Gospel, “good works” = miracles, at a minimum.)

And so the Father through his Son who was anointed by the Spirit, performed all miracles during his Son’s ministry (Acts 10:38). The Son obeyed and followed his Father and also did the healings by the Spirit. The Trinity was working together.

8..We too should develop life in the Spirit (Rom. 8, Gal. 5), so we can hear from the Father through the Spirit, in Jesus’s name and authority granted to us. We will never heal as Jesus did, because he is the Anointed One without limits (John 3:34). But after the cross and the Son’s ascension, the Spirit can distribute the gifts of healings (plural) as he determines (1 Cor. 12:11), not as we “name and claim” or “decree and declare.” Let the Spirit work, and you listen and obey, and then rebuke a disease (not the person) or pray for healing.

4. Gifts of the Spirit: Gifts of Healings

Kenneth Copeland Gets a Pacemaker

Is ‘Decreeing’ Biblical for Christians?

What Is Biblical Confession?

For a fuller commentary, read the entire chapter:

John 11