Bible Study series: John 11:38-44. This is the culmination of the story.

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John 11

At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.

In this post, links are provided for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: John 11:38-44

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.” (John11:38-44)

Comments:

Here is a table of the signs, but John also clarifies in various places that Jesus performed many other signs. So now we see that John’s narrative is highly stylized and edited, to suit his purpose.

THE EIGHT SIGNS OF JOHN’S GOSPEL
	Sign	Verses
1	Turning water into wine	2:1-11, the “beginning” or “first” sign
2	Healing an official’s son	4:43-54 “the second sign”
3	Healing a disabled man at a pool	5:1-15; see 6:2, where many healings are summarized
4	Feeding 5000	6:1-14 (see 6:14 and 6:26)
5	Walking on water	6:16-21
6	Healing a man born blind	9:1-12 (see 9:16 and “such signs”)
7	Raising Lazarus from dead	11:1-44 (see “signs” in 11:47 and “this sign” in 12:18)
8	Rising from the dead	20:1-31 (see many other signs in 20:30)
Source: BTSB, p. 2141, slightly edited

And here is the purpose of the signs, without a complicated commentary:

³⁰ So then Jesus performed many other signs in front of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ These were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

The signs are for us to believe that he is the Messiah (or Christ), the Son of God. They are signposts, which point to Jesus and his glory. Evidently, Messiahship and Sonship are interchangeable here.

See vv. 3-6 for more comments on Jesus’s Sonship.

Once again, this pericope function so coherently as a unit that I do not wish to break it up in a verse-by-verse exposition. Let’s interpret it as a unit.

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.

As before, Jesus is troubled or groaning or feeling deeply concerned inwardly, with perhaps a slight touch of anger (same verb as in v. 33). Why possibly anger? It is not clear but he may be angry at how sickness and death take down people, and 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.

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. He immediately forgot that he was the resurrection and the life.

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.

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?

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.

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 he was doing the Father’s will, he shouted out the command for Lazarus to out of the cave-tomb. And he came out!

Finally, 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.

Professional grammarians will not like my concessive conjunction “though,” which I believe is implied in the participle, in this context. He came out, though his feet and hands had been bound and his head wrapped. However, if you do not like my “though,” take it out and see how others translations render it.

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).

“face-cloth”: it was used for the face to wipe perspiration (BDAG). It was a sweat cloth. Jesus will also have a face-cloth on him at his burial (20:7).

GrowApp for John 11:38-44

1. Please study Matt. 6:8. Do you believe God hears your prayer and knows what you need even before you ask? How does this build your faith?

2. Lazarus had help to remove his grave clothes. Have you received help in having your old dead works and trespasses and sins removed?

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12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel

4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel

3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel

SOURCES

For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:

John 11