Lazarus Raised From the Dead Meaning (John 11)

Passage: John 11:1-57 · Read it first: read verses 1-44 slowly. Notice every time someone says if only.

Introduction

The raising of Lazarus is the seventh and greatest sign in John’s Gospel. Jesus has turned water into wine, healed the sick, fed thousands, walked on water, and opened blind eyes. Now he does what only God can do. He calls a dead man out of a tomb after four days.

This is also one of the most human chapters in the Bible. It has a family Jesus loved, a delay that hurt, two grieving sisters asking hard questions, and the shortest verse in the English Bible, where Jesus weeps (v. 35).

And it has one of the greatest I am sayings, where Jesus calls himself resurrection and life (v. 25). This chapter is for anyone who has stood at a graveside, prayed and waited, or wondered whether Jesus really cares.

1. The One You Love Is Ill (vv. 1-6)

Lazarus lives in Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem, with his sisters Mary and Martha (vv. 1-2). This family was close to Jesus, and he stayed with them often (Luke 10:38-42). The sisters send a short message: Lord, the one you love is sick (v. 3). They don’t demand anything. They trust that love will be enough to bring him.

Jesus replies that this sickness won’t end in death; it is for God’s glory (v. 4). Then comes a verse that seems backward at first: Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus, and so, when he heard Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days (vv. 5-6).

Look at the word so. Jesus delayed because he loved them. That doesn’t fit how we usually think about love. To us, love means acting right away. But Jesus’ love aimed at something bigger than they could see: their deeper faith and God’s greater glory.

2. Walking Into Danger (vv. 7-16)

Jesus tells the disciples they are going back to Judea (v. 7). The disciples object. The last time he was there, people tried to stone him (10:31). Jesus says their friend Lazarus is asleep (v. 11). The disciples take him literally, so he tells them plainly that Lazarus is dead (v. 14).

Thomas, often remembered as Doubting Thomas, shows a different side here, urging the others to go along and die with Jesus (v. 16). It’s gloomy, but it’s brave. He’ll follow Jesus even if it means death.

Context: Calling death sleep was common in Jewish and Christian speech (Daniel 12:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:13). For believers, death is real but not final. It’s a sleep from which Jesus will wake us.

3. Martha: If Only You’d Come (vv. 17-27)

When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been buried for four days (v. 17).

Context: Jews buried the dead quickly, usually the same day. There was a popular belief that a person’s soul stayed near the body for three days and then left for good. By day four, everyone considered death final. Mourners, including professional mourners, came for days to comfort the family (v. 19). Jesus waited until no one could claim Lazarus had only fainted.

Martha goes to meet him and tells him that if he had come, her brother would still be alive (v. 21). It’s grief and faith together. She knows he could have prevented this. And she adds that even now God will give Jesus whatever he asks (v. 22).

Jesus promises that her brother will rise. Martha gives the correct doctrine: she knows he will rise at the resurrection on the final day (vv. 23-24). Most Jews (except the Sadducees) believed in a final resurrection.

Then Jesus tells her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25, ESV). He adds that anyone who lives trusting him will never die, and asks whether she believes this (v. 26).

What does it mean?

• Resurrection in person. Resurrection isn’t just an event at history’s close. It’s a person, and he’s standing in front of her. Wherever Jesus is, the power of the coming age is present.
• Life after dying. Believers who die physically will be raised.
• Never dying. Believers who are alive have a life that death can’t finally touch. The body may die, but the life Jesus gives continues without a break.
• His question. Jesus moves from teaching to a personal question. Doctrine has to become trust.

Martha answers with one of the great confessions in the Gospel: she believes Jesus is the Messiah, God’s Son, the one the world was waiting for (v. 27). That’s exactly the faith John wrote his Gospel to produce (20:31).

4. Mary and the Tears of Jesus (vv. 28-37)

Mary comes and falls at Jesus’ feet. She says the same thing Martha said: if he had been there, her brother would be alive (v. 32). But she says it through tears, with no theological follow-up.

Jesus doesn’t give Mary a lesson. He responds to her grief, stirred deeply and shaken inside (v. 33). The Greek word for deeply moved (embrimaomai) suggests indignation or even anger, like a snort of outrage. Jesus is angry at death, the enemy that tears families apart and was never part of God’s good creation.

Jesus weeps (v. 35).

The Lord of life, who knew he would raise Lazarus within minutes, still cried. His tears tell us that grief isn’t a lack of faith. They tell us God isn’t distant from our pain. And they tell us that Jesus feels with us even when he knows how the story ends. The bystanders remarked on how much he loved Lazarus (v. 36).

5. Lazarus, Come Out (vv. 38-44)

The tomb is a cave with a stone across the entrance (v. 38), a typical family tomb of the time. Jesus tells them to move the stone. Practical Martha objects that after four days the body will smell (v. 39). Jesus reminds her he had promised she would see God’s glory if she believed (v. 40).

They roll away the stone. Jesus prays out loud so the crowd will know the Father sent him (vv. 41-42). Then he shouts, calling Lazarus by name to come out (v. 43).

And the dead man comes out, still wrapped hand and foot in burial cloths, his face covered (v. 44). Jesus tells them to free him from the wrappings and let him go.

This is a preview of 5:28-29, where Jesus says everyone in the graves will hear him and rise. Many have noted that Jesus had to say Lazarus’s name. If he had just said come out, every grave might have opened. One day, they will.

Note the difference: Lazarus was raised to ordinary life. He would die again. He came out still wrapped in grave clothes. When Jesus rises, his grave clothes will be left behind, neatly folded (20:6-7). Jesus’ resurrection is to a new, imperishable life. Lazarus’s was a sign pointing to it.

6. The Plot (vv. 45-57)

Many believe (v. 45), but some report to the Pharisees. The council meets in a panic, afraid that if Jesus keeps going, everyone will follow him and Rome will destroy both the temple and the nation (v. 48).

Caiaphas, the high priest, argues that it’s better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed (v. 50). He means it as a cold political calculation. But John says that, without realizing it, Caiaphas was prophesying Jesus’ death on behalf of the nation, and not only for it, but to bring together God’s scattered children into one family (vv. 51-52). Without knowing it, Caiaphas described the gospel: one man dying in place of many.

The irony is huge. Giving life to Lazarus leads to Jesus’ death. To bring us out of our graves, he will go into his.

Application: Hope at the Graveside

1. Trust his love in the delay. Jesus loved them, and so he waited two more days. If you’re waiting on God for healing, for a prodigal, or for an answer, his delay isn’t proof that he doesn’t love you. It may be love working toward something you can’t see yet.

2. Bring him your if only. Both sisters told him that if he had been there, things would be different. Jesus didn’t scold them. Bring him your honest disappointment. He can handle it.

3. Let your grief be seen. Jesus wept. Christians grieve, but Paul writes that we grieve differently from people who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Tears and faith can exist together.

4. Answer the question. Jesus asks you, personally, whether you trust him as resurrection and life. Your answer shapes how you face your own death and the deaths of people you love.

5. Help unbind. Jesus raised Lazarus, but he told the community to take off the grave clothes. When someone comes to new life in Christ, the church helps unbind them from old habits, shame, and wounds. Who can you help unbind?

Discussion & Reflection Questions

1. Why do you think Jesus waited two more days when he heard Lazarus was sick? How does verse 5 change how you read verse 6?
2. Have you ever felt that Jesus arrived too late? How did you deal with that?
3. Martha believed in a resurrection at the end of time. What did Jesus add when he called himself the resurrection and life?
4. How would you answer Jesus’ question in verse 26?
5. What do Jesus’ tears tell you about how God responds to human grief?
6. Why might Jesus have been deeply moved with something like anger at the tomb?
7. How is Lazarus’s resurrection different from Jesus’ resurrection? Why does that matter?
8. Caiaphas said it was better for one man to die in the people’s place. How did he unknowingly describe the gospel?

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, you are resurrection and life. Thank you that everyone who trusts you will live, even after death. Thank you for weeping with us at the grave and for your holy anger at death. When you seem to delay, help me trust your love. When I say if only, hear me and stay close. Strengthen my faith to answer yes: I believe you are the Messiah, God’s Son. And on the last day, call my name, and the names of all your people from the grave. Amen.

Previous study: Good Shepherd Study (John 10).

Keep Reading

• The Great Commission Explained (Matthew 28:16-20)
• Wise and Foolish Builders Meaning (Matthew 7:24-27)
• Christmas Bible Study on John 1:14: God With Us
• More Gospel Studies
• Related: our devotional: Devotional on Doubting Thomas
• Related: I Am the Resurrection and the Life (devotional)
• Related: Jesus Wept Devotional (devotional)

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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Note: This Lazarus of Bethany, the brother of Mary and Martha, is a different person from the poor beggar named Lazarus in Jesus’ story in Luke 16. Read our Rich Man and Lazarus meaning (Luke 16:19-31) study.

Related Bible studies

• John 12 Bible Study: John 12 Bible study: Mary anoints Jesus, the triumphal entry, and the seed that must die to bear fruit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the raising of Lazarus mean?

The raising of Lazarus shows that Jesus has authority over death itself. It was a sign pointing to his own resurrection and to the promise he made Martha, where Jesus calls himself the resurrection and life (John 11:25). Jesus not only gives life someday; he is life now.

Why did Jesus wait two days before going to Lazarus?

Jesus waited deliberately, not carelessly. John notes that Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and so He stayed two more days. The delay meant Lazarus was clearly dead, making the miracle undeniable and revealing God’s glory. Delays in our lives are not proof that Jesus does not love us.

Why did Jesus weep if He knew He would raise Lazarus?

Jesus wept because He genuinely shared His friends' grief and was moved by death's cruelty. Knowing the happy ending did not cancel His compassion. His tears at the tomb (John 11:35) show that God does not stand aloof from our sorrow; He enters it with real tears before He reverses it.

How long was Lazarus dead before Jesus raised him?

Lazarus had been buried for four days when Jesus arrived (John 11:17). Martha warned that there would be an odor. Many Jews believed the soul lingered near the body for three days, so four days meant all human hope was gone. That is exactly when Jesus called Lazarus by name to come out (John 11:43).

Why did the religious leaders plot to kill Jesus after Lazarus?

The leaders feared that the miracle would draw so many people to Jesus that Rome would crush the nation and take away their position. Caiaphas argued that it was better for one man to die in the people’s place. Ironically, his words foretold the truth: Jesus would die to gather God’s scattered children.