John 11:1-44
Jesus Raises Lazarus from His Death
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
The Compassion of Jesus and His promise of resurrection helps us see death differently...In the shadow of a close family member loss or a friend, the Christian faith does not demand that we pretend or minimize our pain; rather, it provides the deepest validation and the most powerful hope for our sorrow and grief....The life and teachings of Jesus, coupled with the prophetic visions of the New Testament, establish a solid foundation for grieving with both human honesty and divine confidence...Jesus, in all His wisdom, saw the profound grief that Martha and Mary experienced over their brother Lazarus...His response was not a lecture on eternal life, but a genuine display of empathy: He wept with them...This single act confirms that mourning is a valid and necessary part of life; it is a natural human response to separation and loss on earth...Jesus models how to grieve with compassion, demonstrating the importance of showing kindness to those who are suffering, even when we are in pain ourselves...We know that the LORD is close to the brokenhearted He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18, Psalm 147:3)...
Thomas's seemingly unusual and morbid comment, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16), is not a simple suggestion of shared grief but a profound expression of loyalty and despair...At this point, Thomas (also called Didymus, or the Twin) and the other disciples were terrified...Jesus had recently narrowly escaped stoning in Judea (John 10:31), and they knew that returning to Bethany, which was very close to Jerusalem, meant walking back into grave danger...Thomas's statement might mean: "We know this path leads to certain death, but because of our absolute commitment to Jesus, we will go anyway, even if it means sacrificing our own lives just like Lazarus has died."...Thomas is making a declaration of ultimate, though fearful, allegiance...By putting their lives on the line, the disciples were heading toward what they thought might be their expected physical end...Jesus, however, was leading them toward the beginning of their faith—the moment He would demonstrate His power over death and confirm that their loyalty was grounded in the “Resurrection and the Life” itself...Thomas, who is often called "the doubting Thomas," is here demonstrating a deep, if pessimistic, love that shows us the enormous personal cost involved in following Christ before the promise of the resurrection was fully revealed...Thomas's comment focuses on the human reality of fear, danger, despair, as well as grief...It shows that even with Jesus's promise, the disciples still feared the physical consequences of going to Judea...This contrast makes the miracle that follows (raising Lazarus) even more dramatic and faith-building...Thomas, maybe unknowingly is telling us about the high cost of the cross...It underscores the immense personal cost of following Jesus...The disciples weren't just grieving; they were accepting martyrdom, which is a key part of the discipleship lesson in John 11...
These validations are cemented in the foundational teaching of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, where comfort is promised as a blessing...The Beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), acknowledges that our sadness is seen and sanctified by God...This promise forms the starting point of our hope, confirming that grief will not last forever and that our sorrow is temporary...
While grieving, St. Paul tells us to look to our brothers and sisters in Christ...We do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that we do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope...We have hope in the resurrected Jesus...For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus to those who have fallen asleep in Him...According to the LORD’s word, Paul tells us that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the LORD, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep...For the LORD Himself will come down from heaven in His Second Advent, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first...After that, those who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air...And so we will be with the LORD forever and ever...Therefore, when we are mourning we must encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)...This promise grounds our sorrow in the future reality of an eternal reunion...
So believers have this anchor in life...The two things we can believe in are Jesus' resurrection and our faith in Him and His Father...While validating sorrow, Jesus also provides the indispensable anchor that grounds believers during their deepest pain: His identity as the source of Eternal Life...When He spoke with Martha about her brother Lazarus, He presented Himself as the solution to death itself with the revolutionary statement: “I AM the resurrection and the life.”...Through this declaration, Jesus taught that believers will have life after death, and thus, we learn that He truly is the Resurrection and the Life...So, not only is Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life, He is the Resurrection and the Life, also...This promise provides a foundation for our grief, replacing existential despair with this concrete hope...He stated clearly that those who believe in Him have Eternal Life, a truth that transcends the finality of earthly death...
This hope is not just a future event, but a present certainty, even though we feel sad and grieving like Mary and Martha...Jesus knew His death was coming shortly and He told His disciples that their grieving would only be temporary...He assured His disciples in John 16:22, “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”...This promise emphasizes that the current sorrow is temporary, destined to be replaced by a future joy that is irreversible and complete...And when His disciples saw Him again after His death, they felt this rejoiceful feeling Jesus was talking about...
St. John writes about the certainty of future laughter...The promise that grief will not last forever is a core theme woven throughout Scripture, culminating in the vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelations...As we turn back to the gospel promises, we are reminded of Luke 6:21: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”...This promise of laughter forms our final point—the certainty that God Himself will put an end to all our weeping...The Apostle John, in the book of Revelation, tells us that the future of God’s kingdom is a place where suffering is utterly eliminated...Revelation 21:4 is the ultimate fulfillment of all comfort: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain.”...This verse is a core promise for believers about the future where sorrow, grieving, and suffering will be completely eradicated...
Furthermore, this promise echoes the profound Old Testament prophecy found in Isaiah 25:8, which speaks of God swallowing up death forever and wiping away tears from every face...When God accomplishes this, death will no longer have any sting to the dying of our loved ones and friends...
In summary, the teachings of Jesus and the biblical prophets transform mourning from a hopeless endpoint into a temporary valley...The New Testament provides three necessary assurances during our own personal grief...First, our sorrow is validated by the weeping Christ...Second, our belief in the Resurrection and the Life secures eternal life for our loved ones; and third, that the promise of the New Jerusalem guarantees a day when all tears will be wiped away by our Father in Heaven...This foundation allows us to grieve with compassion, knowing that our sadness is acknowledged, but that our joy is certain, secured by the eternal love and power of God...