John 11:38-46

³⁸Jesus, 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." ⁴⁰Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" ⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴²I 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." ⁴³When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" ⁴⁴The 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." ⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in Him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

As He comes to the gravesite, Jesus is still deeply moved (righteously angered); but without further teaching or admonishing, He commands that the stone sealing the mouth of the grave be taken away. Martha’s astonishment at this command, and her observation that Lazarus must stink by now (The KJV says, “Lord, he stinketh.”), having been dead for four days, indicates that she had not understood Jesus’ promise that He would raise Lazarus, but still thought that He was referring to the resurrection of the last day. (In the next chapter, we’ll get a contrast to this bad odor with the spilling out of a bottle of perfume.) But Jesus reminds her that, if she believes, she will see God’s glory.

Let’s look at what He says to her more closely. First, He asks a rhetorical question, “Did I not tell you?” John has not recorded that Jesus told Mary anything beyond, “Your brother will rise again” (v23), and “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die” (v25-26). So there was either more said than what John recorded or Jesus expected Mary to “get it” from His words to her. Thus she is blamed for not expecting some Divine work.

Next, Jesus says to her, “If you believed.” We see here the importance of faith in receiving the blessings of God (Psalm 81:10; Matthew 13:58). Faith is nothing more than the channel or the link by which we receive the blessings of God. Picture the cable wire hooked into your television; it’s the same sort of thing. Faith prepares the way for the power, mercy, and goodness of God, that they may be displayed towards us as believers; and in like manner, unbelief, on the other hand, hinders God from approaching us, and may be said to keep His hands shut.

Finally, Jesus says to her, “you would see the glory of God.” He is patient with her sanctification; she already believes in Him, but it’s far from a mature faith. Jesus gently reminds her, and she acquiesces. He says to her what He already told His disciples: raising Lazarus (in this fashion) would be to display the power of the glory of God. What an amazing plan! In the work of redemption, God is glorified when we are given new and eternal life (in the way we were regenerated). God is glorified, and we are enabled to see His glory – which is the essence of eternal life and the foundation of everlasting joy (see John 17:3; 2 Corinthians 1:25-2:4; 4:4-6).

The mourners do then take away the stone; but instead of performing the miracle immediately, as He had done so many times before, Jesus prays audibly, thanking the Father for hearing Him and acknowledging that the Father always hears His prayers. He did this, not for Himself (He did not need to pray to gain any special power for this miracle or anything like that), but so that the audience might learn to enter the Father’s presence through Him, knowing that the Father sent Him. Jesus did not do anything of His own accord, as He told the Pharisees so long ago (John 5:30); what the Father plans, Jesus does, and there is always perfect agreement between Them. This is a comforting truth, when we remember what Jesus prays for us just before His death on the cross (John 17); and when we remember that, after His ascension, He is always interceding for us as our great high priest (Hebrews 4:14-16). The Father and Son do not just endure us; rather, They delight in us. This truth cannot fail to comfort us who, though weak and sinful, have fled to Jesus for refuge.

Now, having prayed to the Father, Jesus raises Lazarus with an authoritative word. And the dead man came out. This wasn’t an impostor; it was the same man who had died four days ago. Jesus then tells the audience to take off his bandages and let him go. They got to touch him to validate that what they were seeing was no mere illusion; they experienced it hands-on. Renowned commentator Matthew Henry said famously that Jesus had to say, “Lazarus, come forth!” because if He had just said, “Come forth,” all the dead would have come forth. And this is true! That’s the power of His word! We saw the power of His word in creation, and we’ll see the power of His word in John 20:16 with the account of Mary after the resurrection. And we see it in 2 Corinthians 4:6: God says, “See!” and we see. And Lazarus (tradition says he was 30 when this happened and lived to be 60) came back after four days. This is no mere resuscitation; this is return from decomposition. Jesus raised others from the dead; but here He reveals His power over a rotting corpse. And don’t you wonder what Lazarus had to say? Why doesn’t John tell us? Lazarus is insignificant here. It’s all about Jesus! Death, the last enemy, is defeated temporarily here as a sign of the permanent victory to come.

At the beginning of his gospel, John made the connection between creation and redemption – just as God, through the agency of His eternal Son, created the world by speaking it into existence; so, when He determined to redeem mankind, He would do so through Jesus, His Son, by an authoritative word. In fact, the goal of redemption is nothing but a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). And just as God created man originally, by the word of His mouth, so He creates him anew – creates in him a new and living heart of belief – by His own powerful word. A dead man cannot create life in himself. No more can we, who are “dead in our trespasses and sins,” produce in ourselves the faith that leads to eternal life. But praise be to God, who, according to His mercy and in fulfillment of His promises, raised us up to new life, when we were dead and without hope (Ephesians 2:1-10)! Remember, the raising of Lazarus was a sign-miracle. Unless we learn from this event about how Jesus raises men who are spiritually dead to true and eternal life, we are missing its real intent and purpose. For Lazarus, which happened first? Did he hear Christ’s command before he was made alive? Or was he made alive to hear Christ’s command? Relating that to our spiritual lives, which happened first? Did we hear the gospel, believe it, and get re-born? Or were we re-born to hear and believe the gospel? In both cases, it is the latter. Regeneration must precede faith from a logical perspective, though they may happen simultaneously from a chronological viewpoint.

After the miracle, we see the same response that we have seen so many times before: many of the Jewish eyewitnesses believe in Him (meaning essentially that they were willing to submit to His doctrinal teaching); they were not in all cases believing in Him with saving faith. Some of them, blind and irrationally impious, oppose Jesus and report Him to the Pharisees. We learn from this reality as Calvin says that “before men can profit by miracles, their hearts must be purified; for they who have no fear of God, and no reverence for Him, though they saw heaven and earth mingled, will never cease to reject sound doctrine through obstinate ingratitude.”