John 11:1-44

Read John 11:1-16 Lazarus is sick

The raising of Lazarus is the seventh and final “sign” in John’s Gospel.

In verses 1-2, John explains who Lazarus, Mary, and Martha are.  He does not tell the story of Mary anointing Jesus until chapter 12, but he assumes his readers know that story well.

In verse 4, how does Jesus describe what will be the outcome of Lazarus’s illness?

How can an illness result in God (or Jesus) being glorified?

Verse 5 says that Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.  John has not mentioned them previously, and all he tells us here is that they live in Bethany, which is a village around 2 miles east of Jerusalem, beyond the Mount of Olives.  Matthew 21:17 tells us that during the final week before his crucifixion, Jesus spent the night in Bethany (presumably at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus).  If Jesus spent time at their house when he was in Jerusalem, what do you think his relationship with them was like?

Because of the opposition Jesus encountered the last time he was in Jerusalem, he is currently in the area near the other Bethany, across the Jordan River, where John the Baptist had preached and where Jesus’s ministry had begun.  When Jesus says in verse 5, “Let us go to Judea again” – i.e., back to the region that includes Jerusalem – how do the disciples respond?

Jesus gives a cryptic response in verse 9.  What does he say, and what does it mean?

Jesus says: When you walk in the daytime, you don’t stumble because you see the light.  You only stumble at night, when you are without light.  Jesus made a similar comment in John 9:4 when he said that we need to do the works of God while it is still day, because the night is coming when no one can work.  Here, he is implying that it is safe to go to Lazarus: they will be in the “light” because his hour has not yet come.

Jesus says that Lazarus is asleep and he is going to wake him (verse 11), before stating more plainly in verse 14 that Lazarus is dead.  He then adds that he is glad for them that he is not there, “so that you may believe.”  Don’t they already believe in him?  What benefit will they have when they see him raise Lazarus from the dead?

Thomas’s response in verse 16 is instructive.  Many people think of Thomas only as the Doubting Thomas.  But here, we see that he is much more complex than that.  What kind of faith does it take to say, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (verse 16)?

Thomas shows his deep faith in Jesus and a willingness to give up his own life rather than stay behind while Jesus goes out into danger.

Thomas is willing to follow Jesus even though he thinks it will lead to a bad end.  How can we follow Thomas’s example of faith and stay dedicated to walking with Jesus even when we think it will lead to a bad outcome?

Are there particular situations in your life right now where you are uneasy about following Jesus because of how you think things will turn out, but you want to follow him anyway?  How can Thomas be an example for you so that you can trust Jesus and keep walking with him?

Read John 11:17-27 Jesus tells Martha that he is the Resurrection and the Life

In verse 21, Martha sounds like she is almost chiding Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  She is showing both faith and disappointment in Jesus.  When have you been disappointed in God, and how have you dealt with it?

In verse 22, Martha tells Jesus that she still has faith in him: “Whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”  How can you have that kind of faith in God even when you have not received what you hoped for?

How does Jesus respond in verse 23?

In this Gospel, Jesus has talked about never dying and about being raised on the last day.  In verse 24, Martha affirms that she believes in the resurrection of the dead (as did many of the Jews at that time).  That opens the door for Jesus to say something new.  What does he say in verse 25?

What do you think it means, to say that Jesus is the resurrection and the life?

What does this mean to you?  How is Jesus the resurrection and the life in your life?

What does the rest of verse 25 and verse 26 mean?

The Jews believed that only God had power over life and death.  So again Jesus is asserting his divinity in identifying himself as the one who holds the power over life, death, and resurrection.

In verse 27, Martha professes her faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God.  Why is this an important step?

We often face difficult situations that don’t end in a miraculous healing of a loved one.  How can we hold on to Jesus’s promise of life when have to face death so regularly in our world?

Read John 11:28-37 Mary comes to Jesus in tears, and Jesus also weeps

Mary comes to Jesus in tears and says the same thing Martha said: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (verse 32).  But whereas Martha was controlled and probing, Mary is disconsolate.  In verse 33, how does Jesus feel when he sees her and those with her weeping?

The first word John uses, which is translated as “deeply moved,” “perturbed,” or “disturbed” (depending on your translation), is a Greek word that has the sense of being angry.  John also says that Jesus is deeply troubled.

Jesus asks where Lazarus has been buried, and they say, “Come and see” (verse 34) – the exact same words Nathaniel said to Philip in John 1:46 when Philip wasn’t sure what to think about Jesus.  Notice the power in the words “Come and see,”  It’s not “Go and see.”  It is an expression of accompaniment: I will come with you; let us go together and see.  Why is accompaniment so important in times of grieving?

Verse 35 is one of the two shortest verses in the Bible: “Jesus wept.”  (Ironically, the other shortest verse in the Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:16, also involves a feeling, but on the other end of the emotional spectrum: “Rejoice always.”)  What does Jesus’s weeping tell you about him?

Jesus has certainly seen other people die.  Why do you think he is so deeply moved and emotional affected here?

In the centuries after Jesus lived, people argued over the nature of Jesus.  Some said he was only human; others said he was only divine and not really human at all.  (Christians believe he was full God and fully human.)  How is weeping a sign of Jesus’s humanity?

What does the fact that Jesus, who is both God and man, weeps tell you about God?

Some people find it difficult to be deeply moved by sad events, and other people experience such deep emotion that it feels like too much to bear.  Where are you on the spectrum of how people react to sad events, and how does God work with you in those times?

As always, what Jesus does elicits at least two different reactions.  How do people react in verses 36-37?

Do you see in yourself sometimes a tendency to look at other people’s behavior in a negative way, when there might be a more positive way to think about it?  How can we train ourselves to be more generous in how we view other people’s actions and intentions?

Read John 11:38-44 Jesus raises Lazarus

Lazarus’s tomb was above ground, which was the norm in Jesus’s time – a cave cut out of rock.  If you would like to see what Lazarus’s tomb might have been like, you can view this video of a tour group visiting the site that people have considered to be the site of Lazarus’s tomb since at least the 4^th century.  It is in the town of al-Eizariya in Palestine, not far from Jerusalem, where Bethany was in Jesus’s time (Hyman).  We have no way of knowing whether this was actually Lazarus’s tomb, but it can help us visualize it.

They came to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled across the entrance.  Jesus told them to take away the stone.  Martha doesn’t understand what is about to happen and objects.  What does she say (verse 39)?

Note that even if Jesus had come immediately when he received word that Lazarus was ill, Lazarus would still have been dead for two days when Jesus arrived, since he only waited two days before coming.  However, 4 days was long enough that the rabbis would be very convinced that Lazarus really had been dead and not just in a swoon.

Jesus responds (verse 40), “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you will see the glory of God?”  Raising Lazarus obviously brings glory to God.  What about when people are not raised from the dead?  How can we bring glory to God by the way we accept death?

What does Jesus say to God in verses 41-42?  What do his words say to you?

When Jesus cries out, “Lazarus, come out,” Lazarus does come out.  How do you think Martha and Mary felt when this happened?  How do you think the other people who were there felt?  How do you think Lazarus felt?  How do you think Jesus felt, knowing that his own death is coming soon?

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Paul says that when Jesus returns at the end of time, he will descend from heaven with a loud cry of command, and the dead shall be raised.  When he cries out to Lazarus to come out, it might be considered a foreshadowing of that final shout at the end of time.

In John 5:25, Jesus said that the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear his voice and live.  How is the raising of Lazarus a foreshadowing of everything that Jesus has been saying for the last several chapters?

When Lazarus’s body was prepared for burial, they would have wound strips of cloth around it (which, among other things, would prevent the limbs from flopping around as the body was carried since they did not use caskets).  So Lazarus is, in effect, all tied up.  In verse 44, Jesus says, “Unbind him and let him go.”  Are there ways that we are still bound when we are brought to life by Jesus?  What kinds of things “bind” us and make it harder to live the full life God has called us to, if we are not freed from them?

We can remain “bound” by fears, by sin, by toxic relationships, by work that does not reflect our dignity and calling, etc.   Jesus wants us to be freed from what keeps us from living fully in the light and life of Christ.

Jesus doesn’t unbind Lazarus himself.  He lets others do that.  How is Jesus still using us today to unbind others and help them find freedom?

How does Jesus want to bring his resurrection life into your life today?

Take a step back and consider this:

We Christians live in a curious blend of the now and the not yet.  Jesus says in John 11:25-26 that if we believe in him, we will live even if we die, and if we live and believe in him we will never die.  This suggests that although some aspects of Jesus’s role in our lives as the Resurrection and the Life will take effect later, we have already begun to experience some aspects of it now.  His resurrection is real both in the now and in the not yet.

In what ways do you hope to experience, when you die, Jesus’s promise that you will rise (11:23)?

In what ways do you experience Jesus’s resurrection and life as a present reality that enlivens you today?

How can you embrace his life more fully?

Paul wrote, “If we have died with Christ . . . we shall also live with him” (Romans 6:8).  In what ways do we need to die even now, while we are still alive, in order to live with him?