John 11:35-45 Lazarus, come forth

John 11:35 Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the Bible. Did He weep because He loved Lazarus and mourned his death? Did He weep over the consequences of sin that lead to death? Did He weep because the Jews were in the process of rejecting Him? Did He weep because the sisters both lacked faith that He was really God? I vote for the first option. The love of God is manifest in many ways, but the raw emotion of His grief for the things that happen in our life that are not His will is shown here, and ultimately in Gethsemane.

John 11:36-37 The Jews observed the depth of Jesus' grief and commented, exactly as Mary and Martha had, that He could have saved Lazarus if He had been there in time.

John 11:38-45 The sheer simplicity of this scene bares the essence of God's power. Martha makes the remark mentioned earlier, that after four days the body would smell of decomposition. That is why the bodies of dead people are buried. They did not have a morgue with refrigerated coffins to preserve the body. Poor people could not afford to embalm bodies as the Pharaohs did. But the poor people at that time and place had a unique opportunity to witness God's power. As Jesus stated, that if they would believe they will see God's glory. Unlike the rich and powerful, who do not believe in or know God, or anyone else who disbelieves God and yet fears the future judgment. They would see His glory right here, right now. Not a glowing radiance from a heavenly throne, like the visions that Ezekiel and Daniel saw. Not a future kingdom to be revealed at the final judgment. They would see what God's glory looks like in the lives of people here on the earth.

          And then Jesus prays a short, simple prayer. It isn't even a prayer for Lazarus. Instead He thanks the Father for hearing Him, and casts these events as an attesting sign so that they would believe that the Father sent Him. This theme recurs in the high priestly prayer, noted in John 17:8. Jesus is giving a public prayer which is, in effect, not really a petition to God, but a public statement for the benefit of those around Him. Since the work of power would speak for itself, He was casting a framework for what this miraculous sign means. To belabor the obvious, He wanted them to understand that this miracle was a sign from God to confirm to those standing there that God the Father had sent Him.

           When Jesus called out "Lazarus come forth," is there not an echo of God's call to Adam, "Where are you"? (Genesis 3:9). Lazarus had not necessarily sinned in the likeness of Adam's sin, except that in general terms we know that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) But Lazarus had experienced the fruit of sin (Romans 6:23), and Jesus was demonstrating His redemptive power in calling Lazarus back from that consequence to rejoin life. And in obedience, Lazarus came out of the tomb, still wearing the trappings of death, and Jesus told those around Him to unbind him and let him go. Lazarus was alive again, but still needed to be freed from the vestiges of death. And he needed others to help him with that final act in the drama of resurrection.

          There is no indication that Lazarus was in a spiritual body, as described in I Corinthians 15:44. That is because Jesus was demonstrating God's presence in our present lives, as discussed above. But the life of his physical body had been restored. Presumably, he was still subject to all of the conditions of physical life, including temptation, and also ultimately death of his physical body at some future point. We have no further information on this. And we have to wonder what his life was like after returning from the grave. There are modern accounts of people who have died and been in the presence of God and then returned to physical life. But these accounts seldom deal with what life is like after the return. Was Lazarus so overcome with the light that he had experienced for four days that sin no longer had any appeal to him? Had he experienced such rapturous transport that he spent the rest of his time on earth longing for the day when he would return to heaven? Did he have such a comprehensive understanding of God and His ways that he served Jesus and his sisters faithfully and humbly without complaint or question? The only hint we have is shown in John 12:1-11, the last scriptural mention of Lazarus, and it sheds little light.

          Many who came to Mary to console her and saw Lazarus risen from the dead believed in Jesus. One almost has to wonder why some did not believe in Jesus after seeing the power of God demonstrated.  I suppose that the hardness of some men's hearts is such that they will not repent even if they see one raised from the dead. (Luke 16:31) The name Lazarus appears to be derived from the Hebrew name Eleazar, which means roughly 'God has helped'.