John 11: Lazarus and “I am the resurrection, and the life”

A message from Bethany

Lazarus lives in Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, with his sisters Martha and Mary. When he falls ill, the sisters send word to Jesus: Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Jesus loves all three, the text insists, and yet he stays where he is for two more days. By the time he arrives, Lazarus has been in the grave four days.

Martha goes out to meet him while Mary stays in the house. Her first words are both reproach and faith: if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. She believes her brother will rise again at the last day.

What does John 11:25 mean?

Jesus answers with the words on our print: “I am the resurrection, and the life.” He goes on: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Then he asks Martha, Believest thou this?

Martha had spoken of resurrection as an event at the end of time. Jesus moves it into the present and into his own person. Resurrection is not only something that will happen; it is someone standing in front of her. Martha replies with one of the great confessions of the Gospels, that he is the Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus wept, and Lazarus came forth

When Mary arrives and falls at his feet, Jesus sees her weeping and is deeply moved. Verse 35, Jesus wept, is famously short, and it shows that the one who is about to raise the dead still grieves with those who mourn. At the tomb he has the stone taken away and cries with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. The dead man walks out, still bound in graveclothes.

The miracle has a cost. The chief priests and Pharisees meet in council, and Caiaphas the high priest says it is expedient that one man should die for the people. From that day, John writes, they planned to put Jesus to death.

An empty tomb at dawn

Our Empty Tomb painting looks beyond Lazarus to Easter morning, the stone rolled away and a figure standing in the light. The promise of John 11:25 is kept in John 20. This verse is read at many Christian funerals, and this Christian wall art suits an Easter display, a memorial corner or the home of a family carrying a recent loss.