Final Desination
What would Lazarus say about Death
The use of the metaphor of sleep to refer to death is common in the ancient world, including ancient Jewish thought (Balz 1972:548–53), but the disciples nevertheless misunderstand and think Jesus is referring to natural sleep (v. 13).
Jesus faced that reality squarely
In such a reality context of death Jesus told his disciples that he was glad he had not been at the bedside of Lazarus because what was about to happen would greatly enhance their believing (11:15).
As with many people today, human problems crowd out the sense of the divine presence, and as a result hopelessness can reign even in the company of God’s people.
The implication is that the recovery of Lazarus from death would be a more remarkable “sign” than his recovery from a sick-bed would have been.
Although His friend has died and the sisters are in grief, Jesus rejoices because of His confidence not only that Lazarus will be called back to life, but because this sign of power will increase the faith of His disciples, and promote the glory of God (v. 4).
The implication is that death would not have occurred if Jesus had been there.
Is dead (ἀπεθανεν [apethanen]). First aorist active indicative, “died.”
But if Lazarus had not died, the disciples (and readers of all ages) would not have had this unique opportunity to have their faith quickened. Lazarus’ death was so that you may believe.
In the present story weeping, indeed loud weeping or wailing, would have conformed to Jewish public mourning practices. Professional mourners and musicians were generally engaged to assist the family in expressing grief.
Jesus was not a helpless human in the face of death. The story has a much different focus. Martha had been full of words, and here Mary and her supporters were full of tears and wailing. But for all of them Jesus was an unrecognized power in their midst
Accordingly, I would maintain that Jesus’ weeping here is directly related to the failure of his followers to recognize his mission as the agent of God.
If he was moved with compassion, his weeping would have been a sign of his sorrow at the death of Lazarus and the pain it caused his friends. This is hard to reconcile with the fact that he knew he would shortly raise Lazarus from death. If he was moved with anger, his weeping might have reflected deep disappointment with the faithless weeping and wailing of Mary and ‘the Jews’.
Perhaps he is showing by his choice of this word that Jesus’ weeping was of a different order from that of Mary and ‘the Jews’. He was not joining with them in their weeping and wailing, but expressing his sorrow at the faithlessness he found all around him.
In His humanity Jesus was touched with human sorrow, and wept with the sorrowing.
Jesus is angry at death itself and the pain and sadness it causes evident in the wailing
Jesus is angry at death itself and the pain and sadness it causes evident in the wailing
Mary’s weeping was genuine, that of the Jews was partly perfunctory and professional and probably actual “wailing” as the verb κλαιω [klaiō] can mean.
chiefly it was the sheer human sympathy of his heart with Martha and Mary touched with the feeling of our common weakness (Heb. 4:15).
Some think that Jesus is moved by their grief, and is consequently angry with the sin, sickness and death in this fallen world that wreaks so much havoc and generates so much sorrow.
John used a different word than the word he chose to describe the weeping of Mary and the Jews. Perhaps the intent was to show that Jesus’ tears emerged for a different reason—not grief over Lazarus; he had that situation well in hand. Surely the same unbelief and theological ignorance that prompted his anger also produced his grief.
His weeping was over the tragic consequences of sin. The crowd interpreted His tears as an expression of love, or frustration at not being there to heal Lazarus.
The contrast between the plural our friend and I am going is not accidental: Jesus alone is the resurrection and the life (v. 25).
John intends his readers to associate v. 11 and vv. 25, 26: those who are Jesus’ friends and who fall ‘asleep’ will one day be wakened by him who is the resurrection and the life.
It involves three claims: (1) Jesus himself is the resurrection and the life, i.e. the Father has given him to have life in himself and to bestow resurrection life upon whomever he will (5:21, 26). (2) People who believe in him, even if they die (as Lazarus had done) will live—Jesus will raise them from death on the last day. What he would soon do for Lazarus would foreshadow the resurrection of the last day. (3) People who live and believe in him will never die.
Jesus here declares Himself to be the Life-giver. In Him is “life, original, unborrowed, underived” (DA 530). He who receives Him receives life (1 John 5:11, 12) and is assured of a future resurrection to eternal life
All of the “I am” sayings have to do with Christ as the life-giver, as is clearly the case here where we see that he does not just give life, but is life itself.
So we have in the raising of Lazarus a revelation of Jesus’ authority and his identity as life-giver because he is life itself.
“I am the resurrection”: He who believes in me will live, even though he dies (v. 25). This statement addresses Martha directly in the situation she is experiencing with the death of her brother.
“I am the life”: and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (v. 26). The life that comes through believing in Jesus is not interrupted by physical death.
Just as he not only gives the bread from heaven (6:27) but is himself the bread of life (6:35), so also he not only raises the dead on the last day (5:21, 25ff.) but is himself the resurrection and the life. There is neither resurrection nor eternal life outside of him
Jesus declares that He is the source and power that will enable the resurrection of the dead on the day of judgment, when God’s people will rise in glorified bodies to be one with Him