Who Is Jesus? The I AM Sayings of Christ
The subsequent move to the region near Jerusalem is the last one. Up until now we have learned of the bread of life, the water of life, the light of life; now, in the last sign, Jesus gives life itself (11:25–26), an anticipation of the fruitfulness of his own death (12:23–24).
One should … keep steadfastly in mind that he who wrote the Gospel of the Word made flesh viewed history as of first importance; he would never have related a story of Jesus, still less created one, that he did not have reason to believe took place’ (Beasley-Murray, p. 199).
The sister’s reference to their brother as the one Jesus loves is touching. It hints at friendships and relationships that are barely explored in the Gospels, and it suggests that some at least felt peculiarly loved by him.
If the death of Lazarus came about so that God’s glory might be revealed, this particular revelation of God’s glory is so that God’s Son may be glorified through it: i.e. the raising of Lazarus provides an opportunity for God, in revealing his glory, to glorify his Son, for it is the Father’s express purpose that all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father
Lazarus’ death and the resurrection that follows are not only to glorify the Father and the Son, but are for the good of Lazarus and his sisters.
This means that the two-day delay was motivated by Jesus’ love for Martha, Mary and Lazarus. How can this be?
The decision to delay is therefore to be explained as the deliberate refusal to be manipulated (cf. 2:4; 7:3), but to await his Father’s timing. Above all, the delay ensured that Lazarus had been dead long enough that no-one could misinterpret the miracle as a mere resuscitation, effected before the man’s spirit had properly left the area (cf. notes on v. 17). The miracle that Jesus actually performed therefore confirmed the faith of his disciples and friends with dramatic power that would have been lacking if Jesus had responded immediately to the plea for help
More important, by waiting to leave until Lazarus had died, and therefore ensuring that he could not arrive until the fourth day after the death, Jesus is accomplishing two things: he is powerfully demonstrating himself to be the resurrection and the life (v. 25), and he is powerfully establishing the faith not only of his disciples (v. 15) and of some Jews who were onlookers (v. 45), but also of the Bethany family itself (cf. notes on vv. 22ff.). As the narrative is cast, the delay is for the good of all concerned, including Lazarus, Mary and Martha. How then can Jesus legitimately be cast as hard-hearted?
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
On this occasion Thomas reflects not doubt but raw devotion and courage, even though it was courage shot through with misunderstanding and incomprehension: misunderstanding, in that he had not grasped the assurance implicit in vv. 9–10, and incomprehension, in that the death Jesus had to face as the Lamb of God (1:29, 36) could not possibly be shared by his disciples. Yet there is another sense in which Thomas, like others in this Gospel, spoke better than he knew: his words have become a clarion call to would-be disciples, after the resurrection, to take up their cross daily and follow Jesus (cf. notes on 12:25; cf. Mk. 8:34; 2 Cor. 4:10).
From a slightly later date there are sources attesting the rabbinic belief that the soul hovers over the body of the deceased person for the first three days, ‘intending to re-enter it, but as soon as it sees its appearance change’, i.e. that decomposition has set in, it departs (Leviticus Rabbah [a rabbinical commentary] 18:1 [on Lv. 15:1]; for other references cf. SB 2. 544f.). At that point death is irreversible.
Rather, they are words of grief and of faith: she is confident that if Jesus had been present while her brother lay ill, Jesus would have healed him. Verse 22 has been taken by many to mean that Martha’s faith runs deeper yet: she is confident that if Jesus asks his Father to raise her brother from the dead, his prayer will be answered. That is not quite what the text says, and the unbelief reported in v. 39 stands dramatically against that interpretation. Verse 22 must be taken more generally: Martha is not only persuaded that her brother would not have died had Jesus been present, but even now, in her bereavement, she has not lost her confidence in Jesus, and still recognizes the peculiar intimacy he enjoys with his Father, an intimacy that ensures unprecedented fruitfulness to his prayers.
When Jesus asks Martha Do you believe this?, he is not asking if she believes that he is about to raise her brother from the dead, but if her faith can go beyond quiet confidence that her brother will be resurrected at the last day to personal trust in Jesus as the resurrection and the life, the only person who can grant eternal life and promise the transformation of resurrection. If she answers positively, the raising of Lazarus becomes a paradigm, an acted parable of the life-giving power of Jesus. It is not more than that, i.e. it is not of a piece with the resurrection that takes place at the end of the age (cf. notes on vv. 43ff.), nor with the infusion of the life of the kingdom (since that is not normally accompanied by the reversal of the death of our mortal bodies).
Rather, the same sin and death, the same unbelief, that prompted his outrage, also generated his grief. Those who follow Jesus as his disciples today do well to learn the same tension—that grief and compassion without outrage reduce to mere sentiment, while outrage without grief hardens into self-righteous arrogance and irascibility.
Nevertheless, even to ask the question in this way betrays massive unbelief. It is the unbelief of the person whose faith does not rest on who Jesus is and what he has revealed of the Father, but on displays of power. Such inchoate ‘faith’ is so weak it constantly demands new signs and miracles (cf. notes on 4:48; 6:30–31). This unbelief is the reason the next verse reports that Jesus’ quiet outrage flares up again (the verb is embrimaomai, as in v. 33).