Lazarus, Come Out!
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been dead four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” John 11:38-44
Arriving at the tomb, Jesus was again (as in 11:33) overcome by an intense anger at death. The word translated here ‘deeply moved’ was used of the snorting of a horse and usually spoke of extreme anger. Jesus came to defeat not only death (1 Corinthians 15:26) but to ‘destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil’ (Hebrews 2:14).
“Take away the stone,” he said. “But Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been dead four days.” Martha was not expecting a miracle. She was concerned the corpse would have begun to decompose and give off a strong odour. In Jewish belief the soul was thought to hover close to its body for three days after death before finally departing.
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” Note the order; first we believe, then we see. Not “seeing is believing” but believing is seeing. ‘I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living’ (Psalm 27:13 NASB).
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” Following the text closely, from the time the stone was rolled away, Jesus knew His prayer was answered. What prayer? John doesn’t record Jesus praying at the tomb, only thanking God for having already heard His prayer. Jesus was thanking the Father for answering the prayer offered in the two days before He and the disciples set off for Bethany. What was He praying for then? He was praying that though Lazarus would die, that his body would be preserved from corruption, that when they eventually arrived at the tomb, the body in the cave would be whole and complete (though dead) and ready to be called back to life. How did Jesus know His prayer was answered? When the stone was rolled away, there was no putrefying smell. Once He realised this, all that remained was the command to come out.
The parallel between Lazarus’ death and resurrection and Jesus’ death and resurrection is an obvious one. In praying for Lazarus, Jesus would have been all too aware that He was walking towards His own death and trusting the Father for the same preservation from corruption (Acts 2:24-32). Lazarus would later die but Jesus would be raised in a totally incorruptible resurrection body.
As the sheep hear the voice of the good shepherd as He calls them by name and leads them out of the cramped sheepfold (10:3), so Lazarus was immediately raised from the dead by Jesus powerful words “Lazarus, come out!” All that remained was for the grave clothes to be taken off him. Lazarus was again amongst the living and death robbed of its prey.
There will be a final generation at Christ’s return who will not see death. But for believers who die before then death has no sting. It is no more than a doorway from this world to the glory of the next.
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