Lazarus and the Two Days Jesus Did Not Move — John 11 in the Workshop
I had a piece of cherry in the shop last fall that I should have started on in August. It was a commission for a small side table, a wedding gift for a friend's daughter. October, she said. I had the wood, had the plan sketched out on graph paper, and I kept finding reasons to push it to next week. By the time I cleared the bench the wedding was two weeks out and the wood was still clamped upright against the wall. I worked faster than I should have, cut a couple joints I will never be proud of, and delivered a table that was solid but not really right. The bride was kind about it. She didn't know what I knew — the piece would have been better if I had not waited.
I thought about that table when I read John 11 again. Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick and He stays where He is for two more days. He waited on purpose.
When he heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. (John 11:6)
I don't find that easy to sit with. It is one thing to delay because you are procrastinating or distracted. It is another to delay because the timing needs to be something different than what anyone asking wants it to be.
Why Did Jesus Wait Two Days to Raise Lazarus
The sisters sent a clear message: Lord, the one you love is sick. They did not ask Him to come or tell Him what to do. They just told Him the situation and trusted Him to respond. His response was to stay put.
By the time He reached Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. Jewish tradition at the time held that the soul lingered near the body for three days, so the fourth day meant the death was complete in a way nobody could argue with. There was no room for maybe he was just in a coma. The miracle would be undeniable.
Jesus let the situation deteriorate past the point of human hope before He stepped into it. Most of us would write that story differently. We would have Him arrive while Lazarus was still breathing. But the story was not written for efficiency. It was written so the people standing at the tomb, including Mary and Martha and the mourners and the disciples, would see something that could not be explained away. The delay was not a lack of love. It was a calculated act of love that required faith to receive.
Meaning of Jesus Wept in John 11
When Jesus finally reaches Bethany, Martha comes out to meet Him. She is direct about her disappointment but she does not stop believing.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. (John 11:21-22)
She does not understand the timing. She tells Him she knows her brother will rise again at the last day. Then Jesus says something that shifts the whole frame.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. (John 11:25)
Martha was looking forward to a future resurrection. Jesus tells her it is not a future thing but a present one. He does not just give life: He is the life.
Then Mary comes. She falls at His feet and says the same thing her sister said. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Jesus sees her weeping and sees the people weeping with her, and the shortest verse in scripture follows.
Jesus wept. (John 11:35)
He knew what He was about to do. He had already told Martha her brother would rise again. The outcome was not in doubt. And still He stood there and wept with them.
I think about that more than I expected to. It would have been easy to skip the grief and go straight to the miracle. That is what efficiency would recommend. But He did not skip it. He let Himself feel what they felt before He changed what they were feeling. He entered into the sorrow without rushing past it. There is something in that for how we sit with people who are hurting, even when we know things will work out. The grief is real even when the ending is happy.
What Does I Am the Resurrection and the Life Mean
This is the fifth of the seven I Am sayings in John's Gospel. Each one reveals something about who Jesus is and what He offers that nothing else can provide.
When Jesus says He is the resurrection and the life, He is not claiming to be a gatekeeper who manages access to those things. He is claiming to be the source of them. Resurrection is not a process He supervises. It is a power that flows from who He is. Life in its fullest sense, not just breath and heartbeat but the kind of life that continues through death and beyond, is located in Him.
Martha believed in a future resurrection but Jesus brought it into the present and anchored it in a person standing in front of her. For anyone sitting with unanswered prayers or situations that feel past hope, this verse matters because it reframes the question. The question is not whether God can fix the situation. The question is whether the person who is the source of all life is present, and He is.
Significance of Lazarus Being Dead for Four Days
The four day detail is worth lingering on because by the time Jesus calls Lazarus out, the body has been in the cave long enough that Martha warns Him about the smell. There is no pretending. The death is real and complete and past the point where anyone would expect a reversal.
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. (John 11:39)
Human effort stops at the stone, but while the sisters could not roll back death or bring their brother back, they could roll away the stone. Jesus asked them to do exactly that before He did what only He could do. Faith required participation. They had to do what was within their power before God did what was within His. It is the same pattern throughout scripture. Prepare the way, then watch what happens.
When Lazarus comes out, he is still bound in graveclothes. Jesus tells the people to loose him and let him go. The miracle was complete but the community still had work to do. They had to unwrap him and help him step into his new life. There is a version of this that applies to anyone trying to leave something behind. The Lord can raise you. But someone still has to help you take off what is still wrapped around you.
The Plot to Kill Jesus
The chapter does not end with celebration but with calculation. The raising of Lazarus spreads quickly. Many of the Jews who saw it believed in Jesus. Some went straight to the Pharisees and reported what He had done. The chief priests and Pharisees called a council.
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. (John 11:49-50)
John notes that Caiaphas did not say this on his own. He was the high priest that year and he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. Caiaphas meant it as a cold political calculation, a removal of one threat to preserve the social order. But John reads it as prophecy. One man would die for the people, and not just for the nation but to gather the scattered children of God.
From that day forward the religious leaders plotted to kill Him. The miracle that should have opened their eyes hardened their resolve instead. It is a strange thing. They saw a man raised from the dead after four days. They verified the report but their response was not worship. It was a murder plot. The same evidence that produced faith in some produced conspiracy in others.
Jesus withdrew to a town called Ephraim with His disciples. He knew what was coming and He did not stop it. A similar arc plays out in the following chapter, where the response to the miracle of Lazarus and the raising of power continues to reveal who is ready to see and who is not: Mary's Spikenard and the Grain of Wheat: John 12 in the Workshop
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Jesus wait until Lazarus had been dead for four days?
The four day mark was significant because Jewish tradition held that the soul lingered near the body for three days. By the fourth day the death was considered absolute. Jesus waited so the miracle would be beyond question. No one could explain it as a recovery or a near death event. The delay was for the sake of the witnesses.
What is the significance of the phrase Jesus wept?
It shows that Jesus experienced genuine human emotion even when He knew the outcome. He did not rush past the grief of Mary and Martha to get to the miracle. He entered into their sorrow first. It reminds us that validation of grief is part of healing and not a detour from it.
What does it mean that Jesus is the resurrection and the life?
Resurrection is not a future event He oversees. It is a power that flows from who He is. When He says He is the life, He is claiming to be the source of life that death cannot end. Martha was looking forward to the last day. Jesus brought that promise into the present and anchored it in Himself.
Who was Caiaphas and why did he plot to kill Jesus?
Caiaphas was the high priest that year. He saw Jesus as a political threat to the standing of the nation with Rome. He argued that it was better for one man to die than for the whole nation to be destroyed. John notes that Caiaphas was unknowingly prophesying the Atonement. Jesus would die to gather the scattered children of God.
I finished that cherry table two weeks late and delivered it with joints I would not photograph. It still sits in their living room, I am told. The bride never complained. But I learned something from that job about timing that I did not expect to learn.
Sometimes the wait is not the problem but the point, and the piece I rushed through was adequate but the piece that would have been worth waiting for never got built because I would not wait. I wonder what would have happened if I had trusted the timeline instead of fighting it.
I think about the quiet afternoon in Bethany when the Son of God stood at a tomb and cried before He called a dead man out. The stone and the graveclothes and the people who had to do their part before the miracle came through. Lazarus and the two days Jesus did not move.
I do not know what you are waiting on right now. But I suspect the wait is part of the story, not a delay of it.
-- D.