What Did Lazarus See While Dead?
By Tyler E. Bowen
In the Tomb Four Days—Was Then Called Forth—Did He Relate What He Saw in Heaven? THE crowning miracle of Jesus, that which proclaimed to all, believer or unbeliever, that He was the divine Son of God, was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Purposely Jesus let His friend go down into death. It was true, as both Mary and Martha said, “If Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”; for it is said that no one ever died in the presence of the Life-giver during the three years of His ministry. But Lazarus died. He had been dead four days when Jesus reached Bethany. Everybody in the place knew this. They had had the funeral. The sepulcher was secured by the stone at its mouth. Martha herself said, as they reached the tomb, that decomposition had surely set in. But notwithstanding all this, Jesus bade them roll away the stone. As a conclusive evidence that He was the divine Son of God, sent into the world to save sinners, He looked up to heaven, and calmly prayed to His Father a brief, simple prayer. Then, with that voice which will erelong reach every other silent ear of His entombed saints, “He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.” Imagine that breathless group without, every eye fastened upon the opening to that rock cavern in which Lazarus had been laid. Would these words addressed to the dead man be obeyed? Suppose they had not. What then? The Christ of Galilee would have gone down in the annals of history as the greatest impostor the world ever knew. Enemies were there who in heart hoped just this. But not long must any of them wait. Listen! A faint echo within the cavern is heard, as though some one moved. An instant later appears at the door of his tomb Lazarus, bound about by the linen clothes in which loving hands had wrapped his cold form a few days before. The Lord, in His self-possession, first speaks: “Loose him, and let him go.” Then the reality of it all dawned upon Martha and Mary and the others, as Lazarus, in the full bloom of health, and in the vigor of young manhood, stood before them, and eagerly entered into the glad reunion with sisters and friends. What a meeting! WHAT HAD HE SEEN WHILE DEAD?
But what about Lazarus’s wonderful experiences while away? Where had he been? What had he seen? Surely during these four long days and nights since he died, ample opportunity had been given him to see much that was going on in heaven. He surely must have met his mother over yonder, and seen some of the friends of the neighbors there in Bethany. Did they press him with questions to tell them all about these folks from whom they had been separated so long? Should such an experience come to one in these days, quite likely special trains would bring hundreds, yes, thousands of people to inquire regarding friends in the glory land. Well, reader, the Bible is silent as to any wonderful things Lazarus saw during those four days. Evidently he had nothing to tell. Quite true, here was presented a wonderful opportunity to make known all about the conscious life of dead people, which we hear so much about these days. But Lazarus is silent. His theme, rather, was glorifying his Lord, by whose power he had come up from his four-days sleep in his tomb. He remembered what he experienced and saw during that time, about the same as any dreamless person can recall what went on during the hours of the night while he was sound asleep. “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:4. “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait [for what?] till my change come [as did Lazarus’s]. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee [as did he by coming forth from his tomb]: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands.” Job 14:14, 15. Again, had Lazarus gone to heaven when he died, as is so commonly believed these days, why did Jesus go to the grave? Why disturb the body of Lazarus at all? Why did He not look into the heavens, and call him down from there? And why did He tell His disciples that He must go to Bethany to awake Lazarus out of his sleep? Ah, reader, Jesus knew where to go to find His friend in Satan’s prison house. He knew where to address His life-giving call; and the Lazarus who had been a familiar personage about Bethany, all there was of him, came forth out of that rock-cavern tomb where he had four days before been laid. Why not believe the truth of God’s word regarding our loved ones who sleep until called forth, as was Lazarus from the tomb?