John 11:2, commentary and pictures

The verse identifies Mary as the woman who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, and identifies Lazarus as her brother. She lived with Martha and Lazarus in a humble home at Bethany where Jesus often found rest, welcome and a receptive heart. When Lazarus fell violently sick the sisters sent a trusting message to Jesus, yet though He knew all and could have healed from afar He waited two days by divine wisdom to make the death undoubted proof of His power as the Son of God and Saviour of the world. Jesus wept in sympathy and then called Lazarus from the tomb after four days when his body had seen corruption, restoring him to mortal life still subject to death, not to immortality. That crowning miracle gave convincing evidence that Jesus is the Messiah and Lifegiver, so many believed and glorified God while those who rejected the light were hardened, pointing forward to when the dead in Christ will rise to immortal life.

Household at Bethany

John 11:2 identifies Mary as the woman who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, distinguishing her from other women named Mary, and identifies Lazarus as her brother and her sister as Martha's household kin. She is thus known by that anointing and by being the sister of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. Her anointing was an act of love and reverence showing faith in Jesus as the Son of God and appreciation of Him as the world's Redeemer, with the ointment symbolizing her heart overflowing with love.

Mary lived together with her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus in a humble, peaceful home at Bethany. That home was on the sloping descent of the Mount of Olives, and it was Lazarus's home where Mary lived. There Jesus often found rest, welcome, friendship, and a receptive audience for private instruction.

It was a home Jesus loved to visit, and the faith and love there gave Him rest amid the pain of being misunderstood, even at home, and the burden of His mission. Lazarus loved Jesus and believed Him to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Mary listened earnestly to His words, and the household sympathized with Him despite the Pharisees' hostility.

Sickness, Delay and Death

Lazarus fell suddenly and violently sick with a rapidly rising fever and became seriously ill, and his sickness and death set the scene in Bethany in Judea. The sisters knew Jesus was able to heal every kind of disease and would feel for them in distress, so they sent only a trusting message that the one He loved was sick, without demanding His immediate presence. They fully expected their beloved friend to answer at once and come to Bethany as quickly as He could to heal him. They prayed and watched while the spark of life remained, looking to Him for help, comfort and healing, and clung to hope when told the sickness would not end in death.

Jesus knew what was taking place at Bethany even before the messenger reached Him and could have stopped the power of death from where He was, yet He did not prevent it. He waited two days and did not go at once, because in His immediate presence disease was always rebuked, and He could not witness suffering, disease, or death without bringing relief and combatting the power of Satan. The sickness grew worse until death triumphed, and with anguished hearts the sisters watched their brother die. They prepared him for burial while anxiously looking for Christ and longing for His comfort, laid him in the grave, waited in grief for His coming, and then endured two long, sorrowful days before Jesus came.

The delay was deliberate and not from lack of love or interest, but was done with divine wisdom to serve God's plan. It was to turn the death into undoubted proof of His divine power, to give the Jews the last and crowning evidence that Jesus is the Son of God and Saviour of the world, and to reveal the Father through His works. It was to join His disciples to Him in a faith that could not be broken and on which their faith could rest, and to work a crowning miracle to convince all who could be convinced. This was even while some disciples questioned whether the true Christ would let one He loved die, and while going to help meant returning to Judea where the Jews had lately sought to stone Him.

In this conflict with evil Christ kept before Him the shadow of His own death and the ransom He must pay for souls. He knew when He raised Lazarus that for that life He must pay the ransom on the cross of Calvary, that every rescue would bring Him deepest humiliation, and that He was to taste death for every man. He wept at the grave at the thought that He could not save everyone whom Satan's power had laid low in death, though He gave Himself a ransom for many, even all who would come back to loyalty to God.

Raising and Its Meaning

Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus in tender sympathy for the bereaved, and then by His own word called him out of the tomb after he had been dead four days. His body had already seen corruption, yet that word restored him to life and gave him back to Mary and Martha, to their great joy. This raising belongs to the account of the resurrection of Lazarus and to the raising of the dead as part of Christ's mission, alongside His humble daily work and His death for humanity. Done shortly before His entry into Jerusalem, it demonstrated that He is the Saviour and Lifegiver.

The life thus given was a restoration to mortal life, not a clothing with immortality. After he was raised Lazarus was still subject to death and decay, like the son of the widow of Nain and the ruler's daughter, Jairus' daughter, whom Jesus raised during His ministry. This is unlike those who came forth from the grave at Christ's own resurrection, who were raised to everlasting life as trophies of His victory over death and the grave.

The raising was a testimony to Christ's divine power and a crowning miracle that powerfully affected the people. It drew a large enthusiastic multitude to where Jesus was staying. It gave convincing and undisputable proof of His divinity, revealing the Father through the works He did and providing evidence on which the disciples' faith could rest, with undisputable evidence to Nicodemus that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Lazarus himself testified that Christ was the Son of God, and his very presence at the feast testified to that divine power, though he had no experience of death to report.

Many believed because of the miracle and glorified God, but those who had rejected the light remained hardened and reported it to the rulers, intensifying the hatred of the Pharisees. The raising illustrates Christ's power over death and points forward to the future resurrection, when the dead in Christ will rise to immortal life and be with the Lord.