John 11:37, commentary and pictures

At the grave of Lazarus some mourners and bystanders asked why the One who had opened the eyes of the blind had not kept Lazarus from dying. They mistook His tears and His delay for inability, supposing He wept only from love and grief and could not save His friend, without understanding that the delay served God's plan for a mighty sign. Their words were unbelief and blind infidelity from those who should have had faith, spoken to spread doubt by judging only outward grief, and burdened by that unbelief Jesus groaned within Himself as He approached the grave. Lazarus was permitted to die and Jesus delayed coming so that raising him after four days in the grave would give decisive evidence that He is the Son of God, becoming His crowning miracle and final test to the nation that led many to believe while those who had rejected light remained hardened. That return to life was not immortality, for Lazarus remained subject to death and had no story of death to tell since the dead know nothing, yet his being alive again stood as convincing proof of divine power over death and of Christ's character as Saviour and Lifegiver.

Question at the Grave

At the grave some of the mourners and bystanders whispered why the One who had opened the eyes of the blind had not kept Lazarus from dying. They recognized His power to open blind eyes, yet asked why that power had not prevented this death. Their questioning arose because Lazarus had died even though Jesus had power both to heal and to raise the dead.

They mistook His tears and His delay for inability to save Lazarus. They supposed He wept only from love for Lazarus and from grief, and concluded that He who had done such mighty works had been unable to save him from death. They did not understand why He had delayed, even though the death and the delay served God's plan for the raising of Lazarus as a mighty sign.

Their words revealed unbelief in His power to raise the dead and blind infidelity from people who professed faith in Him and should have had faith in Him. They were spoken derisively, not as honest inquiry, to drop the seed of unbelief into the hearts of those present. They wrongly interpreted His tears, seeing only the outward grief of the moment rather than recognizing that His tears arose from love and grief while greater purpose stood behind them. Burdened by that unbelief, Jesus groaned within Himself as He approached the grave.

The question belongs where Jesus wept with sympathy at Lazarus's grave and then gave Mary and Martha their brother back from the dead. That grave was at Bethany, where Jesus often found rest at the home of Lazarus. The account shows His compassion and power in the face of death.

Power and Purpose of Raising

Lazarus's death was permitted and Jesus delayed going so that the resurrection would give decisive evidence that He is the Son of God. That delay became the occasion for a mighty sign, for the raising was His crowning miracle and last test to the nation. It led many to believe and drew a large enthusiastic crowd to see Jesus, though those who had rejected light remained hardened even in the face of this evidence.

He did not go at once because His healing presence would have brought relief, and He could not witness suffering without opposing it. He also knew that raising Lazarus would move Him toward His own death on the cross where He would pay the ransom for humanity.

The raising was convincing proof of His divinity that revealed the Father to believers and unbelievers. It was undeniable evidence of Messiahship to one who had watched His works and considered their meaning. Together with His healings it gave the priests and elders evidence of His authority, but they did not recognize God in Him.

The question points to One who truly opened blind eyes, moved by compassion for human woe. That healing belongs with healing the sick, giving hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb, feeding the hungry, comforting the sorrowful, walking on the heaving sea and stilling its roaring by a word, casting out devils who confessed Him the Son of God, raising the dead, and holding thousands with words of wisdom. It demonstrated His character as Saviour and Lifegiver in a life of power, purity, and disinterested benevolence that prejudice and insane hatred still rejected and resolutely refused.

Lazarus, whom Christ raised after four days in the grave though his body had seen corruption, was brought back to life to the great joy of his sisters. That return to life, like the raising of the son of the widow of Nain and Jairus' daughter during His ministry, was not immortality. Lazarus remained subject to death and decay, in contrast to those who came forth at Christ's own resurrection and were raised to everlasting life never more to see death or experience sorrow.

Lazarus had no experience or story of the time he was dead to recount, for the dead know nothing. His testimony to Christ's divine power came from being alive again and bearing witness to Christ. Bringing the dead to life fulfilled His mission as the Pattern Man just as certainly as toiling as a carpenter while hiding His divine mission, treading the waves of the sea, and dying as man's sacrifice to lift the whole race to a new and perfect life. That power over death grounds the plea for Him to heal the long-afflicted.