A man Jesus loves falls sick, and Jesus does not come. He waits two full days in the exact place He was, lets His friend die, lets the body lie in a tomb for four days, and only then sets out for Bethany — not to comfort a grieving family, but to do something no one in that town has ever seen done. When He finally arrives, both sisters say the same aching sentence to Him: if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Jesus does not argue with them. He asks for the stone to be rolled away, and calls a dead man by name.
A study in John 11 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 29 min read
This Sickness Is Not Unto Death
“Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. … Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.”
John 11:1, 3-6
“Among the most steadfast of Christ’s disciples was Lazarus of Bethany. From their first meeting his faith in Christ had been strong; his love for Him was deep, and he was greatly beloved by the Saviour. It was for Lazarus that the greatest of Christ’s miracles was performed. … At the home of Lazarus, Jesus had often found rest.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 524
This is the family Jesus goes to for rest, and this time He deliberately stays away while one of them dies. It is the hardest thing He does in this Gospel to anyone who loves Him, and it is done on purpose.
“For their sake He permitted Lazarus to die. Had He restored him from illness to health, the miracle that is the most positive evidence of His divine character, would not have been performed. Had Christ been in the sickroom, Lazarus would not have died; for Satan would have had no power over him. Death could not have aimed his dart at Lazarus in the presence of the Life-giver.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 528
Death cannot touch anyone Jesus is standing beside. That single sentence explains the delay — and explains why, when He finally does move, He moves toward Jerusalem and a death sentence He already knows is waiting for Him there.
“Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judæa again. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again? … Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. … Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
John 11:7-8, 14, 16
“Thomas could see nothing but death in store for his Master if he went to Judea; but he girded up his spirit, and said to the other disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with Him.’ He knew the hatred of the Jews toward Christ.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 527
Thomas is remembered, mostly, for doubting a resurrection he hadn’t yet seen. Here, before either resurrection has happened, he is the one disciple willing to walk toward certain danger rather than let Jesus go alone.
I Am The Resurrection, And The Life
“Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. 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. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.”
John 11:20-23
“His answer was not intended to inspire hope of an immediate change. He carried Martha’s thoughts beyond the present restoration of her brother, and fixed them upon the resurrection of the just. This He did that she might see in the resurrection of Lazarus a pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead, and an assurance that it would be accomplished by the Saviour’s power.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 530
Martha answers with correct theology — the standard Jewish hope of a resurrection at the last day, far off and impersonal. Jesus does not correct her doctrine. He collapses the distance between her and it into a single Person, standing in front of her.
“Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
John 11:24-26
This is the fifth of the seven great “I am” statements, and one of the largest claims a human voice has ever made. Not “I know the way to the resurrection.” Not “I will one day cause a resurrection.” I am it, present tense, standing in a village outside a grieving town.
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. … By His word and His works He declared Himself the Author of the resurrection. He who Himself was soon to die upon the cross stood with the keys of death, a conqueror of the grave, and asserted His right and power to give eternal life.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 530
“Life, original, unborrowed, underived” is the same claim this whole study opened with in its very first chapter, said now in three words instead of a Prologue’s worth of theology. Every other life in the universe was given. His was never received from anywhere; it simply is, the way the Prologue said all things came into being through Him and not the reverse.
“She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.”
John 11:27
Martha’s confession comes before the miracle, not after — her faith holds while her brother is still four days in the grave, with nothing yet to point to but a claim she cannot fully explain and chooses to believe anyway.
Jesus Wept
“Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”
John 11:32
Mary says exactly what her sister said, word for word — the sentence both women have clearly repeated to each other and to anyone who would listen for four straight days.
“When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.”
John 11:33-35
“Though He was the Son of God, yet He had taken human nature upon Him, and He was moved by human sorrow. His tender, pitying heart is ever awakened to sympathy by suffering. … Christ did not weep for Lazarus; for He was about to call him from the grave. He wept because many of those now mourning for Lazarus would soon plan the death of Him who was the resurrection and the life.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 533
The shortest verse in the whole Bible is also one of its most layered. He is not crying over a death He is about to undo in a matter of minutes. He is crying over the people standing right beside that grave who will, within days, be plotting to put Him in one of His own.
“Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?”
John 11:36-37
Even here, at the graveside, someone in the crowd brings up the man born blind as an accusation rather than an argument for faith — the same miracle, still doing double duty as evidence and as ammunition, depending entirely on who is holding it.
Lazarus, Come Forth
“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. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”
John 11:39-40
“Christ could have commanded the stone to remove, and it would have obeyed His voice. He could have bidden the angels who were close by His side to do this. At His bidding, invisible hands would have removed the stone. But it was to be taken away by human hands. Thus Christ would show that humanity is to co-operate with divinity.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 535
He does the impossible part Himself and leaves the merely difficult part — rolling a heavy stone — to the human hands standing right there. It is a small detail, but it sets the pattern for everything He asks of His followers afterward.
“Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.”
John 11:41-43
“His voice, clear and penetrating, pierces the ear of the dead. As He speaks, divinity flashes through humanity. In His face, which is lighted up by the glory of God, the people see the assurance of His power. … With intense and painful interest all wait for the test of Christ’s divinity, the evidence that is to substantiate His claim to be the Son of God.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 536
A voice that can reach a man four days dead in a sealed tomb is the same voice this Gospel’s own Prologue said spoke the universe into being in the first place. Speaking and creating have never been two separate powers for Him.
“And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”
John 11:44
A man everyone had already grieved and buried walks out still wrapped for the grave, and it falls to ordinary hands, again, to finish unwrapping him.
That One Man Should Die For The People
“Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.”
John 11:45-48
“That mighty miracle was the crowning evidence offered by God to men that He had sent His Son into the world for their salvation. It was a demonstration of divine power sufficient to convince every mind that was under the control of reason and enlightened conscience. Many who witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus were led to believe on Jesus.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 537
The very miracle that should have settled every remaining doubt is the one that finally forces the council’s hand. The evidence was never really the problem.
“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
“Perplexed and troubled, the rulers asked, ‘What do we?’ There was a division in the council. Under the impression of the Holy Spirit, the priests and rulers could not banish the conviction that they were fighting against God.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 539
Caiaphas means his words as cold political calculation, one life traded for national stability. John will not let his readers miss what is actually happening in that sentence.
“And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.”
John 11:51-53
A high priest trying to protect his own position accidentally speaks the truest sentence of his career — that one man really would die for the people, and not that nation only, though not remotely in the sense he intended. The council that just watched Jesus reverse a four-day-old death now formally votes to arrange His own. He withdraws to the wilderness town of Ephraim to wait; Passover is coming, and this time He will not stay away.
