17 Now when Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
We can only wonder and speculate about how Martha and Mary must have felt as Lazarus’ life slowly ebbed away while they waited desperately for Jesus to come and heal their brother. Eventually Jesus did come, but it was too late. Lazarus was dead.
When Martha heard that Jesus was finally on His way, she met Him on the road with a statement that many see as some kind of rebuke. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21) Mary said the same thing in verse 32. However, to say that Martha somehow reproached Jesus, by implying that He was almost negligent in not going to Bethany as soon as He received the message that Lazarus was ill, is a bit too simplistic.
Martha was clearly upset, so yes, she was expressing her disappointment that Jesus had taken so long, but it was also an expression of faith. She continued in verse 22 by saying, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” In her distress she probably didn’t quite know what she meant by those words. She was, after all, desperate, and she certainly had no idea what was about to happen, but despite her broken heart, she still believed in Jesus, because she held onto her faith of the resurrection of believers in eternity.
So when both sisters said the same thing on separate occasions, it is more than likely they had said these words to each other many times during the past four days after Lazarus’ death, but their words were far from a stinging rebuke. They were both expressing their grief, while at the same time they were verbalising their disappointment that Jesus had not come immediately.
Some Christians will say it’s wrong to question God, but He invites us to pour our hearts out to Him. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” In Psalm 13 David cries out, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.” (Psalm 13:1-3)
Martha was quite naturally trying to come to terms with her brother’s death, but we have been given an insight into the bigger picture in the story of Lazarus. Verse 6 says, “When He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was.” Jesus arrived exactly when He intended to, four days after Lazarus died.
I mentioned last week that the theme of John 11 is death - not only the death of Lazarus, but also the death of Jesus, which was only days away. The curse of death in a sinful world is a reality we all face. God has not failed us when a loved one dies, or when we face other trials and suffering. Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” So until Jesus returns, it is God’s will for each of us to die, as a result of human sin. The same could be said for sickness, poverty, injustice, and sorrow, so our faith in God will be stronger when we understand what God has and has not promised, as revealed in His Word. We would do well to remember Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Martha teaches us this lesson when she said to Jesus, “even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Now, it’s highly unlikely that Martha was expecting an immediate resurrection, because later, when Jesus approached the tomb, she tried to stop Him. “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.” (John 11:39)
So the question is, what did Martha mean when she said in verse 22 that God would give Jesus anything He asked? This is a picture of a grieving heart reaching out in faith to God. God is the ultimate source of our comfort in times of sadness. The best thing we can do when trying to comfort those who mourn is to point them to Christ.
Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.”
The best way to comfort and minister to those who grieve is the ministry of God’s Word, and His promises of the resurrection for those who believe in Jesus Christ. It is our greatest hope. Now we’re not saying that the promise of the resurrection removes the grief of death, but it does restore hope in the grief. This is what Paul meant when he reminded the believers at the Church in Thessalonica that they do not grieve like those who have no hope.
Jesus said to Martha in verse 23, “Your brother will rise again,” and she expressed her hope, even in her grief by replying, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:24)
As Jesus ministered to Martha, He then continued with the fifth of His seven “I am” statements in John’s Gospel. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25–26)
Of course, Martha, just like us, could not possibly fully understand the doctrine of the resurrection, but she still had faith. She believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and that He might still be able to do something, although she didn’t really know what He could or might do.
“I am the resurrection and the life.” We hear those words of hope at every Christian funeral, but what do they really mean? The simple answer is that we have a firm hope in our future resurrection because Jesus Himself died and then bodily rose from the dead.
John Calvin wrote, “The whole human race is plunged in death, therefore, no man will possess life unless he is first risen from the dead. Hence Christ teaches that He is the beginning of life. All who face death and wrestle with questions of death and life can find an answer only through faith in Him. To believe in Jesus is to receive the benefit not only of His life and death, but also of His resurrection. From Him through faith, Christians are entered into glory through the light of His open tomb.”
Jesus said in John 14:19, “Because I live, you also will live,” and in 11:25, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” There’s the answer to the problem of death. By trusting in Christ, we gain the promise of resurrection life. Just as Jesus promised Martha that Lazarus would rise again, so He says of all who believe in Him by faith.
Jesus, by His resurrection holds the key to the problem of death, and He is the one who gives us victory over our greatest enemy - death itself. Jesus gives the meaning of life and the answer to death.
And then He says to Martha in verse 26, “Do you believe this?”
That is the great question we all need to answer. He had just told her that He was the resurrection and the life, and that anyone who believes in Him would not die but live, and then asks her plainly if she believes this. And He asks us the same. How you answer this one question determines nothing less than the great question of life and the unavoidable question of death.
Martha’s answer was a wonderful declaration of faith. “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11:27) Peter made a similar confession of faith in Matthew 16:16. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Martha answered Jesus’ question directly. “Yes, Lord; I believe.” This is where saving faith begins, when we respond to the Gospel message as it is presented to us in the Bible.
Jesus alone is the One who brings God’s salvation to earth, and it is faith in who He is as the only Son of God and by trusting in His saving work on the cross that we are saved. Belief in Jesus as the Son of God is essential to Christianity. There are many people who would agree that Jesus was a wonderful and a wise man, but agreeing with what He taught does not save if you deny His deity.
To reject Jesus as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity is to reject the heart of the Christian faith, and thereby, salvation itself. John 20:31 again - “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” “These things,” His signs and miracles, as well as His teachings are the tangible proof that He is the Son of God, and His death and resurrection is the clincher, the final proof that salvation comes through faith in Him alone.
Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe this?” That question is addressed to each of us too. Do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth, revealed in the pages of the Bible, is the Messiah - the Saviour that God has sent to a sinful, dying world? Do you believe that Jesus is God’s Son, the second person of the eternal Trinity, manifested in human flesh? Do you see Him as the promised Deliverer that God has sent not only to a fallen, sinful world, but to save you from God’s just wrath against your sins?
That is what you need to believe in order to be saved. Nothing else, and no one else will do.
Being a Christian means far more than embracing traditional Church values or admiring the Sermon on the Mount. It means coming to Jesus as Martha did, looking to God’s Word to hear what He says, and then replying, “Yes, Lord; I believe.” “I believe in you, Jesus. I believe what the Bible says about you. And I rest my hope for eternal life on you.” If you believe this, then Jesus promises you salvation.
He said in John 5:24, “Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
Why has God done this for us? It is because of His great love for us. We are given an insight to this in the shortest verse in the English Bible, as in John 11:35 we see the heart of God - “Jesus wept.”
God cares about His people. David writes in Psalm 6:8, “The Lord has heard the sound of my weeping,” and in 9:12, “He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.”
So many people have a picture in their minds of God as some kind of aloof, even vindictive being, especially when they consider His sovereignty and His wrath against sin. But this sovereign, holy God cares about us.
Some people are puzzled by Jesus’ question in verse 34 - “Where have you laid him?” Surely He knew? Yes He did, but in His humanity, He too felt the burden of death. We see it again when He was in anguish in Gethsemane. The lesson to us here is that even though as Christians we have a glorious hope of resurrection, Jesus was not unaffected by Lazarus’ death, because He cares for us.
An important point to understand here is that God’s feelings or emotions are very different to ours. Jesus was not surprised by Lazarus’ death, but as He identifies with us in His humanity, He shows us that He is not aloof and distant, but that God really does care for us. By weeping, Jesus proves His true humanity, while at the same time as God in the flesh, He shows that God feels with His people because “Jesus wept.”
This also makes an important point about tears. They are not a sign of weakness, or that someone is unable to cope with the harsh realities of life. Far from it. If Jesus, who was perfect in His humanity, wept at the funeral of a friend, then neither should we be ashamed to be open and honest with our emotions.
As Christians, we have the amazing promise of eternity, where we will be free from all of the evil, heartache and misery that comes from living in a sinful, broken world, but we are not home yet. Our hearts still groan and break, because as Jesus told His disciples in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Even though death is ultimately a defeated enemy, it remains an enemy while we live in this fallen world. Death is a real reason for sorrow, and it is not wrong to weep over the death of a loved one. Jesus knew that He was about to raise Lazarus back to life, yet He wept.
J. C. Ryle wrote, “There is nothing unworthy of a child of God in tears. Even the Son of God could weep. It shows us, above all, that the Saviour in whom believers trust is a most tender and feeling Saviour. He knows what we go through, and can pity.”
The people there that day were moved as they said in verse 36, “See how He loved him!” Jesus’ tears show us that God cares and God feels, and also that God loves. God not only loves His people, but as John reminds us in 1 John 4, God is love. Love is not only something that God does, but it defines who He is.
Please understand that I don’t mean this to sound like a criticism, because until you’ve actually walked in someone else’s shoes, you can’t really know how they feel, but it is heartbreaking when people, even some Christians, get angry with God when trials come. God is not the problem behind our grief. He is the answer to our grief. He is the one we should turn to when our hearts are broken, just as Martha and Mary did.
Probably the saddest part of this scene was that even as Jesus wept with His friends, there were some who criticised Him. Verse 37 tells us, “Some of them said, ‘Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
It may seem like a reasonable enough question at first, but in reality it exposes their unbelief in the healing power of Jesus, especially after they had witnessed Him healing the blind man in chapter 9.
One of our greatest struggles is facing up to the really hard questions in our hearts when sadness comes. “Could God have stopped this from happening? Could He have cured this person’s cancer? Could He have prevented them from dying?”
The answer to all of those questions is a resounding yes, but do we really want to live in this broken world forever? This is not our home, and the time really is coming when these things will pass. That is our great hope, but the truth is that like those questioning Jesus in verse 37, we do not have a complete understanding of God’s timing and purposes.
It’s been said many times, and it is worth repeating: God’s timing is always perfect. Jesus did not arrive too late to help Lazarus. In the most dramatic way possible, He silenced His critics by raising Lazarus from the grave, but even this was not the end of the story. Lazarus’ resurrection would pale into insignificance within days Jesus would go to Jerusalem, and His words in John 10:11 would finally make sense. “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
Some 50 or 60 years after these events, John wrote his first epistle to the Churches in Asia Minor, and he pointed to the cross as the greatest proof of the love of God. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9–10)
Even at the cross, Jesus was not finished, because on the third day He did something greater even than raising Lazarus from the grave. Jesus Himself rose from the dead, our sin having been conquered by His blood and death, as He now becomes to us the resurrection and the life.
This means that we have an even better reason to believe in Jesus’ love for us than Martha and Mary did, because He not only shed His tears, but also His blood for our sins on the cross. If you have ever doubted God’s love for you, look at the cross on which the Prince of Glory died for you.
It’s been almost two thousand years since Jesus died and rose again, and still people are dying and weeping every day, but Jesus continues to minister to His people even now. By His Spirit He indwells those who have put their faith in Him, and He intercedes for us today. Hebrews tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses.” How can we know this? Because Jesus lived, wept and died in this world too.
For us, for now, this life remains uncertain, and we just don’t know what tomorrow holds, but don’t forget the hope you have in Christ. There is a day coming when Jesus’ victory will be complete as He returns in power and glory.
Psalm 126:5 says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!” One day when we finally see Christ face to face, we will be able to echo the words of Psalm 116:8-9 - “You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.”
But let me remind you of Jesus’ question to Martha: “Do you believe this?”
Will you be with Christ in eternity? Will you be there? That is the great question. The question is not whether or not you will weep or die in this world, because we all will. Your only hope of salvation is to repent of your sins and throw yourself at the mercy of God. Do that, and your death will lead you into eternal life, and the tears you shed now will be no more, because God loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die for your sins. Do you believe this?
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 11:17-27
There has been much debate over Martha’s words in verse 21 (see also verse 32) Some see this as a mild (or even strong) rebuke of Jesus for not travelling to Bethany immediately.
What do you think?
Discuss Jesus’ great I AM statement in verses 25 and 26. We hear these words sat every Christian funeral. How do they bring us comfort when facing a) the death of those we love and b), our own death?
The great question is of course, at the end of verse 26.
Discuss Martha’s remarkable statement of faith in her reply. Even though Jesus asked this question nearly 2000 years ago to just one person, how is it also applied to each of us? Jesus’ statement in verse 4.
Most of us know that verse 35 is the shortest verse in the Bible, yet in these two words we are given a wonderful insight into the heart of God.
Jesus knew what He was about to do, yet He wept openly with His friends at a funeral.
What does this tell us about the love of God for us?