(Read John 11)
Legendary high school basketball coach Morgan Wooten set a record for 1,274 wins in his 46-year career. At the time of his retirement, that was a benchmark no other coach could claim. Aside from putting DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, on the map, he is also well known for a very simple quote.
“You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going.”
Upon researching his career stats, I found that his teams only amassed 192 losses. So, there must have been a lot of learning from those experiences. Losing teaches humility more effectively than any strategy, training, or preparation. It can be a slap in the face. I had trained very hard for my fourth marathon in Baltimore and greatly overestimated the specifics of the course. I was cruising, 1 minute 30 seconds per mile faster than my training pace, for 13 miles. Then, my body ran out of gas. I had to walk-run for the remainder of the race and finished with the worst time of any marathons. By no means was it the end of the world or a milestone in my life, but there was a big lesson in that experience that I’ll never forget.
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.”
John 11:1-3
In John 11, the narrative of Lazarus’ resurrection serves as a potent demonstration of Jesus’ divine authority over life and death, exposing a complex interplay of emotions, including grief, doubt, hope, and awe. More than just a miracle story, it’s a profound revelation of Jesus’ identity and a wake-up call to examine our beliefs of the eternal hope He offers through the resurrection. God wants us to see many sides of Jesus’ teaching through the Gospel writer. I often focus on one particular idea when reading the Bible because that’s how my mind processes things, but God’s Word offers a wealth of other revelations. Sometimes, we miss these deeper truths, and sometimes we aren’t yet prepared to receive them.
Lazarus’ illness shows to be more than a physical issue; it became a vehicle for God’s glory. When Mary and Martha informed Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick,” their words, while expressing love and a belief in Jesus’ ability to heal, subtly reduced him to the level of a physician rather than recognizing his divine nature. While their plea was sincere and hopeful, similar to His mother Mary’s at Cana, it revealed a limited understanding of Jesus’ purpose and the significance of God’s timing. When we pray to Him, we often ask for healing, wisdom, and patience. We ask for intervention and sometimes throw in, “Oh yeah if it’s Your will.”
I’m probably not alone in saying that my life’s trials often reveal how I bury my faith in God’s perfect timing beneath my desires. The God who spoke the stars into existence understands order far better than I. During a difficult period in college, I considered following my father, uncle, and grandfather’s footsteps into the Navy. My dad wisely suggested I finish the school year before making any decisions. He knew me better than I did. He’d been there, and though not divine, he possessed a broader perspective and understanding of time than I did.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”
John 11:5-8
The more I meditate on this passage, the more I’m filled with awe for Christ and a touch of amusement at my occasional blindness to the obvious truth. What we will come to learn and should already know is that Jesus isn’t always motivated by the same things that inspire you and me. Lazarus being ill was secondary to Jesus’ work that day. His two-day delay highlights that Jesus’ actions are not dictated by human urgency or expectations. His divine purpose and timing are perfect, even when it doesn’t align with ours.
The disciples, understandably concerned for Jesus’ safety, forgot a fundamental truth: Jesus has a perfect plan for everything. There are no missteps in his divine actions. Their reaction to his decision to return to Judea, where the Jewish leaders had recently sought to stone him, portrayed a mixture of fear and a lack of understanding. It’s a very human response we often replay in our lives. They were fixated on the potential danger, while Jesus, with his eternal perspective, remained focused on his greater, divinely ordained purpose. This incident reminds us that our limited understanding contradicts God’s infinite wisdom.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
[But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:21-26
Martha and Mary knew Jesus could heal Lazarus. They knew his love for their brother. Yet, Jesus delayed. This passage goes beyond its historical context, revealing a timeless truth about faith and God’s purposes. Like us, Martha and Mary struggle to see beyond immediate circumstances. Martha’s lament, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” echoes the “what ifs” that plague us in moments of grief and loss. It’s a sentiment deeply familiar to our experience. But Jesus’ response offers a turning point: “Your brother will rise again.”
Jesus’ statement foreshadowed his coming miracle with Lazarus and, more importantly, his own resurrection. Martha, however, understood his words in the context of the general resurrection at the end of time. While she grasped the concept of future hope, she missed the reality of Jesus’ divine power in front of her. Martha’s preconceived notions blinded her to Jesus’ true nature. Through her loss, she came to see Jesus not just as a healer but as the resurrection and the life, gaining a profound understanding she had never had before.
We often impose our timelines on God’s plans, obscuring the deeper significance he intends us to see. Martha understood resurrection as an event; Jesus revealed it as a person. Martha saw victory over death as a future hope; Jesus demonstrated it as a current reality.
Then, Jesus drops the timeless fifth “I AM” claim. “I am the resurrection and the life.” It is not merely a statement about the future. He doesn’t just talk about “the life”; He actually is the [only] way, the [only] truth, and the [only] life. We don’t want advice when we’re suffering or dying; we want compassion and a solution. We want a solution we can touch and trust and lean on this is In offering himself, the very source of life, Jesus makes a profound point: he’s not giving us a philosophical concept to ponder but a person to embrace. And in entering our suffering, he demonstrates that he’s not a distant observer but an Emmanuel—God with us.
Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
John 11:40-44
The miracle that follows is undeniable. Lazarus, dead for four days, emerges from the tomb, still bound by his burial clothes. This is not just resuscitation; it is resurrection. It is a demonstration of Jesus’ absolute power over death. The story of Lazarus is about a God who is life. It’s about the hope that transcends death, found in Jesus Christ. It’s a call to believe in the present reality of Jesus as the resurrection and the life.
Jesus offers not just the promise of eternal life but the reality of it, beginning now. This is a declaration of God’s absolute, necessary, and infinite existence—the very definition of God: the One who “just is,” who “must be.” When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” He claimed to be the source of both. There is no resurrection apart from Christ and no eternal life apart from him.
Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, time has proven an insurmountable obstacle. In effect, Martha, in essence, was saying, “It’s too late for Lazarus; we must now wait for the resurrection at the end of time.” Jesus demonstrates that neither death nor time is a barrier to him. Outside the tomb, Satan and the ravages of time hold sway, but the empty tomb shatters time. Jesus breaks the chains of death’s restraints.
Previously, I would read Jesus’s “I AM the Resurrection and the life” statement without fully grasping its significance. Without belief, it’s just a cool statement. In this chapter of John’s Gospel, “believe” is used nine times. “Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”. Do You Believe This?
In other words, “Martha, listen, death is not the end.” We should live on
promises not explanations, and we shouldn’t spend too much time asking why.
Greg Laurie
Key Application:
- Do you believe this? Jesus asks each of us this question, which demands a response. Will we place our faith in the one who conquered death and offers us eternal life? Will we embrace the truth that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, not just for Lazarus but for all who believe?