It is important to realise that Lazarus was brought back to life – he was not resuscitated. This is not the same as resurrection, which in Scripture means a person being brought back to life in a brand-new body! Lazarus would have had to go through death again at some later stage. However, his being brought back to life is a revelation of the power of Jesus over life and death and is an intimation of the resurrection life that will be ours once the death and resurrection of Jesus himself has occurred.
There are a few things that stand out in John’s account of the raising of Lazarus. In the first place, after hearing of the sickness of Lazarus, Jesus delayed his visit by a few days – was he waiting for Lazarus to die precisely so that he could reveal his authority of death? This appears to have been Jesus’ intention, and the conversation with Lazarus’ sisters would seem to confirm this. Jesus wanted to encourage them to look towards him as the source of life and resurrection.
The second thing that stands out is the profound concern and even distress of Jesus. There is mention also of a deep sigh that ‘came straight from the heart’. On the one hand, we are seeing here the profound concern of Jesus over the state of the human race. It was through the fall of humanity, and their sin, that people fell under the power of death. However, this does not simply mean physical death. The human race also became spiritually dead, cut off from God, and held in some sort of bondage to the Evil One. It was precisely from this condition that Jesus came into our world to deliver and redeem us.
At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus entered a confrontation with the Evil One himself. In that battle, Jesus claimed Lazarus back from the hold the enemy had over him. The whole event is an anticipation of Jesus’ own death & resurrection. By dying Jesus broke the enemy’s hold over humanity, and by rising established a new life and existence for us all.
