Day 1071: The voice of Jesus - John 11 vs 38 - 46

38-39 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

41-42 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43-44 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” 45-46 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. John 11:38-46 English Standard Version

Martha and Mary, two sisters from a village called Bethany, had sent Jesus an urgent request for help as their brother Lazarus was seriously ill. Jesus hadn't responded immediately, and by the time He got to them, Lazarus had died. In fact, he'd already been in the tomb for four days. Today's verses describe the miraculous event that followed after Jesus prayed to His Father, and then called Lazarus, by name, to come out of the tomb. To the amazement of all, the man who'd died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. John says that, as a result of this, many of the Jews who'd come with Mary and seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.

How appropriate to reach this part of John's Gospel just a few days after Easter weekend 2025. The raising of Lazarus from the tomb by Jesus would soon be followed by Jesus' own burial and resurrection! What was Martha's concern when Jesus asked for the stone covering the tomb to be taken away? (vs 38-39)

She knew that corruption would've already set in. That's the inevitable result of death. But a thousand years earlier, King David made a bold statement about death and corruption. He said: “My flesh dwells secure - for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption”. (Psalm 16:9-10) That's why the apostle Paul was later able to preach that, after Jesus' crucifixion, He was also laid in a tomb . “But“, said Paul, “God raised Him from the dead. He whom God raised up did not see corruption.” (Acts 13:29, 37)

It's interesting also to note the difference in the grave wrappings. Lazarus was still wrapped in linen strips and a cloth, and Jesus gave instructions for him to be loosed. But of Jesus we're told that, when the disciples Peter and John heard that the tomb of Jesus was empty, they ran to it. “Simon Peter came, following John, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths (that Jesus had been wrapped with) lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.” (John 20:6-7) It was a divine hand that raised Jesus. As Paul said: “God raised Him up!”

Perhaps the greatest significance of this event is what the apostle Paul later wrote, and what Jesus Himself had said earlier in this gospel. Just as Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb with 'a loud voice', so Paul spoke of a day when “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16)

In John 5:28-29 we read that Jesus said: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement.” But that physical resurrection must be preceded by a spiritual one. Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25) It's only those who have responded to the voice of Jesus, as passed down in God's word, who will come forth one day to the wonderful resurrection of life.