Lazarus & a Vital Lesson in the Love of Jesus

ARTICLE • “If Jesus really loves me, he will….” How do you complete the sentence? For Martha and Mary, the test of Jesus’ love was whether or not he would heal their brother, Lazarus. Jesus exposed their short-sighted assumptions by letting Lazarus die, so they could learn that Christ is no mere means to our ends in life—he is the Source and Substance of life itself.

Read time: 9 min

Many Christians will recognize the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This was the seventh and final proof in John’s gospel that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah. Our response should be one of faith in Christ (John 20:30–31).

However, there’s more to Lazarus’ story than a powerful sign evoking faith. It’s meant to evoke love for Jesus that supersedes our love for what we might get out of him. It’s a story about painful sanctification and serves as a poignant lesson for us all—a lesson in how we think about his love for us. I’ll call it the “lesson of Lazarus” that we all must learn.

Jesus Loves

The apostle John sets up the story in John 11 by emphasizing the deep love Jesus had for three adult siblings: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. John 11 mentions Jesus' love for the trio three times (vv. 3, 5, 36).

Lazarus had fallen ill, and his sisters had sent word to Jesus, who was staying two days' journey away. Given the love of Jesus for them, the stage is set for a heartwarming story of timely, miraculous healing. Or so one would expect.

Jesus’ Love Delays Deliverance

But instead of hurrying to heal Lazarus—or even healing him from afar, as he had done for others—Jesus delayed two full days before slowly making his way to Bethany, a little town just east of Jerusalem where Martha, Mary, and Lazarus lived.

John 11:5–6 comes as a shock to John’s readers:

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”

Jesus’ delay is shocking not only because John had emphasized Jesus’ love for them but because John explicitly said that it was Jesus’ love that moved him to delay!

Due to Jesus’ delay, Lazarus dies. Having healed many others, and even having raised a stranger from the dead on another occasion (Luke 7), Jesus clearly did not ‘come through’ for his dear friends in their dire moment of need. Or did he?

Jesus speaks directly to this palpable question in John 11:14-15:

“Then Jesus told them plainly, 'Lazarus has died, and for your sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.'”

Jesus’ Love Exposes Deficits

When Jesus arrives, we hear the mourners’ errant assumptions about Jesus’ love:

Martha: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21).

Mary: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32).

Friends: “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” (John 11:36–37).

However much these sisters loved and trusted in Jesus, they underestimated the aim of Jesus’ love. They saw him as a divine means to their personal ends. Sure, they cared for him, respected him, trusted him. But in their spiritual immaturity, he was to them largely someone who loved them enough to give them whatever they felt they needed.

Lazarus's death and their dashed confidence that Jesus would prevent it proved they did believe in Jesus. They truly trusted Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, who could heal anyone instantly (John 11:27). However, their faith—like ours—was alloyed, imperfect, and in the process of refinement (1 Pet 1:6–7). Jesus’ love aimed to melt out the dross in their faith.

When Martha confessed that she knew her brother would one day rise again on the last day, Jesus's response is most telling. He needed her to see that he was not merely a means to one’s future resurrection—Jesus is the Resurrection, the Source and Substance of life itself (Col 3:4)!

Jesus Doesn’t Just Give Life, He Is Life

Our Lord’s words, and John's main point in the passage, are this:

“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. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26).

Jesus, in effect, says: “Martha, I’m not a means to your ends; I am not here mainly to make your life comfortable or to give you what you want; I’m not merely a raiser of the dead. Martha, I am the Resurrection and the Life.”

Though Martha's faith already rested in her Lord, Jesus had work to do on her faith, to bring her to see him more clearly for who he is. He’s not primarily our savior from pain, our problem-solver, our matchmaker, our healthcare provider, our peace-joy-and-hope-giver. Though Jesus can and often does provide all these things and so much more, he is never a mere means to our ends.

To the degree we see Jesus as a means to what we really need (hear “want”), he may, in love, withhold from us that very thing until we see that he—who is supremely valuable—is our greatest need. We need not merely the resurrection he alone can provide, we need him, who is the Resurrection and the Life.

Jesus Reclaims Hearts for Himself

Many of us know the rest of the story. Moments later, Jesus walks to Lazarus’ tomb and calls the dead forth from his grave. In love, he had withheld a timely provision to not only test their trust but refine it, to beautify it. As much as they could see, they still needed their eyes ‘washed with tears,’ their vision of Jesus matured.

And in that same love, he mercifully gave them what they had deeply wanted all along. But now they had learned to see their wants as subordinate to the treasure they had already in Christ himself, who could never be taken from them or us.

Today, dear reader, what longed-for treasure is Jesus withholding from you, until you come to see him as your end-all-be-all treasure?

If Jesus really loves us, he will… do whatever it takes to reclaim our hearts for himself. ❖