Lazarus of Bethany who was the brother of Mary and her sister Martha was ill. It was Mary who later anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, see Why Judas betrayed Jesus. The sisters sent to him and said: "Lord, he whom you love is ill." When Jesus heard that, he said: "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. When he heard that Lazarus was ill,
he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then he told the disciples to go to Judea again and said to them: "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." Because his disciples didn't understand, he told them clearly: "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." (John 11:1–16).
When Jesus stated that Lazarus' illness didn't lead to death, he was already dead. He would have been in the tomb for four days when Jesus gets there. What Jesus meant is that he would raise him from the dead.
Martha and Mary expected Jesus to come immediately when they sent for him, but he stayed two more days before traveling to them. They didn't expect a delay from a person who loved them so much, but that's what they got. We must understand that Jesus loves us (John 3:16), even when there are delays in the answers of our prayers (Psalm 13). We must trust God even in such situations. The reason why Jesus waited two days is described at time 20:05–21:42 in
John 11:1-27 – Opposed by Grief.
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews
had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha
heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house.
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 from God, God will give you." Jesus said to her: "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him: "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her: "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?" She said to him: "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." (John 11:17–27).
Martha told Jesus that if he had been there in time, Lazarus won't have died. Jesus gives no explanation for his delay. When Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise again, she thinks that he is comforting her and speaking of the general resurrection of the dead that will occur at the end of time, see The Rapture.
Then Martha went and called her sister Mary to come. Jesus hadn't yet entered the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, comforting her, saw Mary get up hastily and go out,
they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 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. Then Jesus asked them: "Where have you laid him?” They said to him: "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said: "See how he loved him!" But some of them said: "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" (John 11:28–37).
Mary also told Jesus that if he had been there in time, Lazarus won't have died. Other Jews also said similar things. Jesus gives no explanation to his delay, but he joins them in their grief. Jesus also wept. Jesus knows that he will raise
Lazarus from the dead in a few minutes, but he is still with them in their mourning. Jesus is groaning and mourning because what the enemy calls death is still having it's course with God's children, we still have perishable bodies.
Jesus who was again deeply moved then came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said: "Take away the stone." Martha said to him: "Lord,
by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her: "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" So they removed the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said: "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I say this on account of the people standing around, so that they may believe that you have sent me."
When he had said these, he called out in a loud voice: "Lazarus, come out."
He then 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." (John 11:38–44).
Lazarus wasn't resurrected, he was revived. When you revive, you will die again. When you resurrect, you never die again. When Jesus resurrected, see
The Resurrection of Jesus, he would never die again. That's why Jesus left his
burial cloths in the tomb. Lazarus didn't.
Martha was a very practical woman who thought about what people woud think about the bad smell due to the decomposition of the dead body. But she accepts to remove the stone because she trusts Jesus and what he will do. Jesus waited for four days to let the decomposition begin, to show that nothing is impossible for God, to show the glory of God. Jesus makes a declaration about who he is by raising
Lazarus after the decomposition has begun. So that they could believe that it was God the Father who had sent him.
Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary had seen what Jesus did and therefore believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. They realized that Jesus did many signs. But were afraid that if they let him go on like this, everyone would believe him, and then the Romans would come and take away both their temple and their nation.
Then one of them named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said: "It is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." He didn't say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. From that day they planned to take his life. (John 11:45–53).
Although Jesus had done this great miracle and many other before them, see
Miracles of Jesus, most of the Jews still didn't believe in him something that Isaiah had prophesied would happen (John 12:37–40, Isa 6:9–10), see also Jesus' Parables. Some people walked away unchanged, see The Rich Man and Lazarus.
This shows that miracles themselves don't necessarily touch the human heart.
It's not just about believing the facts about Jesus. There is also an element of surrendering one's life to Jesus. If a person has chosen not to, it doesn't matter how many miracles they will see, see Casting pearls before swine in The Sermon on the Mount. These kinds of people need to change their hearts before they can admit that a miracle is from God. The problem isn't lack of evidence, the problem is man's unbelief, choosing not to surrender their lives to Jesus.
This great miracle results in that the religious leaders of Sanhedrin having a meeting about how to get rid of Jesus, how they could take his life. Organized religion has probably many times done more to hurt the cause of Christ than to bring people to Christ, see Confronting Meaningless Religion. Christianity is instead about a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, see Salvation.
The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD didn't happen because of the reason that
Sanhedrin feared. The reason for this destruction was the rejection of Jesus by the Jews (Luk 19:41–44, 21:5–6, Mat 23:37–24:2, Mark 13:1–2). The Jews didn't recognize the time of God's coming to them in Jesus Christ.
See also Some stories in the gospels at the bottom of The Four Gospels.
