Day 27 – Coming back from death

John 11:17-44

So when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to see Martha and Mary, to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house. Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t 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 again.”

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will still live, even if they die. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here and he’s calling you.” When she heard this, Mary got up quickly and went to him.

Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary getting up quickly and going out, they followed her, thinking she was going to the tomb to weep there.

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled in himself, and said, “Where have you laid him?”

They told him, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus wept.

So the Jews said, “Look how much he loved him!” Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have also kept this man from dying?”

Deeply moved again, Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now he stinks, for he has been dead for four days.”

Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see God’s glory?”

So they took away the stone. 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 because of the crowd standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The man who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face with a burial cloth.

Jesus said to them, “Untie him, and let him go.”

For reflection

Think about what people expected and wanted from Jesus before he arrived, and how he brought life beyond all expectations here. How do you feel about this?