The Monday Main Line
Because of his death and resurrection, belief in Jesus is the only route to eternal life, Jesus will go to great lengths to help us see how crucial it is we believe in him.
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I woke up with a start. My phone was ringing—again. Twelve missed calls from my wife, Morag. The night before, she had taken our middle son to the hospital “just to get checked out.” We weren’t too worried but now it was morning, and they weren’t back, and I’d slept through the first twelve calls. When I finally answered, I heard the awful news - our son was in intensive care with meningitis. I have never gotten out of bed so quickly. Everything else stopped. When someone you love is gravely ill, you don’t delay—you go.
And that’s what makes John 11 so surprising. Jesus gets that kind of call: “Lord, the one you love is sick.” (John 11:3) Lazarus, his dear friend, is dying. And yet—Jesus waits. Two whole days.
By the time he arrives, Lazarus has been dead and buried for four days. Everyone knows he’s too late.
Why would Jesus delay? Why let those he loves go through that pain?
John is very clear—it’s not through lack of love - “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” (John 11:5–6)
That little word so is key. Because he loved them, he delayed. Jesus wasn’t being careless; he was doing something for their greater good—something that would reveal his glory and cause them to believe.
It would have taken something of extraordinary important to keep me from our son’s bedside. Like for Jesus with this loved-one Lazarus. Can you therefore see how important it is to Jesus that we come to believe in him?
When Jesus finally arrives, both Martha and Mary greet him with the same lament: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21, 32) They know he could have healed Lazarus.
Standing at the tomb, Jesus says, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40) Then he prays aloud so that everyone will understand what’s happening: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me… I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11:41–42)
And then, with a loud voice, he calls, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man walks out—still wrapped in grave clothes.
This isn’t resuscitation. It’s recreation. The Creator himself—“through whom all things were made” (John 1:3)—takes what was fast decaying to dust and breathes life into it again. Jesus isn’t performing good medicine; he’s doing what only God can do.
That’s the first thing we learn here: Jesus is the Creator.
The second is even more personal: Jesus is the answer to death.
In verse 25, Jesus makes one of the most extraordinary claims in all of Scripture:
“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
He doesn’t just give life—he is life. That’s why belief in him matters so deeply. Because one day, every one of us will face death. And no amount of good deeds, church attendance, or moral effort can get us through it. Only Jesus can.
Martha understands something of this. When Jesus asks, “Do you believe this?” she replies, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” (John 11:27) Her confession of faith becomes the gateway to understanding what’s really happening—not just for Lazarus, but for all who believe.
In the end this story doesn’t end at Lazarus’ tomb—it points ahead to another tomb, and another resurrection. Jesus himself will die, be buried, and rise again.
That famous evangelist, Billy Graham once said,
“Christ has risen from the dead! And because He lives, we who know Him shall live also. All over the world churches are filled… because there is an empty tomb in Jerusalem.”
Talk Headings
1. Following this Amazing Story
2. Making Sense of this Amazing Story
a) Jesus is the Creator
b) Jesus is the Answer to death (because...)
c) Jesus himself will be raised
Series: John: The you May Believe
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