John 11 Devotional

Stronger Than the Grave

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”John 11:25 (BSB)

When word comes that Lazarus is sick, John tells us something surprising. Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and so he stayed where he was for two more days (11:5-6). By the time he arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days, and both sisters tell him that if he had been there, their brother would not have died (11:21, 32). The delay was not indifference. It was love working toward the glory of God (11:4).

To Martha, Jesus says that he is the resurrection and the life, and he promises life beyond death to all who believe in him (11:25-26). To Mary, he gives his tears. Seeing her weeping, he is deeply moved, and he weeps with them (11:33-35). Then he stands at the tomb and calls Lazarus out by name, and the dead man walks out still wrapped in burial cloths (11:43-44). The one who knows he is about to raise the dead still grieves with the grieving. Your sorrow is not a failure of faith, and his timing is not a lack of love.

To think about: Where does God's timing seem like absence to you right now, and how does Jesus at Lazarus's tomb change how you see it?