John, chapter 11

The more that I study the gospels I see Jesus’ humility. That is His greatest attribute. Yes, He was all-powerful. He had wisdom, strength, courage, conviction, and was sent by God Himself. Still, He never boasted of this. When he stated His credentials, as I like to call them, He stated them merely to say who he was. It was more like a business card than a boast. In every chapter here in the book of John we see Jesus’ humility. That carries over to today in chapter 11, when he performs perhaps His greatest miracle.

We all know the story of Lazarus. He died, but Jesus raised him from the dead in front of everyone. We see the details today that make that story so much better, however. Jesus could have made a number of different choices, such as coming back to Bethany sooner or even acting from a distance, but his choices were made for two purposes. First, He wanted to give maximum glory to God. Second, He wanted to leave little doubt of who He was. These were proven in verse six.

⁴When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." – John 11:4

That is the entire point of this story right there. Lazurus did eventually die again. There are no reports of him still kicking around great Jerusalem. The point of the story was not that Lazurus got a brief reprieve from death. It was to glorify God and prove Jesus’ divinity. We also see that it acted as kind of the final straw for the Pharisees as they began plotting to kill him. In doing so, they failed to recognize God’s glory even though they were the ones who were supposed to recognize it first.