John 11:25

The Fifth Verse

The Context

• Takes place after they have begun wanting to arrest Him and accuse Him of blaspheming and in the midst of His greatest and final miracle

• In verse 6, we notice that even though He found out Lazarus was sick He stayed longer and Martha laments this in verse 21

  • “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

• We notice sleep being used by Jesus as an image of death in verse 11-13

• Since this statement accompanies Jesus’ most noteworthy miracle which demonstrates its truth we will examine much of the passage

Leading up to the Verse

• Jesus enters boldly on the scene

  • Martha reveals her faith in Jesus’s Power to Heal and even Resurrect (verses 21-22)

  • Jesus then foretells Lazarus’ resurrection, and Martha misunderstands believing He means at the end of time instead of in a few moments (verses 23-24)

  • Jesus boldly makes His statement (verses 25-26)

  • Jesus invites Martha to witness to her faith to emphasize the point and she does one better by recognizing Him as the messiah(verses 26-27)

  • Martha must have knew something was going to happen because she wants to make sure Mary is there and interestingly claims that Jesus called her without it being recounted by the Gospel (verses 28)

How the story develops

• Mary waists no time in finding Jesus and He seemingly does not move so that Mary could find Him, but there may have been other reasons as well (verse 30)

  • Sometimes Christ invites us to not be preoccupied with where we are but asks for us to come to Him even in the midst of trial

  • We sometimes naturally bring those around us to Christ as well, especially in our trials (Verse 31)

• Upon seeing Jesus, Mary came to the same conclusion as Martha and expressed the hurt that they had even though they knew Jesus could have been there and because they knew He would always choose life (verse 32)

  • Jesus cares for our emotional state and shares in it (verses 33, 35; cf. 5)

  • Those with them were also emotional messes and also lament Jesus’ apparent lack of action (verse 33)

• Jesus uses the same words Mary used when she found Jesus’ empty tomb (Verse 34, cf. John 20:13-15)

  • It is also interesting that Mary saw two resurrections in her lifetime

    • Further, Jesus was present at both

• The Jews are astonished about how much Jesus willed Lazarus’ good and Christ’s weeping (Verse 36)

• Some still took the position Mary and Martha had with less understanding, echoing those who mocked Him on the cross (thinking they know the power of God and how it ought to work, cf. Mark 15:29-30, 36), and providing the perfect punchline before God acts(verse 37).

  • The Greek form of the question assumes “yes”

The Miracle

• At this they arrive at the tomb, and Jesus seemingly continues to respond as a human does with the crowd in remembrance of Lazarus (verse 38)

• Still not fully connecting the dots it seems Martha responds with a valid concern knowing the stench was present when they closed it (verse 39)

• Jesus responds with assurance and a conditional statement (verse 40)

• He then says a prayer as much to the Father as for His audience (verses 41-42)

• The Miracle happens and Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb (verse 43)

  • This also testified to the fact He was dead since contact with dead bodies would mean He would have to be away from others for 7 days (Numbers 19:11; 31:19, Leviticus 21:11)

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Implications

CCC 548

• “The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. But his miracles can also be occasions for "offence"; they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic. Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons.” 

CCC 993-996

• The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, "Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in God who "is not God of the dead, but of the living."

• But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah," the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.

CCC 993-996

• To be a witness to Christ is to be a "witness to his Resurrection," to "[have eaten and drunk] with him after he rose from the dead." Encounters with the risen Christ characterize the Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise like Christ, with him, and through him.

• From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension and opposition. "On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body." It is very commonly accepted that the life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting life?

Thomas Aquinas says this belief helps us:

• By removing sadness caused by the death of others

• By removing the fear of death

• By giving a concrete reason to pursue virtue and participate in works of mercy and generosity

• By drawing us away from evil

CCC 1015

• “The flesh is the hinge of salvation" We believe in God who is the creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh; we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, the fulfillment of both the creation and the redemption of the flesh.

Additional Background

Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and Jesus thoroughly contradicts them

• Matthew 22:29

• Ezekiel 37:1-14

• Daniel 12:2-3

• 2 Maccabees 7