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The Two-Day Wait for Lazarus

The Two-Day Wait for Lazarus: Lordship Over Time and Death ⏳

A Presentation on Sovereignty from John 11

The resurrection of Lazarus is Jesus’s final and most spectacular sign before His passion, serving as a climactic display of His authority over death. However, the story is not simply about power; it is an orchestrated event centered on Jesus’s deliberate delay. Jesus was only two days’ journey from Bethany when He heard Lazarus was sick, yet He waited, confirming His role as the sovereign Master of the calendar and the resurrection.

The Return Question: Why the Delay?

When the message arrived from Martha and Mary, Jesus’s response was immediately revealing:

“When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.“ (John 11:4-6, KJV)

The delay of two full days was not indifference, but divine strategy with theological purpose:

  • The Jewish Belief: Rabbinic tradition held that the soul hovered near the body for three days, giving a limited window for resuscitation. After the fourth day, decay was fully set, and hope for revival was completely abandoned.
  • The Theological Purpose: By delaying until the fourth day, Jesus ensured that the miracle was incontrovertible. It was not a revival from a coma, but a resurrection from certain, putrefying death. His purpose, as He stated, was “for the glory of God.”

The Prophetic Hotspot: “I Am the Resurrection”

When Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus was in the tomb. This led to Jesus’s greatest declarative statement of power and the core meaning of the Lord’s Return:

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26, KJV)

  1. Sovereignty Over Death: The miracle confirms that the power to raise the dead does not come from a future event or an external source; it is inherent in Jesus Christ. He does not give the resurrection; He is it.
  2. Sovereignty Over Time: Jesus demonstrated that He is not bound by the chronological constraints of human expectation. He is Lord of “the day,” setting the time for the miracle to occur when it would bring the greatest glory to the Father.

The entire event is a small-scale demonstration of the Lord’s Return. Just as He commanded Lazarus to come forth after all hope was gone, Christ will command the dead to rise when He appears in glory.