Listen to Jesus’ amazing claims:
For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will (John 5:21).
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted [given] the Son also to have life in himself (John 5:26).
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26).
Jesus asked this last question of a friend named Martha. Her brother Lazarus had died four days before, while Jesus was away. Knowing Jesus’ power, she, like her weeping sister, Mary, could not understand why her brother had been allowed to die. This sorrow moved the spirit of Jesus deeply.
“Jesus wept [cried]” (John 11:35).
Then Jesus came to the cave where Lazarus was buried. He ordered people to remove the grave’s stone cover. They obeyed, though they knew that the smell would be bad.
When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound [wrapped] with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind [unwrap] him, and let him go” (John 11:43-44).
Jesus had also raised others from death (Luke 7:11-17; 8:41-46). Many had been present and had spread the news. Now many more became followers because of the raising of Lazarus. The Jewish leaders feared they were losing their place of power over the people. They planned to kill both Jesus and the evidence of His power, the living Lazarus (John 11:47-52; 12:10). If they had thought more clearly, they would have realized that if Jesus raised Lazarus once, He could raise him again. If Jesus could raise the dead, then He could keep Himself safe from any enemy.