Have you ever struggled to relate to the healing miracles in the Gospels? It may seem like an odd question—after all, these miracles confirm Jesus’s identity as the Messiah and the divine Son of God. His healing reveals both his power and compassion. But what if you’re not the one who experiences the miracle?

We lost our precious 11-year-old daughter, Alynnah, four years ago to a rare blood disease called aplastic anemia. In the months after her death, I read John 11 more times than I can count. Though I found comfort in our Savior’s great proclamation, “I am the resurrection and the life,” my heart also ached because we didn’t experience a miracle in the hospital room.

While Lazarus’s resurrection is one of the most amazing stories in the Gospels, Don Carson reminds us that Lazarus was raised to a mortal life; he died again. But John tells the story of Lazarus so we may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and to assure us that Jesus is who he claimed to be (20:31). Let’s consider three aspects of John 11 that comfort those who grieve.

‘He Was Outraged’

The raising of Lazarus is the climax of John’s “Book of Signs” (chap. 1–12) and a foreshadowing of the “Book of Glory” (chap. 13–21) that will culminate in Jesus’s death and resurrection. At the beginning of John 11, Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick. John’s readers are perhaps shocked when Jesus doesn’t immediately travel to Bethany and even says he’s glad he wasn’t there, in order that they’ll believe (v. 15).

When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has already been dead for four days. Lazarus’s sisters are in deep distress. Beyond their grief for their brother, they know that Jesus could’ve prevented his death. But Jesus assures Martha he isn’t just a healer. He is, in the truest sense, a grave robber: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (v. 25). What great hope for the Christian!

The weeping of Martha and the Jews with her prompts a strong emotional response from Christ in verse 33: outrage. Though often translated as “deeply moved,” many scholars agree that the Greek verb here indicates outrage or anger (e.g., HCSB). Therefore, “he was outraged in his Spirit” may be the better translation.

Why was he angry? Some scholars suggest he’s angry at death itself; others suggest his anger is toward the Jews’ unbelief, a major theme in John. Edward Klink suggests both may be in view, while giving more prominence to the first option. Additionally, he argues that Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, embraces the plight of his people and also sees what God sees: the effects of sin and death in the world. Death is unnatural, no matter the person’s age, and Jesus’s disposition toward death is anger, which is wonderful news for us.

‘Jesus Wept’

Many of us proudly memorized John 11:35 in Sunday school—just two words in English. But what does the shortest verse in the Bible teach us about Jesus’s relationship with those who mourn death? Given his outrage in verse 33 and his imminent resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus’s tears aren’t for Lazarus, as George Beasley-Murray observes. Jesus has already said this death is for God’s glory, and in only a few moments, Jesus will be reunited with his friend.

Jesus’s disposition toward death is anger, which is wonderful news for us.

Instead, Jesus weeps because Martha and Mary weep. Though he knows the end of the story, he doesn’t remain emotionally detached from those whose hearts have been shattered. James Hamilton puts it beautifully: “No one knows better than Jesus what is going to happen in this episode. No one is better at mourning with those who mourn than Jesus.”

‘He Has Been Dead Four Days’

While it’s a great comfort that Jesus hates death and grieves with us, we don’t only need sympathy. We need Jesus to do something about death.

When Jesus commands the stone to be rolled away, Martha protests: “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days” (v. 39). While many Jews believed resurrection after four days was both theologically and biologically impossible, four days is no problem for the Creator of the universe.

As Jesus approaches the tomb, he’s outraged once more, again at the idea of death itself. In 1 Kings 18:37, Elijah asks God to act so the people around him would know that the Lord is God. Here, Jesus has already been heard by the Father, but he prays so the people around him would believe (John 11:42). He then shouts, “Lazarus, come out” (v. 43).

The dead man walks out, still wrapped in burial clothes. Jesus’s simple instructions to unwrap him and let him go implies not only that Lazarus was miraculously brought back from the dead but that Jesus’s glory as the Creator is on display in immediately restoring Lazarus’s decayed body.

Lazarus’s resurrection after four days gives us hope for two reasons. First, as Irenaeus wrote long ago, Jesus’s raising of Lazarus prefigures our bodily resurrection. Just as Jesus raises a shout at Lazarus’s tomb, he’ll descend from heaven with a shout, calling all the dead to burst from their graves (1 Thess. 4:16).

Just as Jesus raised a shout at the tomb of Lazarus, he will descend from heaven with a shout, calling all the dead to burst from their graves.

Second, whether someone has recently died (such as the widow’s son at Nain or the daughter of Jairus) or has been in the grave for four days, four decades, or four thousand years, no length of time is an obstacle for Jesus’s resurrection power.

My family will grieve our daughter for the rest of our lives. Grief is messy, and faith is often frail. But we cling to Jesus’s promise that he’s the resurrection and the life and that everyone who believes in him shall never die. Dear reader, I pose the same question Jesus asked Martha in response to this truth: Do you believe this?