Unbind Him (John 11:38–44)

John 11

A Link to John 11 (ESV)

Unbind Him (11:38–44)

When Ezekiel stood in the valley of dry bones, God commanded him to prophesy breath into the slain (Ezek 37:9). Bones rattled, flesh appeared, and a large multitude rose to their feet. It was a vision of national restoration, with the entire house of Israel raised from exile and despair (37:11). But it remained just a vision. By the time Jesus arrives at a sealed tomb outside Bethany, the vision is about to turn into a voice.

The Lazarus story is found only in John; it’s missing from all three Synoptic Gospels. When Jesus gets to the tomb, he tells the people to remove the stone. Martha protests:

“Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39).

Four days were significant in the Jewish understanding of death. Hope had not just dimmed; it had vanished. Jesus responds by highlighting the glory of God (11:40) and prays aloud, not for himself but for the crowd watching (11:42). They need to grasp that what follows comes from the Father.

Then he calls out with a loud voice (φωνῇ μεγάλῃ):

“Lazarus, come out.” (11:43)

And Lazarus comes. But he emerges still bound, his hands, feet, and face wrapped in grave linens (11:44). (Notably, this is not the case when Jesus is raised.) Lazarus is alive but not yet free. The miracle requires one more command. Jesus speaks it:

“Unbind him, and let him go.” (11:44)

Death had bound him, and Jesus releases him. The one who declared himself the resurrection and the life (11:25) doesn’t merely restore a pulse; he undoes the grip of death entirely and sends Lazarus back into the world free from his death clothes.

John doesn’t allow the reader to linger. The sign immediately triggers the Sanhedrin’s decision to put Jesus to death (11:53). The one who opens tombs will soon enter one. But he enters it as the one who commands graves, not as one ruled by them. What Ezekiel saw as a vision of scattered bones slowly gathering, Jesus performs as a living voice at a sealed stone. And the command he speaks over Lazarus, he intends to speak over all who are his.

On the last great Easter Day, the Lord will say to death about all of us, “Unbind them, and let them go.”

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Even Now (11:17–27)

In the Book of Common Prayer 2019, the burial liturgy offers several options for the Gospel reading. They are all good, but my top choice is by far John 11:21-27. I am always struck by how Martha speaks to Jesus.

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (11:21–22).

I love her belief that Jesus’s presence would bring healing, but even more, I cherish those two words: “even now.” Even now, despite this loss, despite this tragedy, despite death, she knows the story isn’t over. She understands death doesn’t get to have the final say in her brother’s life because Jesus has finally arrived. His presence changes everything. 

Jesus then says that Lazarus will rise again, which Martha takes as a reference to the typical first-century Jewish belief in a general resurrection, showing how widespread this belief was. Jesus clearly has something else in mind.

It’s important to note that the Jewish belief in resurrection was primarily a collective belief rather than an individual one. It was something God would do for everyone (or at least the children of Abraham) on the last great day. The concept of an individual resurrection outside of that collective event doesn’t seem to have come into anyone’s mind.

Jesus responds to Martha:

“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?” (11:25–26).

This is a notable statement for several reasons. First, it references the divine name as Jesus begins with the words ἐγώ εἰμι, “I am.” Second, Jesus claims to be the resurrection and the life, and as I have said elsewhere, the order is unexpected. As ἐγώ εἰμι, he was part of the creative process. All things were made “through him,” so he is the life of the world, and he embodies this life so completely, thoroughly, and strongly that when faced with death, he is also “the resurrection.” Resurrection is the ultimate affirmation of life—and also of the goodness of creation.

Third, there is the remarkable claim that anyone who believes in him shall never die, even as Lazarus lies dead in the tomb. Earlier, Jesus said that Lazarus had “fallen asleep” (11:11), a phrase Paul also uses to describe death. I interpret Jesus to mean that those who believe in him will never truly experience death, meaning they will have no conscious awareness of it.

Fourth, and maybe most importantly, there’s the question: “Do you believe this?” Knowing what Jesus said and did matters, but the key question is still “Do you believe this?”