The death and resurrection of Lazarus remains one of the most unexpected and confusing pieces of the Christian Bible, yet the story continues to be a source of inspiration to believers dealing with the death of a loved one– and it also supplements countless Christian funeral sermons. What about Chapter 11 of the Gospel of John keeps believers coming back to it, and how did such a personal account of Jesus even emerge?

Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” – The New Revised Standard Version, John: 11: 30-44

Christopher N. Mount, an associate professor of early Christianity at DePaul University, told Life Matters Media it is significant that the raising of Lazarus is depicted within John, probably the latest and most philosophical of the four New Testament gospels. “The Gospel of John is dated about 90 to 100 c.e. We don’t know who wrote it, but church tradition attributed the gospels to apostles to help increase their authority. But none of the gospels identify themselves as having been written by apostles, a number of them, including the Gospel of John were actually written anonymously,” he said. Mount added that John has layers of composition– showing the text took shape over a period of time with various contributors. The Fourth Gospel also contains stories not found in the synoptic gospels– Mark, Mathew and Luke.

I think the verse shows a God who is present, a God that experiences what we do– even if it is in a small little way.

The story of Lazarus is about life and death, Mount added. “The issue becomes how does John deal with life and death, particularly in comparison to the synoptic gospels. A major difference is that John explicitly identifies Jesus as a divine being who descended to earth and will return to where he came from after his death,” Mount said. For example, the gospel begins with John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the synoptic gospels, Jesus is instead depicted as a Jewish peasant who becomes a prophetic figure and eventually a divine figure upon his resurrection.

“That difference expresses itself in the development of Christianity in terms of what can be called gnosticism: the myth of a savior figure from the heavens, entering into this world to bring knowledge to individuals who are trapped in darkness,” Mount added. “John is part of religious ideas that developed into gnosticism. Most scholars would argue that gnosticism in the developed form we see in the second century didn’t exist when John was written.” When it comes to Lazarus, Mount said John plays around with life and death, and that believing in Jesus allows one to transcend both. Jesus weeping after his spirit is disturbed is probably not about the physical death, but is instead about the failure of those around him to understand the truth of existence and his message. Lazarus becomes a sort-of parable.

According to Mount, many modern Christians may interpret the story of Lazarus and Jesus as showing Jesus identifying with the suffering of humanity. “You have the family grieving over the loss of a brother, and so the story goes to the fundamental suffering that human beings experience at the loss of a loved one,” he said.

And Pastor Rob Zahn, M.Div., said John 11: 35– “Jesus wept” – usually translated as the shortest verse in the Christian Bible– also begs the question of whether or not Jesus had to cry. “Is there deeper meaning in it? Does God cry? Does the creator of all things…cry? I think that is the question brought forward with that short little verse,” the pastor of Spirit Alive Church in Pleasant Prairie, WI, told Life Matters Media.

“I think the verse shows a God who is present, a God that experiences what we do– even if it is in a small little way. It may even be the reason for grace, unconditional love. Maybe unconditional love and acceptance come directly from some sort of cosmic understanding of what it means to be human,” Zahn added.