John 11: 11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Jesus speaks about the death of Lesbos 11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Jesus spoke about the death of a Lazarus as if he had fallen asleep. We fear physical death because for us it is the end of our natural life as we know it, however in the eyes of God it is simply falling asleep. We do not need to fear death because we have a saviour who has conquered death. This is what makes Christianity so different from any other religion, we serve a God who has risen from the dead. The disciples as usual took everything completely literally and so they asked Jesus if they should go and wake the Lazarus? Jesus therefore had to explain to them that in fact the Lazarus was dead.
Jesus really shows his amazing compassion when he says in the first 15 that he is glad that he was not there because he knows that if he had been there he would not have allowed on Lazarus to die and therefore none of the disciples would have seen how Jesus could raise people from the dead. We serve a saviour who is very compassionate and very caring and concerned with every part of our life and our well-being. We know that when Jesus got to the tomb he wept even though he knew that he would raise Lazarus from the dead, I believe that he wept because of the concern and distress that everyone else was in over Lazarus.