On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days — the detail that four days have passed is significant: in Jewish thought, death was considered final after three days, when decomposition made resurrection obviously impossible. Lazarus's four-day death removes any possibility that this will be a resuscitation of someone merely unconscious or in a death-like trance; this is genuine death, making the coming resurrection unmistakably miraculous.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse