The Resurrection of Lazarus

Jesus heard that his friend Lazarus was sick.  Two days later, he told his disciples:  "Lazarus our friend has gone to rest, but I am journeying there to awaken him from his sleep."  The disciples did not understand what Jesus meant, so he said plainly:  "Lazarus has died."  When Jesus finally came to Lazarus' tomb, the man had been dead for four days.  Still, Jesus ordered that the stone sealing the tomb's entrance be taken away.  Then he cried out:  "Lazarus, come on out!"   At that, something wonderful happened.  "The man that had been dead came out with his feet and hands bound with wrappings, and his countenancfe was bound about with a cloth.  Jesus said to them: 'Loose him and let him go.' " -John 11:5, 6, 11-14, 43, 44.

Clearly, this was not reincarnation.  Jesus said that the dead Lazarus was sleeping, unconscious. As the Bible expresses it, 'his thoughts had perished.'   He was 'conscious of nothing at all! (Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5)  The resurrected Lazarus was not a different person with  a reincarnated spirit.  he had the same personality , was of the same age, and had the same memories.   (he was only 4 days dead, but still, the Bible says, we will not remember who our loved ones are, I have read the Bible, both the King James Version and the New World Translations word for word,  and with the exception of a few slightly different words that mean the same thing, the meaning is still the same)   He resumed his life where he had prematurely left it and returned to the loved ones who had mourned his death. -John 12:1, 2.

Later, Lazarus died again. So, what purpose did his resurection serve?  Along with the other resurrections Jesus performed, it reinforces our trust in God's promise  that his faithful servants will be raised from the dead in His due time.  Those miracles of Jesus add powerful weight  to his words:  "I am the resurrection, the truth and the life and he that exercises faithin me, even  though he dies, will have everlasting life." -John 11:25.

Regarding that future resurrection, Jesus said: "The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear[my] voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment." (John 5:28, 29)  As was the case with Lazarus, that will be a resurrection of dead people. It will not be a reuniting of conscious spirits with resurrected bodies that have decomposed and may even have been absorbed into other living organisms.  Resurrecting the dead is well within the capacity of the Creator of heaven and earth, who is infinite in wisdom and power.

Does not the doctine of the resurrection as taught by Jesus Christ, reveal God's deep love of humans as individuals?  But what about the second question mentioned earlier?

Next time: What is the Reason for Suffering?

The Watchtower, 2001