11:23,24
Remember back in chapter 4 how Jesus drew out faith from the Samaritan woman, leading her from her current understanding to a new level of understanding. He now does the same with Martha. He declares that her brother would rise again. Now Martha believed this, she held to the same view that the Pharisees had that the dead would rise on the last day. In this she was correct, but Jesus wanted to take her further. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees did not. We may think that we believe the truths of the gospel, and what we do believe may well be true as far as it goes, but the implications and the reality are far greater and far deeper than we ever imagine. All of us need to go deeper in our faith.
See also that the future event of the resurrection has immediate consequences, it impacts the present. We have a tendency to shove things to the last day, thinking they will not impact today. This is not Biblical thinking. We know that Lazarus was going to be raised that day.
At the same time we need to avoid the other extreme. The gospel is not about raising people from physical death today. Lazarus was raised, but raised back to his former state. When we are raised on the last day (or transformed if we are still alive at the time) we will be given new bodies, we will be raised immortal (1 Cor 15:42-44). Now there will still be times when people are raised from the dead as Lazarus was. There are incidents in Acts when this happens, and there are isolated incidents when it still does happen (though not every claim in this area is true!), but it is not the focus.
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