The Three Resurrections and Their Meaning

The Three Dead Persons Raised by Christ

1. The miracles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ make an impression on all who hear of and believe them, but they affect different people in different ways. Some are amazed at the miracles He performed on human bodies, yet have no insight to discern the greater miracles. Others, however, admire the more complete fulfillment in people's souls today of those things they hear were performed on bodies.

The Lord Himself says, "For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He will" (John 5:21). This doesn't mean, of course, that the Son gives life to some and the Father to others. Rather, the Father and Son give life to the same people, for the Father does all things through the Son.

Let no Christian doubt that even now the dead are being raised. Everyone has eyes to see dead people rise again in the way that the widow's son rose, as we just read in the Gospel. But not everyone has the eyes to see those who are dead in heart rise again—only those who have already experienced resurrection in their own hearts. It's a greater miracle to raise someone who will live forever than to raise someone who will die again.

2. The widowed mother rejoiced when her young son was raised; Mother Church rejoices daily when people are raised in spirit. The young man was dead in body, but the others are dead in soul. His visible death was visibly mourned, while their invisible death was neither recognized nor perceived. The Lord sought out those whom others knew to be dead, but He alone knew those who were spiritually dead—He alone who could make them alive.

If the Lord had not come to raise the spiritually dead, the Apostle would not have said, "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Ephesians 5:14). You hear of someone sleeping in the words, "Awake, you who sleep," but understand it as referring to someone dead when you hear, "Arise from the dead."

Those who are physically dead are often described as being asleep. And certainly they are merely asleep in relation to Him who can awaken them. From your perspective, a dead person is truly dead, since you cannot wake them no matter how you beat, prick, or tear at them. But in relation to Christ, the one to whom He said "Arise" was merely asleep, for he got up immediately. No one can awaken someone from bed as easily as Christ can from the tomb.

3. We find that the Lord raised three people visibly, but thousands invisibly. Who even knows how many dead He raised visibly? Not everything He did is recorded. John tells us, "Jesus did many other things, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written" (John 21:25).

So there were undoubtedly many others raised, but it's not without significance that three are specifically recorded. For our Lord Jesus Christ intended that the things He did physically should also be understood spiritually. He didn't perform miracles simply for their own sake, but so that the things He did would inspire wonder in those who saw them and convey truth to those who understand them.

It's like someone who sees letters in a beautifully written manuscript but doesn't know how to read. They praise the scribe's skill and admire the beautiful characters, but they don't understand what those characters mean or signify. Such a person appreciates the appearance but doesn't comprehend its meaning. Another person both appreciates the appearance and understands its meaning—someone who can not only see what's visible to everyone but who can also read, which those who haven't learned cannot do.

The same applies to those who saw Christ's miracles but didn't understand what they meant or what they conveyed to those with understanding. They merely wondered at the miracles themselves. Others both marveled at the miracles and grasped their meaning. This is how we should be in Christ's school.

Anyone who says that Christ performed miracles only for their own sake might also say He was ignorant that it wasn't the season for fruit when He sought figs on the fig tree. It wasn't the season for that fruit, as the Evangelist testifies, yet being hungry, He looked for fruit on the tree. Did Christ not know what any farmer knew? Did the tree's Creator not know what the tree's caretaker knew?

So when, being hungry, He sought fruit on the tree, He was showing that He was hungry for something else. He found that tree without fruit but full of leaves, and He cursed it, and it withered. What had the tree done by not bearing fruit? How was its fruitlessness the tree's fault? No—but there are people who, through their own choice, cannot yield fruit. Fruitlessness is the fault of those whose fruitfulness depends on their will.

The Jews, who had the words of the Law but not its deeds, were full of leaves but bore no fruit. I've said this to convince you that our Lord Jesus Christ performed miracles with this purpose: that beyond being wonderful, great, and divine in themselves, these miracles might also teach us something.

4. Let's see what He wants us to learn from the three dead people He raised. He raised the dead daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, for whom they had requested healing when she was sick. While He was on His way, it was announced that she had died. As though He would now be wasting His time, they told her father, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" (Mark 5:35). But He continued and said to the girl's father, "Do not be afraid; only believe" (Mark 5:36).

He came to the house and found the customary funeral arrangements already prepared. He said to them, "Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping" (Luke 8:52). He spoke the truth—she was asleep, asleep in relation to Him, by whom she could be awakened. So, awakening her, He restored her alive to her parents.

He also awakened that young man, the widow's son, whose story reminded me to speak with you, beloved, on this subject, as the Lord Himself gives me the ability. You've just heard how he was awakened. The Lord "came near to the city, and behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow" (Luke 7:12). Moved with compassion because the mother, a widow now bereaved of her only son, was weeping, He did what you heard. He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise" (Luke 7:14). The dead man sat up, began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

He also awakened Lazarus from the tomb. In that case, when the disciples with whom He was speaking knew Lazarus was sick, He said (now "Jesus loved him" ), "Our friend Lazarus sleeps" (John 11:11). Thinking of the healthful sleep of someone ill, they replied, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well" (John 11:12). Then Jesus, speaking more plainly, said, "Lazarus is dead" (John 11:14). In both statements He spoke the truth: "He is dead in relation to you, but asleep in relation to Me."

5. These three kinds of dead persons represent three kinds of sinners whom Christ still raises today. The dead daughter of the synagogue ruler was still inside the house—she hadn't yet been carried out from the privacy of its walls into public view. She was raised there, inside, and restored alive to her parents.

The second dead person was no longer in the house but not yet in the tomb. He had been carried outside the walls but not yet placed in the ground. The One who raised the dead girl who hadn't yet been carried out also raised this dead man who had been carried out but not yet buried.

There remained a third case: raising someone who was already buried. This He did with Lazarus.

So there are those who have sin inwardly in the heart but haven't yet acted on it. For instance, someone is disturbed by lust. The Lord Himself says, "Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Such a person hasn't physically approached the woman but has consented in his heart. This person has one dead within and hasn't yet carried the dead outside.

And as often happens, as we know and daily experience in ourselves, when people hear God's word—as if the Lord were saying "Arise" —the consent to sin is condemned, and they breathe again unto saving health and righteousness. The dead person in the house rises; the heart revives in the secret of its thoughts. This resurrection of a dead soul happens within, in the privacy of the conscience, as it were within the walls of the house.

Others, after consenting, proceed to overt action, carrying out the dead, so to speak, so that what was concealed in secret now appears in public. Are those who have gone this far beyond hope? Wasn't it also said to the young man in the Gospel, "I say to you, arise" ? Wasn't he also restored to his mother?

So too, the one who has committed an open sin, if perhaps admonished and stirred by the word of truth, rises again at Christ's voice and is restored to life. He could go that far, but he couldn't perish forever.

But those who do evil and become so entangled in evil habits that these habits prevent them from seeing the evil, become defenders of their evil deeds. They get angry when they're criticized—to such a degree that the men of Sodom said to the righteous man who reproached their vile intentions, "You came here to live as a foreigner, not to make laws!" (Genesis 19:9). In that place, the habit of abominable wickedness was so powerful that depravity was now considered righteousness, and the one who tried to stop it was criticized rather than the one doing it.

Such people, weighed down by a destructive habit, are, as it were, buried. Yes, what more can I say, brothers? They're so thoroughly buried that it was said of Lazarus, "By this time there is a stench" (John 11:39). The stone placed on the grave is this stubborn force of habit, by which the soul is pressed down and not allowed either to rise or breathe.

6. It was said of Lazarus, "He has been dead four days" (John 11:17). Indeed, the soul arrives at such a habit through a kind of four-stage progression. First is the pleasure felt in the heart; second is consent; third is the action; fourth is the habit.

There are those who so completely dismiss unlawful things from their thoughts that they don't even feel any pleasure in them. There are those who feel the pleasure but don't consent to it. Death isn't yet complete, but it has begun in a way. When pleasure is followed by consent, sin is incurred. After consent comes the action; the action develops into a habit; and a kind of desperate condition arises, of which it can be said, "He has been dead four days; by this time there is a stench."

Then the Lord came, to whom all things were easy, yet He found in that case what seemed to be a difficulty. He "groaned in His spirit" (John 11:33), showing that forceful remonstrance is needed to raise those who have grown hardened by habit. Yet at the sound of the Lord's cry, necessity's bonds were broken. The powers of hell trembled, and Lazarus was restored to life.

For the Lord delivers even from evil habits those who have been "dead four days." The man in the Gospel who had been dead four days was merely asleep in relation to Christ, who willed to raise him. But notice how he was raised. He came out of the tomb alive, but he couldn't walk. And the Lord said to the disciples, "Loose him, and let him go" (John 11:44). He raised him from death; they released him from his bonds.

Note that there's something that belongs to God's unique majesty in raising the dead. A person caught in an evil habit is rebuked by the word of truth. How many are rebuked but pay no attention! Who is it, then, who works within the one who does listen? Who breathes life into him from within? Who drives away the unseen death and gives the unseen life?

After rebukes and admonishments, aren't people left alone with their thoughts? Don't they begin to reflect on how evil their life is, how they're weighed down by a terrible habit? When they become displeased with themselves, they decide to change their life. Such people have risen again; those who are displeased with what they were have been revived. But though revived, they can't walk. These are the bonds of their guilt.

Whoever has returned to life needs to be released and set free. This responsibility Christ has given to the disciples, to whom He said, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18).

7. Let us then, dearly beloved, hear these things in such a way that those who are alive may live on, and those who are dead may live again. Whether sin has merely been conceived in the heart and not yet come forth in action, let the thought be repented of and corrected—let the dead within the house of conscience arise.

Or whether someone has actually committed what they thought of, let them not despair. The dead within has not risen; let them rise when "carried out." Let them repent of their deed and immediately return to life. Let them not go to the depth of the grave; let them not receive the weight of habit upon them.

But perhaps I'm now speaking to someone who is already pressed down by this hard stone of their own habit, who is already burdened with the weight of custom, who "has been in the grave four days already and stinks." Yet even such a person shouldn't despair. Though dead in the depths below, Christ is exalted on high. He knows how to burst asunder the burdens of earth by His cry; He knows how to restore life within by Himself and to deliver the person to the disciples to be released.

Let even such people repent. For when Lazarus had been raised after four days, no foul smell remained in him when he was alive. So then, let those who are alive continue to live; and let those who are dead, in whichever of these three deaths they find themselves, see to it that they rise again at once with all speed.