Martha’s confidence In Jesus’ words accorded with faith in his command. She charged those present to remove the stone. Tension rose among the crowd. Will Jesus enter the tomb and embrace the beloved’s corpse, or what shall he do?
But Jesus stood calmly before the tomb. He lifted his eyes in prayer, uttering audible words. Here we have one of the recorded prayers of Jesus. He called God as Father. He thanked the Father because his whole life was just a sanctifying and adoration of God’s Fatherhood. He clearly thanked God for answering his prayer, before Lazarus was actually raised. While others wept, Jesus prayed. He asked his Father to revive his friend, a sign of divine life that overcomes death. The Father consented and gave him the authority to rescue a victim of death’s terror. Jesus believed that his prayers would be answered, nothing doubting. For he constantly heard his Father’s voice. At all stages of his life Jesus continued to pray, but here he prayed aloud, so that people might know the mysteries that would occur there. He thanked his Father for always answering his prayers. No sin separated them, no barrier rose between them. The Son does not insist on his own will, nor demand honor for himself, or the mastery of power for its own sake. The Father’s fullness operates in the son. His fatherly will raised Lazarus from the dead. All this Jesus confessed before the crowds, so that they would realize that the Father had sent the Son to them. So the raising of Lazarus becomes a glorification of the Father, a miraculous sign of the Trinity’s unity.