Lazarus of Bethany, brother of Martha and Mary, fell ill. The sisters sent word to Jesus, who was a friend of the family. Jesus deliberately delayed two days. By the time he arrived at Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.
Martha met him on the road: 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' Jesus replied: 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.' At the tomb, he wept. Then, in the only recorded instance of his lifting his voice in command over the dead, he cried: 'Lazarus, come out!' The man who had been four days dead came out, bound in burial cloths.
John's Gospel presents this as the climactic 'sign' (sēmeion) of Christ's ministry — the act that publicly demonstrated his power over death and was the immediate cause of the Sanhedrin's decision to kill him (John 11:45–53).