: "Where have ye laid him?" He who could still the waves of the
sea by a word could have miraculously effected the removal of the stone
that sealed the mouth of the sepulchre; yet He said: "Take ye away the
stone." He who could reunite spirit and body could have loosened without
hands the cerements by which the reanimated Lazarus was bound; yet He
said: "Loose him, and let him go." All that human agency could do was
left to man. In no instance do we find that Christ used unnecessarily
the superhuman powers of His Godship; the divine energy was never
wasted; even the material creation resulting from its exercize was
conserved, as witness His instructions regarding the gathering up of the
fragments of bread and fish after the multitudes had been miraculously
fed.[1028]

The raising of Lazarus stands as the third recorded instance of
restoration to life by Jesus.[1029] In each the miracle resulted in a
resumption of mortal existence, and was in no sense a resurrection from
death to immortality. In the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the
spirit was recalled to its tenement within the hour of its quitting; the
raising of the widow's son is an instance of restoration when the corpse
was ready for the grave; the crowning miracle of the three was the
calling of a spirit to reenter its body days after death, and when, by
natural processes the corpse would be already in the early stages of
decomposition. Lazarus was raised from the dead, not simply to assuage
the grief of mourning relatives; myriads have had to mourn over death,
and so myriads more shall have to do. One of the Lord's purposes was
that of demonstrating the actuality of the power of God as shown forth
in the works of Jesus the Christ, and Lazarus was the accepted subject
of the manifestation; just as the man afflicted with congenital
blindness had been chosen to be the one through whom "the works of God
should be made manifest."[1030]

That the Lord's act of restoring Lazarus to life was of effect in
testifying to His Messiahship is explicitly stated.[1031] All the
circumstances leading up to final culmination in the miracle contributed
to its attestation. No question as to the actual death of Lazarus could
be raised, for his demise had been witnessed, his body had been prepared
and buried in the usual way, and he had lain in the grave four days. At
the tomb, when he was called forth, there were many witnesses, some of
them prominent Jews, many of whom were unf