Death Met Its Master in Bethany
Before He walked out of His own tomb, Jesus stood outside someone else’s — and called a dead man’s name.
Begin the story ↓
A message, a delay, a grave
Martha and Mary send word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is dying. He doesn’t come. He stays where He is two more days — and Lazarus dies waiting.
By the time Jesus reaches Bethany, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. Everyone there has already made peace with what death means: final, sealed, done. Jesus weeps with them — and then asks for the stone to be rolled away anyway.
“Have you ever looked for Jesus — and wondered why He was taking so long?”
Death has lost to Him before, is losing to Him now, and will lose to Him again
Lazarus is one story. Scripture points to Jesus doing this in four distinct ways — past, present, and still to come.
He raised the dead — more than once
Lazarus wasn’t the first. Jesus had already raised Jairus’s twelve-year-old daughter and a widow’s only son in Nain. By the time He reached Bethany, He’d already shown that death answers to His voice — not the other way around.
He raised Himself
Three days after His own body was sealed in a borrowed tomb, Jesus rose — not raised by another, but by His own authority. Every resurrection He performed for someone else pointed toward this one. It’s the one death could not reverse, delay, or repeat.
He conquers spiritual death — and only He can
Before the tomb was ever opened, Jesus said something to Martha that mattered more than what happened next: that He wasn’t only offering Lazarus a few more years. He was telling her who He was.
He will raise the dead in Christ
What happened at Lazarus’s tomb was a preview, not the whole story. Scripture promises a day still to come when this same authority reaches every believer who has died — first, ahead of everyone still living.
A small step, if you want to take it
You don’t have to arrive at faith standing at a grave, the way Martha did. Before Lazarus ever walked out of that tomb, Jesus asked her a simple question: do you believe this?
Reading a short story about that day won’t answer it for you. But it’s a quiet, unhurried way of sitting with the question yourself — no altar call, no pressure. Just Martha, her brother, and the Man who asked her what she believed.
A quick read, meant to be sat with
Death Met Its Master in Bethany is a short illustrated novel by Benjamin Ferris — images on even pages, story on odd pages, built for a single unhurried sitting. Most of it is drawn from the Gospel of John, chapter 11, with other parts of Scripture woven in throughout. Each short chapter closes with a quiet question, meant for the reader as much as for Martha, Mary, or Lazarus.
It’s the first in a planned series of short novels, 50–100 pages each, in a similar style — drawing on ideas from the novel Lazarus’ Gospel.
More at LazarusGospel.org and MiniFaithReads.com — launching fall 2026.
Get your copy of Death Met Its Master in Bethany
A short, illustrated novel for anyone who has ever waited on Jesus to show up — and wondered what He was doing instead.
More retailer links to come — Barnes & Noble, or your preferred storefront.