“Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadest been here, my brother had not died.” (Jn 11:21) Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus died. The dead man was now buried in a tomb and decomposing. The Jews did not embalm. When Jesus received the news Lazarus was sick, He delayed His coming. Of course Jesus could have just spoken the word to heal him--but He didn’t.
Jesus waited until Lazarus was four days dead before going to him. Jesus wanted Lazarus dead. This death was going to bring glory to God.
When Martha met Jesus coming into town, she cried that if He had been there, Lazarus would not have died. But Jesus doesn’t have to be physically on location to do a miracle. He can heal long distance.
However, Jesus wanted to be present for this miracle that He was about to do. He wanted people to know that He was the one who raised a dead, corrupting body from death. Had He done that from a distance, people would have wrote it off to some superstitious nonsense. But with Jesus on site, orchestrating the events, there would be no doubt that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. No doubt that Jesus is Lord.
