....death is examined in its origin or cause, its nature as human experiences and spiritual reality, and its finality or purpose. ... The will of his Father, not human volition, controls life and death. Therefore, whatever death means, nature and human intention cannot be regarded as its ultimate causes because what they bring about, that is, physical death, is in some sense not death; and they cannot bring about death at all except according to God's will and design (page 175-76).
... Martha's confession of faith is in no way a response to the sign of the raising of Lazarus. It is a response to the word of Jesus revealing himself as the resurrection and the life. The sign comes after Martha's confession and does not function as a guarantee of her faith but as a crisis for the Jews who have gathered. Martha does not expect the sign (cf.11:38-39) any more than the disciples of any time or place can expect physical death to be overcome by miracle. Her faith like ours, responds not to the signs of the public ministry but to the revealing word of the present Jesus.... (page 106).
And then I read Jan Richardson's post about Lazarus on her blog, The Painted Prayerbook. I have copied an excerpt but hope you will read the rest.
Nobody goes into the tomb to pull Lazarus out; no one crosses into his realm to haul him to this side of living. Lazarus has to choose whether he will loose himself from the hold of the grave: its hold on him, his hold on it.
Only when Lazarus takes a deep and deciding breath, rises, returns back across the boundary between the living and the dead: only then does Jesus say to the crowd, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Not until Lazarus makes his choice does the unwinding of the shroud begin, and the grave clothes fall away.
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