Jesus wanted to allow Lazarus to die so he waited four days before he went to him. If Jesus had been there when he was alive, a sick man would have been healed. This still would have been a miracle, but a lesser one. Some would have said, “Lazarus was sick and just got well; he would have recovered even it Jesus were not there.”
By letting him die and raising Lazarus from the dead he performed a much greater miracle, a 24 carrot gold miracle, a miracle almost as good as it gets. Who could argue with it?
The Pharisees could, and did. Their solution to the problem was to seek to put Lazarus to death (John 12:10). If you can't argue with the truth, avoid it.
