Although Jesus knew His friend Lazarus was very ill, He deliberately waited for two days before going to see him (John 11:4-7).  Now, Lazarus was dead, but Jesus said he had ‘fallen asleep’ and that He would travel to Bethany, only two miles from Jerusalem, to wake him up.  However, the disciples thought there was no need to make that journey if Lazarus would recover after a rest.  They certainly did not want to go back to the Jerusalem area, fearing they might be killed, as almost happened to Jesus not long before (John 11:8).  

But when Jesus said Lazarus was dead, they knew they would have to attend the funeral, and the family home in Bethany was so close to Jerusalem.  Thomas was clearly scared for his life, gloomily predicting that they would all die.  But as with so much of Jesus’ ministry, this episode was to train the apostles to fulfil their ministries.  The reason for Jesus’ delay in going to Lazarus was that they might see that God can raise the dead (Acts 26:8) and that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and that those who believe in Jesus will never die eternally (John 11:25-26).   

Up to this time in Jesus’ ministry, the disciples had been willing and eager to follow Jesus, but often they did not understand what He was doing.  Now, the more He spoke about His Divine nature, the angrier the religious leaders became; and the recent violent episode against Jesus had been potentially lethal (John 10:31-33).  The disciples then realised that their great adventure with Jesus could bring them into conflict with the authorities and might expose them to death.  It was a prophetic thought: as far as we know from the Bible and other sources, most of the disciples died from a violent death.  But like Stephen and Paul they were confident of eternal life with Jesus (Acts 7:54-60; 2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Fear is one of Satan's key weapons against the believer; encouraging us to focus on bad possibilities, we are easily scared away from following Jesus and serving Him.  But Satan is a liar, and does not know the future; so he makes up stories of the bad things that could happen to us if we keep going forward with Jesus.  Such temptations test our faith, but we must decide to stand with Christ and face the future in the strength He provides (John 14:27).  Some hard times may come, but we need to face them with Jesus who always knows what He is doing, rather than to run away from His call on our lives.