Martha and her sister Mary also show up again. Martha is as blunt as always, going out to meet Jesus and scold Him for not being there when her brother needed him. Mary, meanwhile, is the passively trusting sort who wonders why Jesus seemed to let her down. It is seeing her pain and lack of understanding that first causes Jesus to be "deeply troubled."
Interestingly, it is Lazarus, Jesus's friend whom He raises from the dead, who has no voice at all in this, or any, reading. Our pastor intimated that Lazarus stands for us. We, like Lazarus is bound in the shroud of death, are bound in the shroud of sin. Like Lazarus, we can only be unbound by following the call of our master's voice. Often, like Lazarus, we need others to unwrap the sinful bindings that have trapped us. Perhaps we find our shroud comforting, find it too difficult to follow the voice of the one who would save us, or find it impossible to let others even see our sinfulness let alone help us come out from it.
These are the imperfect people whom Jesus chose as friends, just as He chose us.