A common misinterpretation takes Jesus' words literally as Lazarus merely sleeping rather than being dead, ignoring the context where the disciples misunderstand and Jesus clarifies that Lazarus is dead; others misuse it to support 'soul sleep' doctrine claiming the dead are unconscious without immediate afterlife awareness, overlooking the passage's emphasis on resurrection as awakening to life.
John 11:11
King James Version (1769)
11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Jesus speaks of Lazarus's death using the gentle metaphor of sleep to comfort and prepare his disciples, affirming his divine power to 'awake' him through resurrection, which underscores the temporary nature of death for believers and foreshadows Christ's own victory over the grave.