The raising of Lazarus in John 11


This Sun, Lent five in Twelvemonth A, we come to the last of our for explorations of Jesus' encounters with individuals that formed a catechumate in the early church in her raising of Lazarus in John 11.ane–45. Next calendar week, on Palm Sunday, nosotros will return to our gospel of the year, Matthew, in the lead in to Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Sun.

This remarkable extended narrative forms a turning point in the Fourth Gospel. The gospel is normally seen equally being in 2 halves, the and so-called 'Book of Signs' running from the prologue until now, and the 'Book of Glory' which runs from affiliate 12 to the end. (In a previous scholarly generation, these were understood to reflect 2 unlike [written] sources behind the concluding form of the gospel; just we don't need to accept this obsessed with sources to note that there is dissimilar language, a dissimilar emphasis, even a different 'feel' in the offset half and the second half of the gospel.) The seven signs in the gospel are most ordinarily understood to exist:

  1. Changing h2o into wine at Cana in John 2:ane-11 – "the get-go of the signs"
  2. Healing the royal official's son in Capernaum in John 4:46-54
  3. Healing the paralytic at Bethesda in John five:1-xv
  4. Feeding the 5000 in John half dozen:five-fourteen
  5. Jesus walking on water in John six:sixteen-24
  6. Healing the man blind from nascence in John ix:one-seven
  7. The raising of Lazarus in John xi:1-45

There is some fence here, because they are not each explicitly identified in the narrative as a 'sign', and then some readers run across the feeding of the 5,000 and the walking on the water as one, combined, sign, making Jesus' own resurrection the seventh. However, the signs are quite clearly depicted as partial revelations which point forrad to ultimate reality, and information technology makes more sense to see each of these seven pointing forrad to the eighth, the reality of Jesus' resurrection, which (if 'seven' signifies this historic period, with its seven days of creation and rest) describe this as the starting time of the new age to come.


The narrative itself is bright and compelling, full of arresting detail and emotion. Jo-Ann Brant, in herPaideia commentary, observes:

The principal action is a reversal—the expressionless i lives—but to the simplicity of this reversal, John adds the complexity of emotion, allusion, written report, reaction, and counterreaction. Grief and censure turn to an expression of gratitude—the anointing of anxiety—that in turn comes to signify a funerary rite. Jesus raises Lazarus to life, and the government plot to take both their lives. John plays with epithets and allusions to underscore that Lazarus' story foreshadows Jesus' death and resurrection in a diverseness of ways (p 170).

Some modern translations shine out the opening introduction, but the text actually talks of a 'certain man', who is 'Lazarus of Bethany'. This is a common way of referring to a human being, the alternative being to refer to his occupation. The narrative refers to Mary and Martha whom Jesus' met Luke 10.38–41 (the but place exterior the Fourth Gospel where Martha is mentioned), just assumes only that we already know Mary; her proper name is mentioned get-go here, whereas elsewhere Martha is mentioned first, indicating that she is the older sister, and in fact her proper noun is the feminine form of the Aramaic for 'master'. Since we take not yet read the business relationship of the anointing of Jesus by Mary, since it comes in the next chapter, the narrator is assuming we have read information technology already in Matthew 26 or Mark 14. (These parenthetical explanatory asides are characteristic of the Quaternary Gospel, for example in John 1.38, 41 and 3.24.)

(In that location are iv accounts of a woman anointing Jesus' feet, in Matt 26.vi–13, Marker 14.3–9, Luke 7.36–50, and John 12.1–8. The accounts in Matthew, Mark and John correlate, though merely in John is the adult female named as Mary, and Luke's account is of a 'sinful adult female' and takes place in the north of the country early in Jesus' ministry building, non in the south and late. Unfortunately, pop reading (and some scholarship) has conflated the two events, then further conflated the woman with Mary Magdalene, none of which is really justified.)

The sisters send a bulletin to Jesus, which although it is a argument of fact, is an implicit request for help, just every bit in John 2.3 Jesus' female parent states 'They have no wine'. Because Lazarus is 'the one you love', a minority of commentators take suggested that Lazarus is the narrator'south Jerusalem source, described from John 13.23 as the 'disciple whom Jesus loved.' Simply there is niggling narrative sense in naming Lazarus hither, so obscuring his name afterward, so this is not really persuasive.

Rather than focus on the trouble, Jesus' response it to await to the ultimate resolution of the situation, which volition result in demonstrating God's celebrity—this future focus exactly paralleling his response to the disciples' question about the human being born blind in John 9.one–3. The narrator is careful to juxtapose the comment of Jesus' love for the family with his credible inaction; in response to petition, his apparent failure to act is not a sign that he does non love them. Rather, his love volition exist shown in the last resolution of the situation, even if that comes later than expected.

Judea has already in the narrative get a place of danger for Jesus, and the mention of the threat of death past the disciples anticipates what unfold later in the narrative—though the disciples themselves (typically) practice not understand that withal. The mention of 'walking in the daylight' once more connects this episode with John ix, but here Jesus is telling his disciples that he knows what he is doing and is not making a misstep, even if he actions cause offence to those who will not receive his message and will non accept who he actually is.

The commutation about Lazarus 'falling asleep' as a figure of voice communication for dying in verses xi to 13 is yet another example of the Quaternary Gospel'southwarddouble entendre, where the difference betwixt literal and figurative significant expressed the divergence between Jesus' agreement and the failure to understand of his dialogue partner. Thus Nicodemus fails to sympathize 'beingness born again/from above', and the woman by the well fails at first to sympathize 'the living/running water'. The real question, in each instance, is whether Jesus' hearers will sally from the confusion with understanding so that they will place their trust in Jesus.

The narrator once again assumes we know who the Twelve are (from reading one of the other gospels) and that Thomas is ane of them. 'Thomas' is actually derived from the Aramaic for 'twin', then, rather than being given a proper noun and a nickname, nosotros are being given the same nickname in Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek (didymus). Once more, the gospel alludes to the fact that its very existence is due to missional expansion, where the story has to be translated from one narrower social, cultural and linguistic context (that of Israel) to another broader 1 (that of the wider Roman world).


In one case we reach poetry 17, the scene at present switches to Bethany. The fact that Lazarus has been in the tomb 'four days' is important, since according to the Mishnah information technology at this point nosotros can be sure that a person is dead—and in fact the body volition have decayed plenty (in the warm climate) to foreclose confident identification, a gruesome reality that practical Martha points out in verse 39. The proximity of Bethany to Jerusalem means that the holy metropolis is but a curt walk, only simply beyond the horizon over the Mountain of Olives, just as Jesus' own death and raising are just over the narrative horizon. The company of Jews who have come up (from Jerusalem itself?) shows that Lazarus was respected, and they also function as witnesses of what is otherwise a private event, simply as the servants accept done in the phenomenon at Cana (John 2.nine).

Martha, now being the senior member of the household, comes out to greet Jesus. Her opening words 'Lord, if yous had been hither, my brother would not have died' are cryptic, highlighting the complexity of the emotions surrounding grief. As the conversation unfolds, it becomes clear that for Martha these words are a statement of fact, perhaps fifty-fifty faith, that contain a further implicit request. When the same words are repeated past Mary in poetry 32, they have the sense of a grieving rebuke. (It is interesting to note that the unlike characters of Mary and Martha, as shown by their different reactions, correlate with their unlike characterisations in the unrelated episode in Luke 10.)

In response to Jesus' hope of promise, Martha articulates a common Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead at the final Day of the Lord. Merely, as he has done before in this gospel, Jesus claims that this eschatological future hope has go real in the present in his own person and ministry. This is exactly the same configuration of promise that we discover in Paul: the futurity of creation has been made real in usa as we live resurrection life (Rom 8.xix), since the new cosmos that nosotros long for is already experienced by those who are 'in Christ' (2 Cor five.17).

Jesus' challenge to Martha leads her into greater trust, and she expresses her belief in Jesus equally Messiah in a manner that parallels the Samaritan woman in John 4.25, 29. Women are silent in Marking'due south gospel, and have some role in Matthew. They are prominent in Luke, though do non say much. But in the Quaternary Gospel, women take significant oral communication and prominent roles, and provide vital Christological insights through their modelling of faith as ideal disciples. It is no accident that it is in this gospel Mary Magdalen becomes the 'apostle to the apostles' as she testifies to the Twelve that Jesus is risen.

Whilst Martha goes to greet Jesus out of social duty, Mary simply rises to see him out of personal response, when she hears that Jesus is asking for her. Where Jesus has met Martha's statement of half-developed belief with an invitation to believe more fully, he now meets Mary'due south emotion with emotion of his ain. In this gospel, whilst Jesus is more clearly 'divine' as the Discussion who was with God, and the one who has 'come from the Father and is going to the Begetter', he is at the same time more explicitly human being and vulnerable than in the other iii gospels. Poesy 34, where Jesus enquire where Lazarus has been laid, is the only time in this gospel where he asks a question to which he appears not to know the answer. It is articulate, equally he walks to the tomb, that he walks closely aslope those who feel the grief at their loss. It is no wonder that those who allocated the verse divisions in our New Testament decided to give the unproblematic expression of grief and calamity its very ain verse, the shortest in the whole Bible: 'Jesus wept' (John 11.35).


Over again, 'the Jews', referring to those who have come up from Jerusalem, office to express the ambiguity of reaction and partitioning that Jesus provokes. Some run across his compassion, but others, whoappear to believe that he really did heal the man born blind in affiliate 9, are nevertheless sceptical.

Lazarus has clearly been buried in a rock tomb with a stone deejay rolled over the entrance, which needs to be moved away past those present. Jesus will experience the aforementioned in death—but for him, no human being agent volition be required to move the rock. For a brief moment, Martha'due south faith has over again been overwhelmed by her practical concerns.

Jesus in his prayer (Jewish prayer would normally exist out loud) addresses God as Father, common both in John and Matthew. It was not unknown in Jewish devotion, but in the context of confession and request for forgiveness. The intimacy with which Jesus addresses God as Male parent is distinctive—and for Paul becomes the new-birthright of all who trust in Jesus (Rom 8.14–17).

Jesus cries out, addressing Lazarus past name. It has been quipped that he had to specify the ane he was addressing—otherwise all the dead in that area would be raised and come out of their tombs. Verse 44 contains my favourite phrase in all the New Testament: 'the dead man came out walking'! Dead people don't walk—unless Jesus has spoken new life into them! And the only qualification for experiencing resurrection is to be dead in the first place.

Although presented here every bit a narrative of what happened, like all John'due south writings, it is rich in symbolic 2nd significant. Paul talks in Ephesians two of us having been 'expressionless in our sins'. It is every bit if, in calling Lazarus out, Jesus calls each of us out of death into new life:

'Ian Paul, come out! Come up out from the tomb of your ain self involvement, sally from the darkness of your insecurities and petty jealousies! Come out into the sunshine of God'due south grace and breath once more the air of life where there is no fright of death! Unwrap those signs of decease and defeat which constrict y'all and preclude yous living life in all its fulness!'

In doing this, Jesus is not but showing understanding of the human condition—he is demonstrating his power in remedying that condition.

The details of the grave apparel—thekeiriai which accept been wound around his whole torso, including his hands and anxiety, and thesoudarion circular his caput, and under his jaw to stop his mouth falling open—volition be mentioned one time more, in John 20.seven. Here they are removed past those going to Lazarus; in John 20.8 the fact they are withal in place, but Jesus has been supernaturally raised by God, leads the dear disciple to his showtime step of belief.


This story of the raising of Lazarus is i of the near pop in Christian art—just search online for images of information technology, and y'all will be amazed.

You starting time to detect this focus on Lazarus in the earliest centuries of Christianity through the fine art. In the Roman catacombs lonely there are over 55 paintings of Lazarus'southward resurrection. Roughly an equal number exist of Roman sarcophagi, the marble caskets in which dignity were buried, depicting this life-affirming story relayed only in John'south Gospel. And then there are the dozens more depictions of Jesus' friend rise from his grave–on ivory, glass and metal objects that didn't accept annihilation to do with funerals.

Possibly all these artistic renderings of Lazarus' emergence from his tomb three days after his burial are the reason behind historians' belief that the raising of Jesus' good friend, fabricated a deeper impression on early Christians than almost any other New Attestation text…

John 11 and the post-obit chapter of John 12 act like a literary span between Jesus' ministry with others and his own last demonstration that God indeed provides eternal life. The Lazarus story lays downwardly a bridge of faith and understanding that we can walk across to empathise more the Master's own death and resurrection.

…and, I would add, to understand our own participation in that equally we begin to live Jesus' resurrection life for ourselves.

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