Digging Deeper: The Life of the House

Jesus is informed by messengers from the town of Bethany that Lazarus is ill, and that his two sisters, Mary and Martha are seeking his help. We know from the other Gospels that Jesus was good friends with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.

And so Jesus tells his disciples, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." 

But Jesus then delays for two whole days. 

Now, the town of Bethany was only two miles away from Jerusalem, the capital city. And the disciples are afraid of going back to Judea because the leaders there tried to kill Jesus the last time they were there, but Jesus commands them to go with him, stating, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe."

Thomas then proclaims, “Let’s go so that we may die with him!” 

Jesus waits to show up until after three days have passed, when Lazarus is now “legally dead” – the point of no return 

When they arrive in Bethany, Lazarus has been dead and buried for four days. 

Before they enter the town, Martha, a sister of Lazarus comes to meet them and tells Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

But Jesus assures her that her brother will rise again. 

Martha says, “I know that he will rise again – in the Resurrection at the Last Day. 

Jesus proclaims, "I am the resurrection and the life! He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die! Do you believe this?"

Martha affirms, "Yes, Lord! I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world!" 

This is only the second time (after Nathanael) that someone declares Jesus as Son of God, and the first time someone equates him as 'Messiah' and 'Son of God' together. The only other time this happens in the entire gospel is in the explanation the author of the Gospel gives for writing his Gospel at the very end. 

After entering the village Jesus is met by Mary and the Jewish people with her, and upon seeing their grief and weeping, Jesus is 'deeply moved'. 

Then, after asking where he was buried, the shortest verse in the four Gospels is found - "Jesus wept." And Jesus shows here that he is not a God who is far away. He is present, and he is a God who is very much a human himself. He loved Lazarus… and Lazarus was dead. Jesus knows that death isn’t some abstract idea, and he knows that you can’t paint over death with flowery words like “passed away” and “fell asleep” to try and make people feel better. Death is terrible. It hurts. You never get over it. And it hurts Jesus, too. He just lost one of his best friends, and he breaks down and cries in front of everybody.

But after that, Jesus asks for the stone of the grave to be removed, but Mary interjects that there will be a smell since the body has been decomposing for four days at this point. She thinks Jesus wants to look upon his dead friend one last time to say good-bye, but she knows that it won’t be a pleasant experience for Jesus, and she wants to spare him more pain.

But then Jesus says to Mary, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 

And so they do what Jesus asks, and they remove the stone from the grave. 

Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 

And after saying this, Jesus screams, “Lazarus, come out!” 

And the dead man came out… his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. 

And Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." 

The miracle of the raising of Lazarus, is the climax of John's “Book of Signs.” 

It explains the crowds seeking Jesus on Palm Sunday, and leads directly to the decision of the High Priest Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to plan to kill Jesus… and not just Jesus, but they planned to assassinate Lazarus as well, the man Jesus had just brought back from the dead!

John even tells us that the High Priest Caiaphas ironically prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation “but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.” Caiaphas concluded that it would better for Jesus to die than to live because if Jesus continued doing these miracles, then the whole world would start to follow him, and then the Romans would get jealous and destroy their nation and their people. And so Caiaphas concludes that Jesus must die in order to save the world… and he ends up being right… but not at all in the way he imagined.

And so Jesus has returned to Judea in order to save his friend Lazarus from death… but in doing so, Jesus has put his own life at risk. He will soon be arrested and killed. And he will then show the full extent of his love in laying down his life for his friends.