That doesn’t sound like the words of a friend, does it? “for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there”. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling Him of Lazarus’ illness and He stayed where He was for the next two days. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep (11:11)Īre you getting the message? Jesus loved this family.although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, (11:5).“Lord, Your dear friend is very sick.” (11:3),.John stacks this chapter with little reminders of Jesus connection with this family. The four Gospels record that he spent a lot of time in Bethany. The story of Lazarus is filled with elements that emphasize the love Jesus had for this Bethany family, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in particular. Interesting that in the Lazarus story we see all the culmination of these themes. Since Chapter 5 of John we have had these themes of the dead hearing his voice, being raised to life on the last day and none being lost. Lazarus’ resurrection was so that they who witnessed it (and we who read it centuries later) would see and understand this One is who He says He is and has power over life and death. The rest of his time in the Gospel of John is spent with his disciples before the events leading to the crucifixion. He went to a place near the wilderness, to the village of Ephraim, and stayed there with His disciples”. This story is highly significant in the Gospel of John and is like the crowning example of the miracle stories so that after this event John announces that “Jesus stopped his public ministry among the people and left Jerusalem. It is possible that the Lazarus incident also had a significant influence on the crowd’s response. Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus too. When all the people heard of Jesus’ arrival, they flocked to see Him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. So it stands to reason that John will make much of it and that is indeed what he did.Īs result of Lazarus’ resurrection Jesus became the centre of attention. This story is the culmination of the everlasting life theme, the proof of the raising up at the last day motif.
Of course this all fits if this One before us is The Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25). The ironic twist is that Lazarus’ resurrection from the dead led to Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact he tells us “as a result of this Jesus stopped his public ministry” (John 11:54). John drew our attention to the significance of this miracle story by the time he spent telling the story. The story of Lazarus is by far the longest one of all at 56 verses. The Feeding the 5000 is covered by only 15 verses in John. But the brevity of the stories is remarkable.
His purpose is to gather these stories to demonstrate his theme of who Jesus is. It is interesting to note that normally John makes the miracle stories short and punchy. John’s Gospel is interspersed with miracle stories.
#The story of lazarus series
As I indicated in the previous Nugget, this will be a single Nugget in the Puzzling Paradox series where I address this issue and then I will move on in the following Nugget to address the issue of whether healing is ours by right or not. By investigating the Lazarus story carefully we can learn a lot about Jesus attitude and feelings about death and from it understand more about death in the context of the Glory of God. Their question was framed in terms of how can a death be to the glory of God? Well, let’s investigate that very question. The final result of this sickness will not be the death of Lazarus this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory. A number of readers have asked about the statement recorded by John where Jesus said:
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