John 11:1-16
I’ve always seen Jesus’ raising of Lazarus as the beginning of the end. After this miracle we’ll only have a few more days’ readings before Palm Sunday.
Geography: Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” (v. 7) Yesterday we had Jesus in Jerusalem arguing with the Jewish leaders; then He went away “beyond the Jordan” (John 10:40). Bethany is near Jerusalem, basically a valley/ravine between the two cities. So when Jesus gets the news of Lazarus He is across the Jordan, basically a day’s journey away. In tomorrow’s reading Jesus will make that trip back to Bethany.
So, when He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. (v. 6) So why did Jesus stay two days longer? We know that Lazarus died while Jesus stayed those two days and Jesus explains to the disciples that He already knew of Lazarus’ death: Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe…” (v. 14) So the question – what did Jesus do during those two days? – is less important than that He knew of Lazarus’ death. That is, we see Jesus clearly in touch with His Father. My conclusion is that Jesus spent a good part of those two days in prayer, communing with His Father. His cross was now just weeks away and He needed His Father’s guidance, love, and support to prepare for this ordeal. Jesus sets a good example for us as we seek to move forward in whatever is His will for us.
See also: August 13 / John 11:1-16
I had not read Thomas’ dreadful (in every sense of the word) comment before, to my recollection, but being his namesake, I am always interested in what he has to say. In this instance, he seems to be saying, “We’re not coming back from this one…” Faced with what they know of the hatred of Jesus by the Jewish leaders, it must have been frightening for the disciples to go back into the hornets’ nest. Thomas put it succinctly. They understood the impending danger.
We’ll meet Thomas a few more times before the year is out!
I think you are exactly right, Tom. The disciples may not have immediately grasped a lot of what Jesus said — particularly with regard to His rising again — but they clearly saw that heading into Jerusalem was not going to be a tea party.
I’ve mentioned this before and I don’t want to be too forceful in this conjecture, but we’re now at the point in the Gospel of John where it bears mentioning again for the sake of a fresh perspective, if nothing else: We have a clue today (in John 11:3) that perhaps Lazarus wrote this Gospel. Several places in this Gospel refer to “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:17, 21:20), and John 21:24 makes it reasonably clear that this “beloved disciple” is the author. But nowhere in the Gospel is the “beloved disciple” explicitly identified by name — except in John 11:3, where Mary and Martha clearly identify Lazarus as “he whom you love”. There’s plenty of good reason to stick with John as the author (2,000 years of tradition is hard to shake!), and I by no means want to be dogmatic about this idea, but I think it’s worth thinking about for a fresh perspective on stories we think we know (but perhaps do not know as well as we should).
I was already remembering your comments on this topic from two years ago, John, how you had me thinking back then about the possibility of Lazarus being the author of John’s gospel. It’s an intriguing thought!
Thanks, John. I had amnesia, so the Lazarus connection hit me this time!