Tuesday 30 March 2021
- Bible Book:
- John
“they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.” (v. 9b)
Background
This short episode concludes the much longer narrative describing Lazarus being brought back to life by Jesus (John 11:1-45). It suggests that even though Lazarus has faced and overcome death once before, he remains mortal and his life could be at risk because of the situation he now finds himself in. The chief priests’ growing anxiety and fear that the situation relating to Jesus could spiral out of control leads them to take ever more desperate decisions to bring a stop to it. More deaths seems to be an acceptable price to pay to maintain the status quo. It feels like the situation we see depicted in detective stories, where the killer goes on to kill again to avoid the witness to the first crime speaking up and incriminating them.
John’s Gospel has used seven miraculous events to give signs of who Jesus is: turning water into wine (John 2:1-11), healing an official’s son (John 4:46-54), healing a man at the pool at Bethesda (John 5:1-15), feeding the five thousand (John 6:5-14), walking on water (John 6:16-21), healing a blind man (John 9:1-7) and finally raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45). All these events caused a degree of debate and often conflict with the religious authorities, but it’s only in this final event when we see great crowds coming to see for themselves what has happened (v. 9) and then believing in Jesus as a result (v. 11) that it seems to be the final straw for the authorities.
We are though left uncertain what happens to Lazarus. He has played his role in the journey towards the Cross, but sadly we don’t hear any more about whether he survived these death threats. We can only hope that the reason he, Mary and Martha are mentioned in such detail is because they remained prominent and well known people among Jesus’ followers and continued as trusted witnesses long after these traumatic few days.
To Ponder:
- The chief priests were concerned that crowds of people believed in Jesus after seeing that Lazarus was alive, and yet Jesus was later to tell Thomas “blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” (John 20:29). Reflect on how important it is to you to see signs of God at work. Where have you see evidence of God at work this week?
- Sadly, we now often hear of prominent people receiving death threats through social media, which can be very traumatic for the individuals concerned. Pray for those intimated in this way, and for those who try to prevent this.