The Raising of Lazarus! 

Signs were a key part of Our Lords Ministry. 

They proved that he was the Messiah. 

Our Lord raised the dead three times either out of spontaneous compassion or ‘for the Glory of God’ which was a sign.  Lazarus was raised for the Glory of God.

 

The first time our Lord raised the dead was when he raised the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus, a synagogue leader. This was to reward Jairus's faith and demonstrate Jesus’s authority over death (Mark 5:21–43).

 

The second case was the raising of the son of the Widow of Nain. He was a young man whom Jesus encountered during his funeral procession. Crucially he was his mother’s only source of social support.  Widows were often reduced to gleaning in fields for food.  (Luke 7:11-17):  In this instance Jesus was moved by pure compassion

 

The last time was the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-44): He was a close friend and the brother of Mary and Martha. He had to be dead four days and was raised specifically for the Glory of God – a sign. This was right at the end of Our Lord’s ministry. He was just days away from his crucifixion.  The death and raising of Lazarus were planned events. 

 

Our Lord deliberately had to delay his coming for the Glory of God to be manifested. After 4 days the Jews consider it impossible to be raised as the soul was thought of have left the body

 

Waiting an extra 2 days for the death of his friend must have been agony of Jesus

 

When Our Lord finally arrived we see several things happening

 

Martha as we would expect was as practical. She asked him – ‘why have you delayed? You could have just healed him?  The crowd of neighbours were with Martha

 

However, Mary had a wonderful, submissive, trusting, devotional faith. This really got to Our Lord. Famously Jesus wept.

 

Mercifully, Lazarus was successfully raised for the Glory of God as planned.

 

Crucially there were probably hundreds of people witnessing the event. To crown it all Jesus then had supper with Lazarus at Bethany again witnessed by more crowds who had come to see this spectacle. The raising of Lazarus was a key part of the extraordinary divine choreography leading up to our Lord's passion, death and resurrection 

 

Next event was of course Jesus's triumphal entry in Jerusalem (Palm Sunday). Again as prophesied Jesus enters Jerusalem, welcomed by more great crowds as prophesied Zechariah 9:9 (c. 520 BC)

 

These acts directly fulfil Isaiah’s prophecies (Isaiah 35:5-6, 61:1) regarding the advent of life and work of the Messiah.

 

"The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor". Matthew 11:4-5 (NIV):

 

The result was that Jesus’s fame and message swept through Jerusalem at a critical time – the Passover. This was impossible for the authorities to cope with this - especially before the Passover.

 

Our Lord had won! 

Signs were a key part of our Lord’s ministry – but so was His love.

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John 11:1-45

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 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.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.