After a brief interaction with Mary and a demonstration of emotion (because Jesus loved Lazarus-John 11:36), Jesus “came to the tomb” (11:38). Jesus ordered the stone to be rolled away from the mouth of the tomb (demonstrating the common burial practice of a multiple-use tomb that were in place in that day). Upon this, Martha offers a mild protest about the smell that will come forth, perhaps indicating that, in her mourning, along with her expectation that Jesus would in fact be doing something about Lazarus’ sickness and death, she and her sister had not performed the standard ritual of anointing the body with spices (serving as a possible indicator of their belief in Jesus’ Messiah-ship and in the power of God that would be wielded by the Messiah). Jesus’ response to this is “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God?” (11:40)
With this question, our thoughts are returned to the beginning of this story of Lazarus, where Jesus says that “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory” (11:4b). Once again, we must look past the immediate circumstance of the Lazarus issue in order to truly understand that to which Jesus is referring when He speaks about God’s glory. It is tempting to think that the glory of God will be demonstrated through the raising of Lazarus, but in reality, the raising is only relational, and it serves only as a catalyst to that which will truly reveal the glory of God.
Jesus casts His eyes heavenward (11:41), and thinking through what it was that is going to be accomplished through what is about to happen through this raising, offers thankfulness for the power that will be put on display that will have the result that the people “may believe that You sent Me” (11:42b). With this, Jesus, with a loud voice, said, “Lazarus, come out!” (11:43b) As we would expect, that is what happened. The result? “Many of the people who had come with Mary and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him” (11:45), thus setting the stage for the glory of God that was soon to be manifested.
This growth in the number of those that believed in Jesus caused a widespread furor. In response, “The chief priests and the Pharisees called the council together and said… If we allow Him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in Him” (11:47a, 48a). In this statement, we continue the march towards uncovering that to which Jesus was referring when He spoke of the glory of God in connection with Lazarus’ death and raising. Continuing this same story, some short period of time later, when there was “six days before the Passover” (12:1a), we learn that “Jesus came to Bethany” (12:1b). This, of course, was the place that had seen the great miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead. “Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there, and so they came not only because of Him but also to see Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead” (12:9), as Lazarus’ raising was still being used as an instrument in God’s hands for the purpose of His own glory.
The “Lazarus event” was quite well known, so much so that “the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, for on account of him many of the Jewish people were going away and believing in Jesus” (12:10-11). This was a problem on many levels. One of the reasons that it was a significant problem in the eyes of the chief priests and Pharisees that the people were going away and believing in Jesus, was that Jesus was seen as somebody that was not rigorously keeping to the covenant markers (works of the law) that were so vitally important to Israel’s national interests in that day. He was perceived as a corruptor of the people and a subverter of faith and practice. Thus, those that followed Him, who believed in Him as the Messiah, and who thus began mimicking His practices---especially in the area of table fellowship with “sinners”, interaction with Gentiles, involvement with those that were ritually unclean, and general acceptance of all who were considered to be outside of the bounds of covenant---would evoke the anger of God and delay His long-awaited entrance into history to work on behalf of His covenant people.
As far as they were concerned, if more and more people began to disregard the works of the law that were then in place and stridently enforced, then all that would result would be the extension of the curse of God under which they continued to find themselves, as they were in exile from God’s promises to them, with that exile primarily evidenced by the fact that they were ruled by a foreign power (Rome), in accordance with the clear enunciation of curses to be found in the Torah (in both Deuteronomy and Leviticus). This would have been the attitude to which was ardently held by the Pharisee Saul, as before his “conversion,” he was doing everything in his power to stamp out the pestilent heresy that was serving to drive the people of Israel away from the keeping of the required marks of covenant, and thus delaying God’s redeeming action (deliverance, exodus).
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