Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Raising Lazarus For Glory (part 2)

Getting back to the situation with Lazarus, one can see that Jesus did in fact say, “This sickness will not lead to death.”  However, just a few verses later, after the two days of delay in His going to see Lazarus, Jesus tells His disciples that “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.  But I am going there to awaken him” (John 11:11b).  Because of His disciples’ reported confusion about what Jesus was attempting to communicate to them, Jesus clarifies His meaning and says, “Lazarus has died” (11:14b).  This would seem to run contrary to His previous statement, but one must keep an eye on the bigger picture.  Thus, to this He adds, “and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe.  But let us go to him” (11:15). 

Here again, the reader is presented with another question to consider.  Did Jesus expect that His raising of Lazarus from the dead would finally cause His disciples to believe that He was Who He seemed to be indicating that He was, namely, Israel’s Messiah (King=Son of Man & Son of God)?  In similarity to the first answer proffered in this study, this is unlikely, as if these disciples had not yet come to believe in the strong possibility that He was in fact the long-awaited Messiah that would usher in the kingdom of heaven and a new golden age for Israel and all the earth, especially after all that they had been said to have seen and experienced to this point in the Gospel narrative, it is improbable that this event would serve to convince them. 

At the same time, it would seem to be more than likely that they already believed that He was the promised Messiah, and that they were firmly ensconced within His movement, though there could certainly be lingering doubts about the manner in which He was going about His mission, and an ongoing wondering if He was going to eventually take up arms in the style of King David, so as to drive the Romans from the land, which would have been part and parcel of the widely held messianic considerations. 

Now that’s not to say that they would or could not be quickly shaken from this belief---the evidence as it is reported following His arrest and crucifixion suggest otherwise.  At this point however, they do seem to be largely on board.  In fact, one of the disciples---the one referred to as a doubter---might very well have been put on display in the story as the first and only one to both realize that Jesus was the Messiah, and that, contrary to what the rest expected, that He was also going to die on behalf of the people, as their King. 

If Thomas does realize this (or something like this), it would be widely contradictory to the commonly held worldview that a messiah, by definition, is not going to die.  If this realization is realistic, it seems that Thomas, following the death of Jesus, may have had a change of heart, which is more than understandable (though “doubter” as an epithet simply does not seem to fit Thomas any more than the rest of the disciples, at least when the Gospel narratives are broadly taken into consideration). 


After Jesus informed His disciples that they were going to be returning to the area around Jerusalem, of which the disciples had previously reminded Jesus that “the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone You to death” (11:8b), this one disciple was heard to have said, “Let us go too, so that we may die with Him” (11:16b).  It does seem possible that, at least here, the “doubter” might have been the one with understanding, grasping the nature of Jesus’ mission, what would be required of Him, and what it would ultimately accomplish.   

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