In Jesus, Peter says,
the Creator God has performed the resurrection of the righteous dead, and now
invites all of Israel, and all of mankind, to join Him in His Resurrection,
which is the expectation of the “last days” now brought forward into their
present. This invitation is “accepted” through
believing “beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus Whom you crucified both
Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36b). What Peter tells his hearers is that their
messianic expectations have indeed been confirmed, albeit inexplicably, through
the vehicles of a Roman cross and a family tomb.
This Resurrection had
taken place in what should now be considered to be the last days (or at least
the beginning of the “last days” --- a term that did not denote the end of the
creation, but the messianic age and the beginning of the renewed creation, in
which Israel’s Creator God was King and Lord of all); and now, a new day and a
new age has dawned, and the long-awaited kingdom of God has been inaugurated,
with Jesus as its Messiah-King. Jesus is
to be recognized as King and Lord of all, which was the role that was believed
to have been reserved for the Creator God Himself.
Thus, Jesus, as
Messiah and the herald of the messianic age, comes to be equated with the God
of Israel. With this, the inexorable, unrelenting march towards the Creator
God’s final restoration of all things has begun, with that God’s covenant
people, now identified by belief in Jesus, the vehicles by which the Creator God
will continue to reveal Himself, through what is taken to be the inward to
outward working of the Spirit, sending His light and glory into the
world.
With this declaration
of Jesus as Lord and Christ, or Lord and Messiah---presenting Him as the “Lord”
that Israel’s King David had called Lord, as well as being the King of Israel
(Son of God, Son of Man), Peter seizes on the well-understood concept that
Israel’s king would always serve as a representative of the people, with the
fortunes of the people of God waxing and waning based on the performance of
their king as it related to what their God required of His covenant people
(avoiding idolatry, reverencing the sanctuary, keeping the Sabbaths---what was
then understood as the “works of the law” and the identifying marks of those in
good covenant standing and therefore able to participate in the age of the
renewed creation, resurrection of the righteous dead).
This representation
of the covenant people by the King can be most explicitly seen in King David’s
infamous “numbering of the people.” When David did this, without carrying
it out appropriately and in the way that God had commanded (which would have
been in association with an offering as outlined in the book of Exodus), a
plague came upon the people. This, as
promised. When David repented, built an altar, and made a sacrifice (an
offering), the plague stopped.
With all of that
said, one is able to return to the situation with Lazarus. 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 was 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. This could serve as something of a possible
indicator of their belief in Jesus’ Messiah-ship and in the power of the
Creator God that would be wielded by Him as the Messiah. Jesus responds
to this concern by saying “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see
the glory of God?” (11:40)
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