Day 295 – Jesus’ Raising of Lazarus

Note – the “Lazarus” in today’s passage isn’t the same on as the one from day 293.

• John took the time to explain the background to the death and rising of Lazarus, in comparison to the other stories he recounted of Jesus’ miracles, which were told at a more speedy pace. Who was Lazarus? Who were his sisters, and do you remember what happened when Jesus last met them on day 281?
• In John 11:11-15, Jesus proclaimed that Lazarus had died. Look back at verse 6. Jesus had heard that Lazarus was ill but had decided to wait two days before heading off to see him. Why do you think He waited? Consider that Jesus knew Mary and Martha especially well.
• When Jesus spoke to Mary and Martha in John 11:17-37, what do we learn about the women? Did they trust Jesus? Imagine you were in their shoes. What conflicting emotions would you have had, knowing that Jesus “could have” saved their brother but (seemingly) had chosen not to? You might like to underline Jesus’ famous words of John 11:25.
• Lazarus was described as being dead for four days. Some people at the time thought that the soul of a dead man could remain for up to three days. In other words, by the fourth day, everyone would have been in agreement that Lazarus was properly dead.
• Jesus is described as weeping as He surveyed the scene. Are you surprised by this?
• How did Jesus raise Lazarus? What power there is in His words! Just think… one day we will hear Jesus’ voice. Are you looking forward to that?
• What was the mixed response of the Pharisees to Jesus’ miracle? What were they scared of? What did they decide to do?
• Check out John 11:48-52. I love these verses. Caiaphas, the angry high priest, suggested that they should kill Jesus in order to save many other potential deaths. His logic was that if too many people believe in Jesus, the Romans would have taken issue with this, and started beating the Jews down to keep control. Caiaphas thought that it would be better to have one death (Jesus’) than many deaths. Do you see the wonderful, and unintended, irony in his words? Through the actions of the Jewish leaders in putting Jesus to death, he would indeed save many, many lives… but not in the way that they could have ever foreseen!
• In Mark 12, we hear of the Pharisee’s astonishing plot to kill Lazarus. With the facts of Jesus’ power staring them in the face, the leaders ignored the truth and tried to cover up Jesus’ work in extreme fashion. How do you see Jesus’ words being “covered up” nowadays?

Fun fact: verse 35 of John 11 is the shortest verse in the bible. Can you research which the longest is?

As we work our way through the gospels, you should be spotting not just the stories of each chapter, full of rich teaching and actions from Jesus, but also the underlying story of Jesus slowly moving towards His eventual outcome. The regular references to the Pharisees, and their angry reactions to Jesus, show how this is starting to bubble up. It won’t be long – next week in fact, in our reading plan – before we hit the final days of Jesus’ life. I can’t wait to read this with you, because it takes us through the biggest event the world has ever known!

Another thing worth being aware of is how Jesus has moved around Israel. He’s currently in Bethany, and the map below shows a rough path that he has taken. In our upcoming readings (before He entered Jerusalem for the final week before His death) he’ll do both of the “loops” you can see (to Bathabara, and the other one to Ephraim and Jericho).

You can find more information about the timeline of Jesus’ ministry at http://www.biblewalks.com/info/jesusfootsteps.html – we’re at position 85 in the 100-step table on this website.