The Raising of Lazarus
Word comes that Lazarus is ill, and Jesus stays where he is for two more days — a delay the narrative makes no attempt to soften. By the time he reaches Bethany the man has been in the tomb four days.
Both sisters meet him with the same sentence: if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Martha argues theology with him at the roadside; Mary simply falls at his feet weeping. Seeing her, and the mourners with her, Jesus is deeply moved and weeps himself — the shortest verse in most English Bibles, and the one that most resists explanation, since he knows what he is about to do.
The stone is rolled away over Martha's practical objection about the smell, and Lazarus comes out bound in grave clothes. In John's account it is this sign, more than any other, that decides the authorities to have Jesus killed.
Where in scripture
[1] Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. [2] It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. [3] The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.” [4] But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.” [5] Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. [6] When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was. [7] Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.” …
John 11:1–44 — opening verses
[45] Therefore many of the Jews, who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him. [46] But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done. [47] The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs. [48] If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” [49] But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, [50] nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” …
John 11:45–57 — opening verses
[9] A large crowd therefore of the Jews learned that he was there, and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. [10] But the chief priests conspired to put Lazarus to death also, [11] because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.
John 12:9–11
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
