Today I read John 11, the chapter famous for the telling of Jesus raising Lazarus. It also contains the shortest verse in all the standard works for those of you who like those kinds of facts. There are many parts of this chapter that I find interesting and are worth talking about. First and foremost, this chapter tells us that Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, was the sinner that entered into the home of the Pharisee Simon and cleaned the Savior's feet with her tears and her hair. If you recall the story, Jesus points out that her sins were many, but they are forgiven. We can infer from this chapter and the fact that Jesus has continued association with her, that Mary turned her life around and sinned no more. It is always nice when you see someone turn their life around and start to live a good, upstanding life. Any returned missionary knows that feeling.
The second thing that I noticed in this chapter is when Lazarus was sick, Mary and Martha sent a messenger to Jesus to tell Him that Lazarus was sick and to please come and help him. Now, Jesus waits for two days before starting out to Lazarus' house where He finds that Lazarus has been dead for four days. I had never noticed this before this reading, but unless it took two days to travel to Bethany where they lived, Lazarus was already dead by the time Jesus even got the message that Lazarus was sick. I had never quite picked up on that before today. Now, we'll discuss the timing of this miracle in just a moment and why Jesus waited the precise amount of time before going to Bethany but I had never noticed that Jesus only waited 2 days but Lazarus was dead for 4 days, so he must have already been dead by the time Jesus got the message. Now that is only really significant if Jesus were a regular man and had no power over death He could have pointed out to Martha and Mary that Lazarus was already dead when He got the message. However, Jesus does have power over death and He waited for a very specific purpose.
It is also interesting to notice the different responses between Martha and Mary. Mary berates Jesus that if He had been here, Lazarus would still be alive. Martha says the same thing, however adds on that she knows that He is the Son of God and all things will be as He commands them to be. What a testimony! Whereas Mary was only grieving, Martha knew that Jesus had power over death and that if He so chose, He could bring her brother back from the dead. At first she is a little confused and thinks Jesus is talking about the resurrection, but then Jesus reminds her that He IS the Son of God. At that point Martha goes and gets Mary because she knows something amazing is about to happen, but she still has doubts. When Jesus wants to roll back the stone she forgets herself and tells Jesus that Lazarus stinks at this point. But I can understand Martha's position, I'm not sure how I would react to the prospect of someone I love being brought back from the dead.
Now, I'm sure most of you reading this already know this next part. It is commonly brought up in Sunday School classes and is a point usually made by people talking about this story. At this point Jesus had caused 2 other people to rise from the dead, Jarius' daughter and the widow's son. Both had only been dead a few hours. This was significant to the Jews because the Jews, at the time, believed that the Spirit of the body stayed nearby the body for 3 days and had the ability to re-enter into the body within those 3 days. But after 3 days the spirit leaves and is no longer able to enter into the body. This means that with the first two people Jesus brought back from the dead, the skeptics and enemies of Jesus could claim that Jesus did nothing but in fact it was the spirits of the bodies entering back into the bodies and nothing that Jesus did. Jesus also knew this and counted on it. Hence why He waited two days where he was so that by the time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus will have been dead for 4 days, too long for his spirit to re-enter the body on its own. So this time when Jesus caused Lazarus to rise from the dead, no one, not even His critics, could deny that is was Jesus who had performed this miracle. And so Jesus raises Lazarus back from the dead in front of dozens of witnesses and it cannot be denied.
Now, at this time the Pharisees are quite worried. They also cannot deny Jesus' power and this miracle. But they are worried because they think the people will proclaim Him to be the promised Messiah and therefore will rise up against the Romans who will then send forth their armies and destroy the people. They do not know what to do about this. It is then that Caiaphas, the high priest, ironically enough, declares that it is better that one man should perish than an entire nation. He has no idea that he is directly quoting the Lord from 600 years prior when the Lord commands Nephi to kill Laban and again even further back than that when the Plan of Salvation was first told to us and explained that Jesus would be our Savior and suffer so that we might all be saved. It is ironic that one of the men that considered Christ to be his enemy was in fact saving his people, so he thinks, in the exact same fashion that Jesus saved all of us. I wonder what Caiaphas thought of that when he learned the truth on the other side?
I can only imagine what it must have been like to see someone raised back from the dead like that. It must have been fantastic and a little scary I bet until they realized that Lazarus was whole and healthy. What must it have been like to live in those days and see the miracles of Jesus first hand? I suppose one day we will view it all and remember what we saw before we were born into this life. I can't wait for that day! Until tomorrow.
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