The Raising of Lazarus

Chapter X : The Raising of Lazarus

John xi. 1-54.

For places mentioned in the text, see map at end of post.

Once more Jesus traversed the land of Perea, when a messenger from Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, came seeking Him, and at once greeted Him with these words:—

"Lord, he whom you love is sick."

Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, had been struck down by a grievous illness, and in all haste his two sisters had dispatched their courier to the Master, fully confident that He only needed to be informed of the trouble, because they felt sure they knew His heart.  Mary especially had many proofs of its overflowing tenderness since the day when she anointed the Saviour with fragrant spices and wiped them away with a beautiful hair.  There was never a doubt but He would hurry to His friend’s bedside, and at His mere approach the danger would flit away.  By Jesus was content to listen to the message and make answer:—

"This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified thereby."

Then He lingered two days longer in the same spot; not from fear, nor from indifference, for "He loved Martha and her sister Mary and Lazarus," but to await the bidding from on High.

At Bethany, however, there was only tremulous and eager expectation; from the brow of the highlands on which the villag is built more than once the two sisters with straining eyes scanned the wide outlook, from the mountains of Perea to the footpaths which lead up to Bethany, longingly watching the road which the Saviour must take.  Alas for their fruitless and forlorn hopes!  Lazarus, their brother, died.

As is the custom in hot climates, the body was washed, wrapped in perfumes and linen bands, then borne at once to the funeral grotto, and the wail of the mourners began.  The event had collected together a considerable concourse, for, the household of Lazarus being of distinguish rank, very many Jews of note had come down with a large company from Jerusalem.  During all of three days the wonted lamentations resounded through their dwelling and around about the tomb.  Martha and Mary, with feet bared and their heads veiled, sat upon the ground and moaned, while around them their friends and neighbours with the wailers together joined in the groans and cries of mourning.  At nightfall of the third day, according to Jewish beliefs, the soul ceased to hover over the whole body.  The sepulchre was then visited for the last time, the winding sheet drawn over the face of the dead, and a stone forevermore sealed up this grave which the Rabbis called "the Mansion of Eternity."

Thus it seemed that for Lazarus all was finished; but Jesus, Who for two days had rested there without speaking of Bethany, of a sudden said to His disciples: "Let us return into Judaea."

"Master," they exclaimed, "it is but a little while since the Jews sought for you that they might stone you, and are you going to put yourself once more into their hands?"

The Lord essayed to calm their fears by declaring that His Mission was like the twelve hours of the day, whose duration no-one might shorten by human strength: the Father watched over Him with His Providence; a divine Light guided His footsteps, so that He might neither stumble nor fall, until the hour appointed when the shades of darkness would encompass Him about.  Then disclosing the motive of His departure He told them:—

"Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to awaken him from his slumber."

"Lord," responded the Apostles, " if he sleeps he shall be saved."

They forgot the slumbering from which the Master had aroused the daughter of Jairus, and as usual, slow of comprehension, they believed He was speaking of that physical drowsiness which in certain maladies betokens returning health.  Then Jesus told them plainly:—

"Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, in order that you may believe.  But let us go to him."

These words renewed their terrors,— they hesitated to follow Him.  Then Thomas spurred their courage with those generous words:—

"Come," he said gravely, "let us go and die with Him."

Starting out immediately, Jesus journeyed across Jordan Valley and reached Bethany on the morrow.  He halted at the outskirts of the village, for though the company had dispersed after the funeral repast of the third day there were many friends still lingering beside the two sisters.  Jesus knew that these personages were powerful in Jerusalem, bound by many ties to the Sanhedrin and sharing its errors; therefore He desired not to excite their attention, but it was impossible to conceal His presence for any length of time.  For, although Mary lingered in the darkened dwelling, overwhelmed with sadness, Martha had resumed her active care of household affairs, and she was speedily made aware of the Master’s arrival.  Going out to meet Him she said:—

"Lord, if you had been here my brother would not now be dead.  But I know that even now God will grant you whatever you will ask of Him."

"Your brother shall rise again," Jesus said to her.

"I know," she responded, "he shall rise again in the Resurrection, in the last day."

Martha little understood the meaning of the Saviour's promise, and only looked upon it as another consoling thought, such as her friends had been repeating during all of these last three days.

The Christ recalled her to a sense of Who He was Who was now speaking to her, with those words which the Church still uses to comfort us in our bereavement.

" I am the Resurrection and the Life.  He that believeth in Me, although he be dead he shall live.  And he that liveth and believeth in Me shall not die for ever.  Believest thou this?"

"Yea, Lord," she said, "I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Who art come into this world."

It was blind, unquestioning faith, rather than any understanding of the words of Jesus, which moved Martha to this acknowledgement; Mary, the contemplative soul, was better fitted to understand these exalted truths.  With this thought uppermost in mind Martha sped homeward to summon her sister.  She found her in the great house, still crouched upon the ground, her spirit absorbed in grief.  Approaching her as quietly as possible, she whispered:—

" The Master is yonder; He is asking for you."

In a moment Mary had risen and was on the way to Jesus.  The Jews who were with her in the house and comforted her, seeing her depart so speedily, followed her, saying:—

"She is going to weep at the tomb."

On leaving the village they descried Jesus with a little knot of disciples still waiting on the same spot where Martha had just met them.  At sight of Him Mary fell at His feet, murmuring the same reproachful words which for these last three days the two sisters had kept repeating to each other.

"Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died!" She could add no more,— her tears spoke and she prayed.

Around her the Jews meanwhile seemed to have forgotten their hatred of the Christ; like Mary, they too were sobbing.  So mightily did these tokens of love and sorrow shake the soul of Jesus that His spirit was stirred and troubled within Him.

"Where have you laid him?" He said.

"Lord, come and see!"

And Jesus wept.

"See how He loved him," said the Jews.  But with some there was a feeling of bitterness mingled with their pity.

"And yet," added the latter, "could he not have hindered Lazarus from dying,— hea was able to open the eyes of a man born blind?"

This reproach Jesus also overheard, and again shuddering beneath the weight of human sorrows, He halted before the tomb.  According to the fashion with wealthy Jews, it was in a cavern chiselled out of the rock, and sealed with a stone.

"Take away the stone," He said.

Martha was fain to withstand this order.

"Master, he is already corrupt; it is four days since he died."

Then the Lord replied: "Did I not say to you that if you believe you shall see the glory of God?"

The stone was rolled away from the sepulchre, and the body disclosed.  The two sisters with their friends drew closer about the Master, with tear-dimmed glances riveted upon the gloomy cave.  Stepping nearer and raising His eyes toward Heaven, Jesus spoke:—

" Father," He began, " I give Thee Thanks that Thou the hast heard Me.  For Myself, I know that Thou hearest Me always, but for the sake of these people who stand about Me I have spoken thus, in order that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Then He cried with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come forth!"

And instantly the dead emerged from the grave with feet and hands wrapped with the winding bands and his face shrouded under the linen kerchiefs, while at the spectacle all stood speechless and white with terror.

The raising of Lazarus. J-J Tissot.

"Loose his bands," Jesus said, "and let him go."

The cere-cloth fell from off his features, the winding-sheets slipped from his limbs, and Lazarus stood there in the sight of his bewildered friends.

Saint John, who was a witness of this marvel, adds that very many of the Jews who had come hither to Martha and Mary, having seen this which Jesus did, believed in Him.  But some of the company made haste to inform the Sanhedrin.  That assembly was struck with the liveliest alarm.  The Passover was close at hand; already from every quarter of Judaea the people were starting out on their way up to Jerusalem.  What did this Nazarene mean by coming up almost to the very gates of the Holy City to work a miracle like this?  Was He about to declare Himself King and arouse the Jews against their Roman masters?  Fears of this sort reduced them to such a state of perplexity that they forthwith called an assembly of the National Council.

Thanks to the members of the Sanhedrin who were afterwards converted, Saint John was made acquainted with what took place in this gathering.

"What are we doing?" these princes of Jewry asked of one another.  "This man is working many miracles.  If we let him go on acting thus, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy our City and a Nation."

Their annoyance and anxiety were extreme, and the various counsels contradictory and confusing; at this juncture Joseph Caïphas arose.  As High-Priest for that year, his dignity, however degraded by Roman corruption, still gave great weight to his words.

"You neither understand anything of all this," he began, "nor do you consider that it is far better that one man should die for their people, and that the whole nation perish not."

Caïphas disclosed his whole character in this saying, wherein his pride, his contempt for justice, his unscrupulous cruelty are openly unmasked.  But he was also (though without knowing it) making himself the Mouth-piece of God,— for the gift of Prophecy was in some sort a prerogative of the Pontificate; and Jehovah, Who for long ages had been wont to speak by the Urim and Tummim of the High-Priest, once again upon this day set His Oracle on the lips of a descendant of Aaron.  This is John's testimony:—

"Caïphas said this, not of himself; but being Pontiff for this year, he prophesied that Jesus should died four His Nation, and not only four His Nation, but furthermore that He might gather together in one God's children who are scattered abroad."

It would appear that the High-Priest’s advice did not excite the slightest opposition.  The greater number of Councillors were Sadducees; doubt and scepticism had frozen their hearts and poisoned every upright and honest tendency of their minds; they immediately seized this politic recommendation and resolved to adopt it, by compressing the death of Jesus.

If we are to believe the taditions, this decision was arrived at, not in Jerusalem, but upon a certain highland in the suburbs which still bears the name of "Evil Council." There Caïphas possessed a country-house, and his purpose in assembling the Sanhedrin in this retired spot, was to preserve secrecy in regard to the sentence pound against the Nazarene.  But Jesus counted several friends in the supreme council; though Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had not the courage openly to undertake His defence, they at least were not implicated in the conspiracy, and probably it was upon receiving their warning that the Saviour decided to quit Jerusalem.

Accompanied by a chosen band of followers, He set out for the tract of country which stretches between Bethel and the Jordan, and withdrew until well-nigh within the borders of Samaria, to a town called Ephrem.  Their He consecrated the last weeks of His life to intimate converse with His disciples; and the secret of His retreat was not betrayed, for when, a little later, the Sanhedrin synod ordained that any one who knew where He was should deliver Him up to them, no one disclosed His habitation.  We do not know why the princes of Jewry precipitated the first resolution, and decided to lay hands upon the Christ at once.  Did they wish to have Him safely chained in their dungeons, so that they might examine His case at leisure, question Him and confront Him with their witnesses?  Did they meditate making away with Him secretly?  Whatever design they may have had in mind, it was certainly one intended to effect the destruction of the Saviour, and very soon they would find nothing in the way of their desires,— for Jesus was about to emerge from His last place of refuge and of His own will deliver Himself into their hands.

Places mentioned in this chapter.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam