Lazarus - come out! (John 11)

Martha and Mary live in Bethany about two miles from Jerusalem.  They have a brother named Lazarus.  Jesus loves Lazarus, a detail repeated throughout throughout John 11.  As it turns out, Mary is the one who washed Jesus' feet with her own tears and hair.  So, she may have been a former prostitute.

Lazarus dies.  He is wrapped in cloth and is buried in a tomb.

Martha and Mary send word to Jesus about this.  Jesus waits two days before telling his disciples that they are heading back to Judea.  This shocks the disciples who remind Jesus that when they were last there, the Jews were going to stone Jesus.  Jesus reminds them in a parable about daylight that it is not quite time for him to die yet as there still is daylight, presumably daylight on his ministry.

Thomas (doubting Thomas) mentions that they probably will all die.  Perhaps this is sarcasm, perhaps not.  Regardless, he is not the man of faith that Simon Peter is.

Jesus goes to Bethany and Mary falls at his feet.  Jesus is moved by the circumstance and asks to go to the tomb of Lazarus.  Mary takes him there.  

Jesus asks for them to move the large stone covering the tomb.  Mary initially objects because Lazarus has now been dead for four days and his decomposing body will stink.  However, the stone is removed anyway.

Jesus prays and thanks God.  Then in a loud voice says:  "Lazarus, come out!"

The figure of Lazarus emerges and walks out of the tomb.  Lazarus is still wrapped in the burial cloths and Jesus orders that the cloths be removed.

Word of this event spreads.  Many people come to believe in Jesus.  However, this also strengthens the resolve of the Pharisees to kill Jesus.  The Pharisees are afraid that Jesus will have political consequences and that the Romans will destroy them, their nation, and their temple.  The start planning to kill him at Passover, when they assume he will return to Jerusalem.

There is an irony in their logic.  They were looking for political Messiah to rescue them from the Romans.  Here, they cannot deny that Jesus actually has political power associated with him.  Large groups of people follow him and he can miraculously feed large groups of people.  So, Jesus is actually fulfilling some of what they are looking for in a Messiah.

They also do not seem to doubt Jesus' supernatural abilities.  They do frequently question the source of the power, but they do not deny that these miracles follow Jesus.

However, they do not want this political Messiah.  They believe that this one will cause a problem with Rome and bring on another Roman invasion.  Never mind that Jesus already has converts among the Roman military or that Jesus can heal people of wounds and raise the dead.  A political Messiah with those abilities sound like a great leader to me.

Last, but not least, this seems to be the first time that Jesus raises someone from the dead in Judea.  The others were by Galilee.  I wonder if this contributed to the Pharisees' freak out.