John 11:32-44
Contextual Comments
1. The end of John, chapter 10, found Jesus inciting belief, but also enmity, in Jerusalem. In the latter camp were people prepared to stone Him to death. He left the city, not to avoid death, but to see to it that His death happened at the appropriate, God-chosen time. All would happen according to God's plan.
2. It's within the context of the prospect of death that the events of John 11 unfold. The chapter begins with the story of Lazarus' illness and death and concludes with the religious leaders planning on killing Jesus because He had brought Lazarus back to life.
3. In John's telling of the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection--the gospel, or good news, this is the seventh sign pointing to Jesus as God-in-the-flesh, God incarnate. In ancient Jewish thinking, seven was the perfect number, the number of fulfillment and completion. (It was on the seventh day, according to the first of the Genesis creation stories, that God rested from His labors and after He had declared His creation to be very good.)
4. It's appropriate that raising a dead man to life would be the seventh sign, as it definitively points to Jesus' dominion over death.
5. The six preceding signs (and their locations) in John's book:
- Jesus turns water into wine at wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11)
- He heals the official's son (John 4:46-54)
- He heals the crippled man (John 5:2-9)
- He feeds the 5000 (John 6:10-12)
- He got the frightened disciples to shore (John 6:18-21)
- He opened the eyes of a blind man (John 9:4-7)
Each of these signs has their own unique character. (And for the sake of economy, I'm resisting the temptation to write about each of them.) But even with a cursory glance, you can see how each one speaks to a different aspect of Jesus' power over all things and how each one has figurative or symbolic, as well as, literal meaning.
You can also see why this sign, raising Lazarus from the dead, is Jesus' penultimate sign and why those anxious to hold up religion and their own power rather than faith and the power of God decided at this point that they must do away with Jesus. The ultimate sign of Who Jesus is comes when He goes through the cross and is resurrected.
(Jesus' resurrection is no mere resuscitation; it finds the pioneer and perfecter of our faith performing the eighth sign. For the ancient Hebrews, eight was the day of a new creation. They thought that it was on the seventh day that humanity fell into sin. But God gives a new day, creation starts again. John uses the eight and eighth motif throughout his gospel.)
(By the way, many of the ancient baptistries that archeologists have uncovered are eight-sided and many of our modern baptismal founts are also. Baptism is the place where we are made part of God's new creation in Christ!)
6. Jesus' decision to go to Bethany only after He knew that Lazarus was dead underscores a major theme of John's gospel: All that happens to Him happens at the time of His and the Father's choosing. Later in this gospel, Jesus is seen standing silently before Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate asks Jesus if He is unaware that he--Pilate--had the power to take Jesus' life. Jesus tells Pilate that he wouldn't have this power if the Father hadn't given it to him.
7. Thomas, the doubting one, made one of the all-time misunderstood comments in the Bible when Jesus announced, just before our lesson begins, that He was heading to Lazarus' hometown of Bethany after Lazarus had died. Knowing that, by going to the dead man's hometown, Jesus would be walking away from a safe hiding place and into the clutches of those who wanted to kill Him, Thomas said, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." (John 11:16)
People often read these as words of faith. No! They're words of sarcasm and loyal resignation. John shows a Thomas who often follows Jesus in spite of himself and his "better" judgment. It will be Thomas who doubts Jesus' resurrection. Yet, in spite of his doubts, he kept hanging out with Jesus' frightened band of followers after Jesus' resurrection and it will be on an eighth day, the first day of the second week of a new creation, that the risen Jesus will appear to Thomas. (John 20) Tradition says that Thomas carried the Good News of new life through the crucified and risen Jesus to India.
Even those who believe may sometimes doubt or struggle to allow their belief to overcome their unbelief.
Okay, I really do intend to present some verse-by-verse comments on the lesson. But that may not happen until later today or early tomorrow.
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