The raising of Lazarus
1 There was a sick man named Lazarus who was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 It was the same Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick.
3 So the sisters sent this message to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 On hearing this Jesus said, “This illness will not end in death; rather it is for God’s glory and the Son of God will be glorified through it.”
5 It is a fact that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus;
6 yet, after he heard of the illness of Lazarus, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Only then did he say to his disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.”
8 They replied, “Master, recently the Jews wanted to stone you. Are you going there again?”
9 Jesus said to them, “Are not twelve working hours needed to complete a day? Those who walk in the daytime shall not stumble, for they see the light of this world.
10 But those who walk at night stumble, for there is no light in them.”
11 After that Jesus said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him.”
12 The disciples replied, “Lord, a sick person who sleeps will recover.”
13 But Jesus had referred to Lazarus’ death, while they thought that he had meant the repose of sleep.
14 So Jesus said plain ly, “Lazarus is dead
15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, for now you may believe. But let us go there, where he is.”
16 Then Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go that we may die with him.”
17 When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.
18 As Bethany is near Jerusalem, about two miles away,
19 many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to offer consolation at their brother’s death.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him while Mary remained sitting in the house.
21 And she said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 But I know that what ever you ask from God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.”
25 But Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection; whoever be lieves in me, though he die, shall live.
26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”
28 After that Martha went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The Master is here and is calling for you.”
29 As soon as Mary heard this, she rose and went to him.
30 Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her, also came. When they saw her get up and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep.
32 As for Mary, when she came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews also who had come with her, he was moved in the depths of his spirit and troubled.
34 Then he asked, “Where have you laid him?” They answered, “Lord, come and see.”
35 And Je sus wept.
36 The Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “If he could open the eyes of the blind man, could he not have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus was deeply moved again and drew near to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across it.
39 Jesus ordered, “Take the stone away.” Martha said to him, “Lord, by now he will smell, for this is the fourth day.”
40 Jesus replied, “Have I not told you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they re moved the stone.
Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for you have heard me.
42 I knew that you hear me always; but my prayer was for the sake of these people, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When Jesus had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
The plot to kill Jesus
45 Many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw what he did;
46 but some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called the Sanhedrin Council.
They said, “What are we to do? For this man keeps on giving miraculous signs.
48 If we let him go on like this, all the people will believe in him and, as a result of this, the Romans will come and sweep away our Holy Place and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all nor do you see clearly what you need.
50 It is better to have one man die for the people than to let the whole nation be destroyed.”
51 In saying this Caiaphas did not speak for himself, but being High Priest that year, he fore told as a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation,
52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the scattered children of God.
53 So, from that day on, they were determined to kill him.
54 Because of this, Jesus no longer moved about freely among the Jews. He withdrew instead to the country near the wilderness and stayed with his disciples in a town called Eph raim.
55 The Passover of the Jews was at hand and people from everywhere were coming to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.
56 They looked for Jesus and as they stood in the Temple, they talked with one another, “What do you think? Will he come to the festival?”
57 Mean while the chief priests and the elders had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should let them know so that they could arrest him.
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Comments , Chapter 11
• 11.1 This is the seventh and last miracle of Jesus recorded in John’s Gospel. Inten tionally, the first words are designed to present the sick man: Lazarus personifies the person wounded by sin, who is in process of dying unless Christ calls him to life.
Lazarus came back to life! Let us not be astounded that Lazarus had the good fortune to live for a few more years and the misfortune of having to die again. This noticeable miracle only foretells the true resurrection that does not just prolong life but transforms our entire being. The resurrection is spiritual. It be gins when faith moves a person to give up wrong ways of living and become open to receiving God’s life.
The Jews believed in the resurrection of the dead on the last day, as Martha mentioned (v. 24). They thought a divine force would come to shake the universe and open the tombs so the dead could come out. In reality, the resurrection of the dead comes about through someone, the Son of God, who has in himself all the power needed to raise people to life and to transform creation. One who lives in submission to Christ has already passed from death to life (5:24) and, because of this, will never die (v. 26).
All the persons mentioned here called Jesus “Master,” but John has them say Lord. In this way he teaches us that this miracle of Lazarus recalled to life is an image of the glorious resurrection of Jesus, the Lord. (Regarding this term “the Lord” which is one of the strongest proofs of the faith of the early Church in the divinity of Jesus, see the commentary in Acts 2:36.)
The Jews wanted to kill Jesus (v. 8), but it was legally difficult for them to take Jesus prisoner. They could do this only in the province of Jeru salem, where their religious communities and political organization were strong. As long as Jesus remained on the other side of the Jordan, he was secure. The resurrection of Lazarus hastened the time of Jesus’ death and glorification.
The twelve hours (v. 9). Jesus will complete the twelve hours of his journey, that is, of his mission, without fear of the risks involved. Those who, like him, walk by day, that is, in accordance with the divine plan, will not stumble; Christ will be for them the light of the world.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ (v. 27). What more extraordinary profession of faith is there than Martha’s! It is like Peter’s (Mt 16:16), and in a short while it will be Mary who will tell about the resurrection to the same apostles. Truly the Gospel is not male
chauvinist, nor does it enthrone ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Father, I thank you … (v. 41). This act of thanks giving is the only one we read in John, aside from the long prayer in chapter 17 that is full of praise for the Father. We read another such prayer in Luke 10:21. These recorded acts of thanksgiving may seem very few, considering that thanksgiving is an essential attitude of a Christian, but Jesus expressed his act of thanksgiving in all he did. In his mortal existence, he dispossessed himself of his own will and power so that the Father could use him for his greater glory (Jn 12:27-28).
Untie him (v. 44). For burial the Jews bound their dead with linen. This word “to untie” means something more, it was the expression used by the primitive Church in referring to for giveness of sins. Like Laza rus, one who receives pardon returns to life.
• 45. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Caiaphas’ words were fulfilled but not in the sense he intended. Jesus was going to die to gather into one the scattered children of God (v. 52).
The worldwide effect of Christ’s resurrection is to unite all of hu manity in renewed creation – as Jesus himself put it, “when I’m lifted up from earth I shall draw all to myself” (Jn 12:32). That is to say, the cross and resurrection are the source of communion and fraternity.
The Church reunites believers of all races and cultures: we call it “Catholic,” that is, universal. This Church, however, is but a be gin ning and a sign of that which will be attained at the end of time, when the whole of humanity will be re united in Christ (Rev 7).
In our world, preventing people from grouping together to discuss and understand their situation perpetuates the oppression of rural and urban masses. This hidden violence opposes unity. Some current ideologies promote a struggle for liberation that attempts to unite people by targeting adversaries and continually deciding on whom to expel. There, too, the seed of violence (for both murder and exclusion are violence) gives birth to more oppressive societies.
Christians should be the first to notice we are living in an exceptional century in which, for the first time, all peoples share the same history and must accept a common destiny, either willingly or by force. This awareness enables them to see and to indicate the goals of human effort. They must ponder all of human reality, and even international relationships, in the light of the Gospel and not waste all their energy in projects of aid for the poor.