![]() ![]() The raising of Lazarus, then, is a prolegomenon to the Passion and Resurrection and, as such, it expresses the whole thrust and message of John’s gospel: namely, that to encounter Jesus is to encounter God, the source and giver of all life and all love.Īnd nowhere do we encounter him more explicitly than in Jesus’ act of unselfish and heroic love on the Cross. Nevertheless, John clearly intends the raising of Lazarus to be understood symbolically as anticipating Jesus’ resurrection and, therefore, our own. What happens to Lazarus is, of course, not resurrection, but resuscitation: the temporary reversal of death and a return to life as it was, in a mortal body. The ultimate ‘sign’ that fulfils and yet is essentially different from all the others, will be Jesus’ resurrection. On hearing of it, the alarmed Pharisees take the chillingly pragmatic and fundamentally amoral advice of Caiaphas, the High Priest, who tells them that “It is better for one man to die than that the whole nation should perish.” After that quintessentially consequentialist counsel, they jointly settle on a strategy to rid themselves of Jesus. The episode is also crucial in the narrative of the gospel: it’s both profoundly significant and supremely ironic that the raising of Lazarus is the event that finally seals Jesus’ fate. These ‘signs’ mark the unfolding revelation of God’s purpose which, as he makes clear in his prologue, is the imparting of life: not just physical, biological life, as in the case of Lazarus, but divine life, shared with us in and through Christ and manifest in is resurrection. For one, it’s the last and most explicit of the socalled ‘signs’ of which John speaks throughout his gospel, beginning with the miracle at the wedding feast at Cana. The raising of Lazarus marks a crucial stage in John’s gospel. ![]()
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