Lazarus of Bethany: “‘Lazarus,’ the Greek form of Eleazar = God is my Help.” (Dods)ī. Many think that the Synoptic Gospels are centered on Peter’s account of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. Morris suggested another reason the Synoptic Gospels did not include the account of the raising of Lazarus is that Peter was not present in these months he was in Galilee while Jesus was in Perea and Bethany. He thinks that the other three evangelists wrote their histories during the life of Lazarus and that they did not mention him for fear of exciting the malice of the Jews against him.” (Clarke) The conjecture of Grotius has a good deal of weight. “ It is surprising that the other evangelists have omitted so remarkable an account as this is, in which some of the finest traits in our Lord’s character are exhibited. “There is no parallel whatever for the raising of a man who had been dead for four days and whose body had begun to putrefy.” (Barclay) One might say that it is foolish to think one miracle is more difficult than another, but this seventh sign of John’s gospel is unique. Now a certain man was sick: This begins perhaps the most remarkable miracle Jesus performed. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”Ī. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. The account in John 11 makes clear that God intended for Lazarus to die temporarily so that he could be raised again (John 11:4).A. His earlier "brush with death" was not his resurrection moment, but simply an opportunity or God to display His power over death. If we assume that Lazarus was a believer in Jesus Christ (probably a safe assumption), then we can be sure he will one day be resurrected into a new body (together with all believers) and will live eternally with Christ. This is why they had to die again, because the putting away of our present body is a necessary prerequisite to receiving a new body. When Lazarus and the others like him were brought back to life, they merely returned to their existing, corrupt body. Paul describes the nature of true resurrection at length in 1Cor 15, where he teaches that the body of a resurrected believer is a new, better form than the previous body. Secondly, resurrection is a transformation into a new body, one that is fundamentally different than the one that preceded it. Once Jesus raised him from the dead, he continued in his Earthly life and eventually faced his true death and judgment. When Lazarus died, he didn't face the moment of judgment nor did he escape death forever. A true resurrection is one that returns a person to a permanent state of new life, one in which the person is never to be subjected to death again (see Heb 9:27 Rom 6:8-9 1Cor 15:54, etc.). Resurrection as it is described in Scripture requires two elements, neither of which were present for Lazarus nor the other people raised from the dead during Jesus' ministry on Earth.įirst, as you say each person Jesus raised prior to his own resurrection was subject to death again at some later point. According to Scripture, Jesus was the first person to be resurrected (1Cor 15:20), and you offered part of the answer in your question for why we cannot consider Lazarus (or any of the other people Jesus raised from the dead) to have preceded Jesus in resurrection.
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