The last public miracle Jesus performed in His earthly ministry before going to the cross took place one week before that fateful day: when He raised Lazarus from the dead. This account, which only John records, is the one miracle given the most attention. There is more setup and buildup for this miracle than for any other Jesus performed. And there are more implications of this miracle by the public recorded than with any other miracle Jesus did. It is one thing to heal lame people or to make blind people see. It is something else to make food multiply or to walk on water. But Jesus proved His divinity with His third miracle of bringing someone back from the dead. With two others, the son of the widow at Nain and Jarius’ daughter, Jesus preferred that it be hushed. Yet with Lazarus, it was fully public.
Jesus raised Lazarus moments before His triumphant entry, and people thought He was coming to finally claim the throne and drive out Rome. This created a lot of tension among the priesthood, who knew full well that Rome would annihilate them if they tried, because many had tried and failed before anything could get off the ground. One of the plots they contrived was to kill Lazarus; being alive after four days of publicly being known to be dead and buried, he was living proof of Jesus’ power and authority. To them, killing Lazarus would kill the testimony of Jesus raising him. Obviously, they didn’t carry out that plan because they chose to focus more on killing Jesus first.
Why did Jesus raise Lazarus? And why did He wait so long to go see him? Obviously, Jesus cared, and it showed when He wept in front of Mary, Martha, and the crowd; however, He could have come sooner. He didn’t. Why not? As I mentioned, Jesus was about His Father’s business first and foremost, and in His spirit, Jesus knew not to go yet. It was not until Lazarus had already died, and it took two days to get Him the message and two days to get to Bethany, four days total. He waited. Because the Father did not want to show this time that Jesus had power over sickness. He had already shown that many times, and this is what Mary and Martha were counting on. The Father wanted to show that Jesus had something much more than that: the power to raise the dead. This would be a preview of what would happen one week later when Jesus would come out of the grave Himself. Jesus came to show that He had more than just the power to give life, but that He is the Resurrection and the Life.
Think about that. It is Jesus who gives life. Jesus is the active creating agent of the Creation. It was Jesus who breathed life into the figure of dust to become a living soul and called it “man.” It is Jesus who gives us all life. It is all in accordance with the will of the Father, who knows the day and hour of our lifespans, including every choice that people would make into that plan. And it is Jesus who gives life and takes life. It is beyond what we can truly fathom as to why He allows some to live and some to die. Why can’t God just raise all our loved ones? Why does God have to allow people to suffer and die?
This life is temporary, and it is going to end sooner or later. Yes, those of us who have lost loved ones grieve, and we know intuitively that death is not natural. That is why we grieve. It’s not supposed to happen. It wasn’t inherent in the original design. That is why the idea of resurrection is so vital. This life is temporary, but the life to come is eternal. Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead to show that even death itself is not the end. Death came in as an intruder, a result of the curse due to sin, but also as a mercy to us sinners, that we would not continue to live in this state of misery and corruption.
Immortality is a dream many people have because it was something we had and lost because of our sin. We long for that utopia and that fountain of youth. We instinctively long for that which was lost in the Garden. That is why so many want heaven. But do they want God? That is the question. Yet, in many fictional stories of those who acquired immortality, it is interesting how often the theme of these immortals desiring closure and having peace when they finally die shows up. At the same time, so many fear death because all know that when death comes, judgment comes. The accounting takes place. For the non-believer, death is something to dread because they have the wrath of God bearing upon them. For the believer, death is something to embrace because we will finally be freed from this body cursed by sin and will be in the presence of God, awaiting our new body that will be glorified. The raising of Lazarus is just a quick snapshot that death is not the end of the story, but the mere closing of a chapter that opens to a much bigger one.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He also triggered the religious leaders to a point of total desperation on their end. One comment I heard that I think has at least some merit is that Jesus calculated every move He made to set up the crucifixion. Jesus could have so easily played the crowd to do anything, but if you look at how Jesus would draw crowds to the point where He was a public figure worthy of notice, yet kept turning away crowds who didn’t want to accept His message, and how He confronted the Pharisees, it was all a strategic plot to get His enemies to get Him killed. It wasn’t on Jesus’ part as a man, but on God’s. It was the Father’s plan, and He did it to get Jesus’ own enemies, those who sought to mark Jesus as anything but the Messiah, to actually fulfill the very Scriptures that revealed Him. Think about it. Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver to Judas just as Zechariah prophesied. All Caiphas and his ilk had to do was offer 20 or 40 pieces of gold. Anything but 30 pieces of silver – the price of a slave. That is why Paul said that if the enemies of God knew what they were doing, they would not have crucified Christ. So the raising of Lazarus, Jesus’ final public miracle, was all part of God’s plan to get Jesus to that Cross and truly conquer death once and for all.
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