Day 302—We are in the TENTH month of Bible reading and studying the New Testament Gospels.

    Day 302 – John 11 (The death of Lazarus, resurrection & life, plot to kill Jesus)

John 11.  Jesus and His disciples are staying over by the Jordan River because of the hostility of the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, is where the sisters Martha and Mary, along with their younger brother Lazarus, lived.  Jesus has stayed with them many times. He knows them and loves them

Lazarus gets very sick, and the sisters send a message to Jesus with the facts, hoping He will come and heal their brother. Mysteriously, Jesus does not go to Bethany, saying, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

He stays at the Jordan for two more days and then announces they are going to Judea. His disciples object, knowing the Jews want to stone him. Jesus basically tells them not to worry because it is not “his Hour” yet.  He tells them Lazarus has fallen asleep (died), but He will “awaken” him. Thomas says they should go “with,” so if Jesus dies, they can die too. What a melancholy group.

When they get to Bethany near Jerusalem, the disciples learn Lazarus is dead and buried for four days.  Both sisters, in their own ways, say to Jesus, “If You had been here, our brother would not have died.”

Jesus asks Martha (the brainy one) if she believes Lazarus will live again.  She says, sure, on the last day. Jesus encourages her to believe in a miracle by saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live….. Do you believe that?”   And she answers that she believes He is the Christ, the Son of God.”

When Jesus saw Mary (the emotional one) weeping and heard her accusation, He was deeply moved in His spirit. “Where have you buried him?” He asks, and she shows Him. At the tomb, Jesus weeps silently. The onlookers say, “Wow, see how He loved Lazarus!”  A few others say derisively, “He healed a blind man; couldn’t He have kept Lazarus from dying?”  But Jesus was not crying for Lazarus’ death because He knew He would raise him, but because of the sin in the world that CAUSED death. Truly He was a “man of sorrows.”

Jesus tells them to roll the stone away from the tomb’s entrance. (Lord, he stinks by now!!) Jesus reminds Martha that her faith would allow her to see the “glory of God” that day. She orders the stone removed.

Jesus lifts His eyes to heaven and thanks His Father, so those around Him will believe that God sent Him.

Then…..  “LAZARUS, COME OUT!”

And the formerly dead man, still wrapped in grave cloths, which have begun to fall off….. COMES OUT of the grave!

Gasps!

Screams!

Praises!

Fainting??

Anger!!

“Unbind him, and let him go,”  Jesus instructs Martha.  (And what a reunion that must have been!)

Many Jews believed in Jesus that day, but some rushed into the city to tell the Pharisees what had happened.  The priests and Pharisees gathered a special meeting of the Council (Sanhedrin).

“What are we to do? This man performs many signs.  If we let him go on, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away “our place” and “our nation.”

Caiaphas says, “You know nothing at all.  Don’t you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish?”  Whoa!  He didn’t realize that he was prophesizing about the redemptive death of the Messiah.

And from THAT DAY, they made plans to KILL Him.  Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews or the city but went back out into the wilderness.  The chief priest ordered that if anyone saw Jesus, they should let them know so they could arrest Him.

As Passover approached, crowds of people flocked into the city. They looked for Jesus as they stood in the temple.  “Do you think he will come to the feast at all?”