Chapter 11

Starts this way:

1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. [Jhn 11:1 ESV]

We know from other places that Lazarus was brother to Mary and Martha.  John surely knew this also, he'd stayed at their house with them.  Why wouldn't he just say that?  Because this is about the man and not about his sisters?

Then we have verse 2:

2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. [Jhn 11:2 ESV]

I don't think the ointment and the hair thing has happened yet.  I thought that particular Mary had some problems.  That is going to happen in chapter 12, but John mentioning it here implies that he expects his readers already know about that, and this fixes the location for them. 

There are seven miracles recorded in John.  MSB says this one of raising Lazarus is the biggest of all, because Lazarus had been dead four days.  The son of the widow of Nain and Jairus' daughter, had only just died when they were raised.  Lazarus' resurrection, given that more than a little decay and decomposition would have to be reversed, is beyond human action.  It is not even a distant possibility today.  The miracles John records are these, from MSB:

Water into wine, healing the nobleman's son, restoring the impotent man, multiplying the loaves and fishes, walking on the water, and curing the man born blind.  The raising of Lazarus is seven.  Many many more miraculous things are referred to, such as Jesus "healing them all" and so on, are mentioned, but these seven are specifically recounted with some detail.

2021 - This verse:

4 But when Jesus heard it he said, "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." [Jhn 11:4 ESV]  So according to John at least, Jesus knew all that was going to happen here, the whole sequence.  Lazarus did really die, and those who knew and loved experienced the full weight of grief that death brings.  All that happened in order to glorify the Son of God.  What we have to realize is that even when there is no miracle, and there isn't in our time, the Son is still glorified in all things - in some aspect, some sense, some place, whether we see it and recognize it or not, just the same the Son is always glorified.

Mary and Martha send word to Jesus.  He does not come.  John's recounting indicates that Jesus let the messengers know that he was aware of the situation, of how it would turn out, of the details of what He would do, and that it was all about glorifying God.  Jesus said the illness wouldn't lead to death - but it did.  Could be something interesting with the verb tenses he used.  (No.  Straight up present active indicative.)  And ultimately, the death was just a passing thing, and did not "stick". 

2021 - Looked at the interlinear.  It is a simple present active indicative verb tense.  But the wording is more like "does not end in death".  That was entirely true.  Lazarus would die, but that was not going to be the end of the story.  Wording it "does not lead to death" is, I think, a poor translation.  Several versions translate it with the "does not end in death" phrasing - NLT, NIV, CSB.  NASB95 is also good.

After two more days, Jesus tells his disciples they are going to Judea again.  They oppose this because they know the Jews there are actively trying to kill Jesus.  Jesus response:

9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. [Jhn 11:9 ESV]

Seems to say that if we are doing God's will, it is to be done openly, flagrantly, and not hidden or disguised.  Things done in the dark - with intent to hide - may well go wrong. 

2021 - It is likely that those who rejected Jesus were saying that Jesus was not coming to see Lazarus because he was too busy looking after himself.  They'd be saying he was afraid to come.  They'd be saying he let his friend die rather than risk being killed by the Jews.  Perhaps part of Jesus' delay is so they would say exactly this.

2022 - I would include this verse:

10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." [Jhn 11:10 ESV].  I think understanding these two verses requires understanding that this is Jesus' last trip to Jerusalem.  He is going to be arrested, tried, and sentenced on this trip.  He does not say "you're right, we should stay here because my time is not yet come."  That's all over with.  His time indeed has come.  Not only that, but there is much that still has to be done during the next week or so.  He needs the 12 hours a day to do that.  Further, in 10, he contrasts the phrase "...he sees the light of this world" with the phrase "...the light is not in him".  What Jesus must still do is physical.  It is about earthly things that must be fulfilled.  These things will stand for all time, and must be done in daylight when all can see them.  There will be other deeds though, done by the lost and the evil, and all their plotting and planning will be done in darkness - the darkness of this world - but done that way BECAUSE they are not believers in any sense.  These are enemies of the light, and enemies of deeds done in the light.

In vs 11, Jesus tells them that Lazarus has "fallen asleep", and they are going to wake him up.  Jesus surely saw physical death as a temporary thing.  He looked to eternal death and eternal life, to hell and heaven, as the permanent state of things, as the state that we need to address.  That Jesus sees things this way is restated, very literally, in this verse:

25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" [Jhn 11:25-26 ESV]

"though he die, yet shall he live" drives this home.  So earlier, when he said Lazarus illness was not unto death, this is what he meant.

2021 - Also these verses:

23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." [Jhn 11:23-24 ESV]

The eschatology of Christ.  When Martha says she understands that Lazarus will rise from the dead on the last day, Jesus does not argue with her.  That will happen.  But he goes on to tell her that he is the author of resurrection, and has the power to effect it whenever he will.

2024 - Is the rapture the last day?  I think not, unless the rapture is just before the GWT.  Some do put it there.  But then from what are those who believe in Christ removed?  They go through wrath with everyone else.  So now, we have to deal with two resurrections.  One at the rapture and one on the last dday.  There just aren't any other possibilities.   Why would Lazarus miss the rapture and wait until the last day?  Because at this time ALL were under the Law.  The only ones raptured are those who belive in Christ by faith and NOT by sight...or...there is a different plan for those who physically saw him, as we have been speculating about in several 2024 noted on John.

2022 - So what resurrection is Mary talking about?  If Lazarus had stayed dead, though he was a believer, Mary says he will be resurrected on the last day.  That does not sound at all like a reference to the rapture.  I don't think the rapture is EVER called the last day.  The last day is here:  11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. [Rev 20:11-13 ESV].  So I think this verse tells, indirectly, that OT saints are NOT resurrected until the GWT.  The rapture is about the church.  The NT church.  It is about those who lived and died in the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ, as he reigns from the right hand of God.  Our judgment will be at the bema seat in heaven, where Jesus will be our defender at the judgment seat of God.  Lazarus would not have been resurrected until the GWT.  But now, since he is included in the Kingdom, he will be raptured with us.  His time of resurrection was changed by Jesus' actions.

vs 39:

39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." [Jhn 11:39 ESV]  Martha was sister to Lazarus.  John just has an odd way with stating these relationships.  He has said Mary and Martha are sisters, 1, that Lazarus is Mary's brother, 2, and now that Lazarus is Martha's brother.  But he has not mentioned all three together as brother and sisters.  Just seems odd to me. 

Lazarus comes out after four days, bound in the burial clothes he's been unable to get out of, even with the cloth still over his face. 

2022 - This verse:

42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me." [Jhn 11:42 ESV].

This verse bothers me a little.  I don't think there is any other verse in the gospels where Jesus explains why he is doing what he is doing.  This seems more like the little inserts we have seen from John throughout this book where he explains in hindsight why things happen as they did.  Perhaps the disciples of the Baptist were saying that if Jesus was Messiah he would not have needed to thank the Father for hearing him.  If he was also God, he would not have needed to say this.  So...Jesus...or John...explain that this was for the benefit of those standing around.  Should this verse really be in red?  If we leave vs 42 out entirely, it still reads just fine.  Almost like a scribe somewhere read it wrong and changed it from another Johannon insert to words in red.

Many who see a man dead four days walk out of his tomb believe in Jesus at this time.  I think we are talking about belief that he is Christ, the Son of God, as Martha said in vs 27.  But others, who saw the same thing, instead of believing decide to go and tell the Pharisees in Jerusalem what Jesus has just done.  As it reads, upon hearing about this, the chief priests and Pharisees gather in council.  The scene shifts to this meeting as they discuss what to do about Jesus.  Wonder if John had first hand information as to who said what at this meeting? 

2022 - He sure might have had inside info.  After all, when Jesus was arrested and taken to the house of High Priest, John was able to just walk right in, while Peter was questioned first.  John was either on a first name basis with the High Priest, or with someone who ranked quite high in the power structure.  So it is believable that John was told what the Pharisees said at this meeting.

They have heard about Lazarus coming back from the dead.  There is no indication that they doubted the truth of this.  They believed it had happened, and they believed the other miracles that Jesus had performed were also real.  Their problem was that they did not connect Jesus' work to God, nor did they see Jesus as Messiah.  They were so focused on what they had always been told about the Messiah - as conquering king - that they just wouldn't consider the tremendous amount of evidence though it was right in front of their eyes. Surely this is a severe case of cognitive dissonance.  They chose to fear the consequences of Jesus' actions rather than to embrace the implications of Jesus' actions.  This verse:

48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." [Jhn 11:48 ESV]

This does not seem logical.  Why would the Romans react this way to a man raising people from the dead?  MSB says that what the Pharisees foresaw was a popular rebellion of Jesus' followers - which were likely getting pretty large in number at this time.  The Romans would surely put down such a rebellion and in the process, clamp down on the freedoms allowed to the Jews.  Again, they gave no thought to why Jesus was really there.  And in the end, it was not the Romans who put down Jesus' ministry, but the Pharisees themselves.  The Romans found no fault in Jesus at all.

2024 - This is the kind of misapprehension that occurs if you insist on leaving the supernatural acts of God out of your analysis in the world today.  The Pharisees do not even consider the possibility that God is at work in Jerusalem.  They in fact seem to spend zero time analyzing the means by which a person dead four days is raised from the dead.  They have ignored THE linchpin for understanding what was happening in the world that day.  When we see things that seem inexplicable, we ought not just leave them out of our thinking, but instead ask what God is doing here.  He is at work in the world every day, and He makes no mistakes, there are no accidents.

2020 - Noticed this verse:

51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. [Jhn 11:51-52 ESV]  What is John trying to tell us in this verse?  That when Caiaphas said this it was prophecy instead of his own thinking?  That it was God in fact predicting what was going to happen, not only for the nation but for all?  MSB note on 51 points out that originally, it was the High Priest who made the will of God known to the people.  So this is God indeed sending prophecy as to his redemptive plan through the high priest.  The evil intent of Caiaphas' words are laid at his feet, but the prophetic revelation of God's plan also came from his mouth.  By one man's death, the whole world will be saved.  This certainly indicates that John knew what was said in the meeting, he knew who said it, and he saw the connections that were there.  Even in the conspiracy that planned Jesus' death, God spoke.  He was there.