![]() Lazarus Raised from the DeadĪfter Jesus told them to roll away the stone from in front of the grave “ they took away the stone. Do you believe this” (John 11:25-26)? This is exactly why Jesus had said earlier “ this illness wouldn’t lead to death” because Lazarus was about to be raised from the dead. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Here is where Jesus gives one of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible when He says “ I am the resurrection and the life. ![]() Jesus told Martha “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:23-24). But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (John 11:20-22). Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus arrived in Bethany at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Lazarus had already been dead for four day (John 11:17-18) and “ when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. It’s interesting to note that to Jesus, death is sleep since He stated more than once that “ he is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38) so to Jesus, death is like a sleep since they are still alive. Jesus said something interesting in John11:11 about Lazarus that “ Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” and the disciples misunderstood Him and thought that if he’s sleeping, he’ll get better (John 11:12-12) so Jesus clearly stated “ Lazarus has died” (John 11:14). It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Jesus was saying that Lazarus’s illness wouldn’t lead to death because Jesus knew that He would raise him from the dead “ so that the Son of God” would be glorified and He was! Jesus really loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus (John 11:5) but He still remained where He was for two full days (John 11:6), knowing that Lazarus was going to die in the meantime. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. The introduction to Lazarus begins in John 11:1-4 where it says “ Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Lazarus was a very common name among the Jews during Jesus’ earthly ministry so there could have been hundreds or more in Judea at that time. The Lazarus I am writing about is not the one from the account of Lazarus and the Rich Man. There is no way to prove that he was the same Lazarus but honestly, I cannot conclusively prove that this wasn’t the same Lazarus either but it seems unlikely. Some speculate that the same Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead (John 11) was the same Lazarus who went to Paradise after he died and was in the “bosom of Abraham” and that Jesus could have brought him back to life. There is no reason to believe that this is the same Lazarus who is the brother of Martha and Mary and even though there is some speculation that they are one and the same, since both died, there is really no nearness of these two separate accounts in the chronological order in which these two Lazarus’ were mentioned in the gospels of Luke and John. He typically says “now the master’s servants” or something like that but here in this parable, Jesus gives a specific name the name of the poor, beggar Lazarus who entered Paradise but the Rich Man didn’t. Jesus doesn’t customarily use names of real people in parables. The story of Lazarus and the Rich Man was given by Jesus in Luke 16:19-31 but nowhere does Jesus say that this is a parable. The Lazarus I will write about is the brother of Martha and Mary as we shall later read. ![]() Lazarus’ name comes from the Greek word “Lazaros” and means “whom God helps” and it is a form of the Hebrew name Eleazar which is from the Hebrew word “’El`azar” and means something very similar “God has helped” so Lazarus name essentially means “whom God helps” or “God has helped.” Elazar was the third son of Aaron the first high priest of Israel and he was the successor of his father as Israel’s high priest.
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