[F] 11:1-53 Seventh Sign and Eighth Dialogue
Chapter 11 relates the Seventh Sign and its discourse on the theme of the victory of life over death. Verses 1-45 relates the story of Lazarus with unusual detail. Verses 7-16 and 21-27 are two self-contained dialogues with weighty theological themes.
John 11:1-45 (Year A, Fifth Sunday in Lent) is the seventh sign and the eighth discourse/dialogue (verses 7-16, 21-27), the story of Jesus giving life to his friend Lazarus (borrowed from Lk 16:19-31; see widow of Nain in Luke 7:11-17 and daughter of Jairus in Mark 5:21-43). I will provide a detailed commentary focusing on the story, its theological significance, and its place in the Gospel narrative. The introduction contextualizes the Lazarus story among other “signs” in John’s Gospel, emphasizing its role in revealing Jesus’ identity. The verse-by-verse study offers close readings of key passages, highlighting literary, theological, and historical elements. The concluding meditation on death reflects on the existential implications of mortality and suffering, connecting them to the narrative’s themes.
Introduction
In context, this is the fourth in a line of crucial characters, each of which brings a distinct element of the personality of Jesus into public light: Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the man born blind (Luke 16:19-31 refers to Lazarus, where the question also deals with one coming back from the dead, as well as the raising of the young man of Nain in Luke 7:11-16 and the daughter of Jairus in Mark 5:22-24, 35-43). The other signs are the miracle of the water turned to wine (John 2:1-11), the healing of the official’s son (4:46-54), the healing of the paralytic by the pool (5:2-9), the feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-14), the walking on the water (6:16-21) and the healing of the man born blind (9:1-12). The purpose of such signs is to bring the reader to belief in Jesus. This sign confirms Jesus as resurrection and life. The elaboration of the miracle is so thorough that the theme has clear priority.[1] It provides a bridge to the next section of the book, the book of glory, which will conclude with the final glorification of Jesus. The death and rising of Lazarus anticipate the death and rising of Jesus, the latter showing the power of God to glorify Jesus in his death, which will then lead to faith and life for his followers. With the story of Lazarus, Jesus brings his message and his miracles to the boundary of human existence, the very border between death and life. The reader has known from the beginning that “life” came into being through him (1:4), but now John makes the point clear in both word (“I am the resurrection and the life”) and deed (“The dead man came out”).
Verse-by-verse study
John 11:1-45 (NRSV) (italics are the sayings source that Schnackenburg identifies, distinguishing it from the evangelist’s expansion).
In verses 1-4, the text refers to the love Jesus had for this family, suggesting that the love Jesus showed in his acts of exorcism, healing, and his friendship with sinners were obvious expressions of love, but his relationship with this family calls for special attention to that love. Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha (Lk 10:38-42). 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord (Κύριε), he whom you love (φιλεῖς) is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God (ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, Mk 13:32, derived from a Hellenistic setting[2]) may be glorified through it.” [This shows that suffering appears in a new light when one is conscious of being a child of God, which in this case means it serves the glory of God.[3]] 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved (ἠγάπα) Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. It is a sign of the secondary character of a gospel story that Jesus sets aside premature requests.[4]
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews (the religious leaders) were just now trying to stone you, (Lk 4:29, 13:34, a threat that is occurred repeatedly in the gospel narrative[5]) and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” [This is an everyday truth. It is a common theme in the Old Testament that relates darkness and falling. Thus, before the prophet warns that before the Lord brings darkness and thus before their feet stumble (Jer 13:16). We stumble at noon as in the twilight (Isa 59:10). The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble (Pr 4:19). The point of the metaphor is that Jesus has only a brief time before his approaching fall, his death, thereby taking its place among the group of passion pronouncements in John.[6]]
11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend (φίλος) Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly (παρρησίᾳ, nonfiguratively, openly, without concealment), “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” For surviving friends, the one recently dead can appear as sleep, so sleep became a metaphor for death. The metaphor of the sleep of death presupposes an apocalyptic heritage, a reality which is so only in appearance in encountering Jesus. It occurs in the context of a superficially misunderstanding on the part of the disciples. The rest which is sleep relativizes the power of death by the reality of salvation by proclaiming the powerlessness of death in the light of resurrection.[7] The misunderstanding occurs in that, despite the presence of Jesus, they do not realize that death is only sleep. They do not believe in Jesus as the resurrection and the life. His speech is now in metaphor and riddle.[8] Further, the movement of Jesus toward Jerusalem involves the risk of dying. Readers will know that the disciples, far from dying with Jesus, will abandon him.
Verses 17-27 relate the dialogue between Jesus and Martha concerning resurrection involves the typical misunderstanding of the meaning of Jesus by those who hear him. 17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days, thereby stressing that he is beyond all doubt dead. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 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.” 25 Jesus said to her, (expressing the word of revelation) “I am (Ἐγώ εἰμι) the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord (κύριε), I believe that you are the Messiah (ὁ χριστὸς, occurring here as a confession from another[9]), the Son of God (ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, occurring with a confessional tone and anticipating the aim of the gospel to support that confession in 20:31), the one coming into the world.” Martha responds in a way that suggests she is a disciple, for she believes he is the Messiah, the Son of God. Christ is the beyond in whom humanity in its transience, to which departure belongs, sees its temporal being clothed with eternal life.[10]Those who live and die in fellowship with the Redeemer experience no interruption of the relationship, even though they may experience some essential purifying and perfecting.[11] This approach fixes Christian hope on the right basis, even if we need to view this hope within the larger context of the future resurrection of the dead.[12]
In verses 28-37, on the way to the tomb, Mary interrupts with her grief and weeping, and Jesus weeps with her. He weeps over the power of death cutting short a human life and devastates those left behind to mourn and lament.[13] 28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher (Ὁ διδάσκαλος) is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. [This may indicate why Mary of Magdala made her way to the tomb on Easter morning.[14]] 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. [John describes the spirit of Jesus in human terms.[15]] 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved (ἐφίλει) him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” [This literary-critical feature of increasing numbers is part of a tendency to heighten the element of miracle.[16]] 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father (Πάτερ, the correct Greek vocative form reflecting the underlying colloquial Aramaic Abba, which was not used as an address to God in Judaism[17]), I thank (εὐχαριστῶ, allowing us to suppose that thanksgiving dominated the prayer life of Jesus[18]) you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out (Isa 48:8-9, where the Lord commands prisoners to come out, the healing action itself is through the healing word.[19])!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” [Jesus also echoes his earlier statement in 5:28-29 that all who are in their graves will hear the voice of the Lord and come out. The prayer of Jesus shows that the power comes from the Father to the Son. We now see the divine purpose. He did not just heal the body. He brought a new awareness of eternal life, especially for the family.]
In verses 45-54, religious leaders in the Sanhedrin condemn Jesus to death. 45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. [This illustrates the conclusion of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, where even if one raised from the dead they would not believe, the resurrection here serving only to harden the opposition to Jesus.[20]] 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, "What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place (the Jerusalem Temple) and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all! 50 You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed." [He suggests that Jesus needs to be killed to save Israel from political extinction.] 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God (Jn 1:12). [This gathering of the scattered flock is a feature of the messianic age.[21] The Lord will bring the offspring from the east, west, north, south, afar, and the ends of the earth (Isa 43:5-6). The Lord will bring sheep scattered to various places, bringing them from the peoples to their own land (Ez 34:12-13). Gather the scattered sheep with mercy and kindness (Psalms of Solomon 8:28). This vindicates the Gentile mission of Christianity, as one whom becomes a child of God by faith is already part of the gathering of an eschatological people of God.[22] Although the relation of the Son with the Father is one that Jesus shares with his followers, there is a clear distinction in that followers are children.[23]] 53 So from that day on they planned to put him to death. 54 Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples. Thus, Jesus was handed over to the Romans, not because of his teaching, but because of the unrest he was stirring up among the people, but because the Jewish leaders fearing reprisals from the occupying power. Jewish ideas of the suffering and death of the righteous, and especially of martyrs for the faith, suggest that one can think of it as an expiation for the Jewish people. [24]
As the Son gives the supreme demonstration of his power over life, the unbelievers resolve to destroy him and take the steps necessary to that end. The path to the cross is marked out in advance, but it is marked in the plan of God. The raising up on the cross will become the glorification of God in the Son. The sign of the raising of the dead is already pointing towards this final glorification.
In verses 55-57, will Jesus come to the Passover? This is the third Passover, the others in 2:13, 23, 6:4. 55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?" 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.
Meditation on significance of death
When we realize that death is the final act that will form the brackets of our lives that begins with birth, we also realize it will take courage to lead a human life. The failure to embrace our end can lead to a neurotic life that refuses the loan of life to avoid the payment of the debt, which is death.[25] Such neurosis can lead a form of psychic numbness, a form of anestheticizing our lives against the anxiety of death.[26] Here is the basic paradox of a human life. Our deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death. Yet life itself awakens the anxiety with which death confronts us in a way that makes us shrink from being fully alive.[27]
We often hear people say that suffering brings out the best in people. Further, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Even more, that which does not destroy us strengthens us. All of this contains an element truth. Yet we also need to confront another harsh fact. Hard times, suffering, and dark days break as many people as they make. We have all seen it.
It takes a degree of courage to lead a life in which we grasp the significance that we will die. If we reflect upon the brevity of our lives, we can consider the pattern our lives are weaving. Are we satisfied with the pattern? Looking upon the end can lead to insight into how we live today. We will not get a second chance to pay more attention. If we were to imagine our funeral, what do we hope family and friends will say? What will they say we have achieved and who will they say we are? Our answer can disclose to us our values and goals.
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[6] Stahlin, TDNT VI, 752-3.
[7] Balz, TDNT VIII, 555.
[8] Schlier, TDNT, 880-1.
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[11] Schleiermacher, Christian Faith, 158.2/3.
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[19] J. Schneider, TDNT VII, 603.
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[22] Michel, TDNT VII, 421.
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[24] Paul Winter, on the Trial of Jesus (Berlin, 1961), 135, 41, seen in Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 339.
[25] Otto Rank and Paul Tillich
[26] Robert Jay Lifton
[27] Ernest Becker
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