Jesus lays claim to divinity: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26).
By Deacon Frederick Bartels
6 April 2014
In the gospel this Fifth Sunday of Lent (Jn 11:1-45), we hear about Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. On seeing Lazarus, Jesus as true man wept for him and, as eternal God, raised him from the tomb (see Fifth Sunday of Lent Preface). This event should not be viewed simply as a message from the past. It is an event that has meaning for us today, and, in fact, applies to our lives in the present. The Son of God who is fully human and fully divine takes pity on the human race and is deeply moved by not merely concern for the human condition but a passionate love for his people. His love is of such magnitude that he willingly walks toward the cross, and accepts a brutal death upon it in order to redeem humankind and offer salvation to all.
Further, notice how Martha expresses her faith in Jesus as Lord. She tells Jesus that, had he been there, Lazarus would not have died. She reasons that God would give to Jesus whatever he asks of him (Jn 11:21-22). When Jesus answers Martha, he does not simply agree that he has favor with God but rather lays claim to his divinity as well as his divine power. He tells her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26).
We are not saved simply by knowing about Jesus, as if it is enough to admire him as a good and just man whose moral teaching is worthy of admiration. We are saved by entering into his life, by making his story our story. In that story is the cross–the only way to life. The authentic Christian disciple becomes like Jesus. In doing so, on the last day, he will be raised like Jesus.
Praise God!
Deacon Frederick Bartels is a member of the Catholic clergy who serves the Church in the diocese of Pueblo. He holds an MA in Theology and Educational Ministry, is a member of the theology faculty at Catholic International University, and is a Catholic educator, public speaker, and evangelist who strives to infuse culture with the saving principles of the gospel. For more, visit YouTube, iTunes and Twitter.
According to the Bible, how many Old Testament prophets raised people from the dead? Answer: Two. Elijah and Elisha.
That’s it. And they only did it three times. So the act of raising someone from the dead would have been seen as a very, very big deal. It was not like healing someone of a disease or casting out demons. Lots of people, it seems, could do those miracles. Nope, raising someone from the dead was the big kahuna of all miracles!
In the Gospel of John chapter 11, we are told that Lazarus had been dead for four days. His body was decomposing to the point that he stunk. Lazarus death and burial were very public events. His tomb was a known location. Many Jews had come to mourn with Mary and Martha and some of them were wondering why the great miracle worker, Jesus, had not come and healed his friend Lazarus; essentially blaming Jesus for letting Lazarus die.
Let’s step back and look at the facts asserted in this passage: Only two OT prophets had raised people from the dead, and these two prophets were considered probably the two greatest Jewish prophets of all time: Elijah and Elisha. If this story is true, the supernatural powers of Jesus were on par with the supernatural powers of the greatest Jewish prophets of all time! If this event really did occur, it should have shocked the Jewish people to their very core—a new Elijah was among them! This event must have been the most shocking event to have occurred in the lives of every living Jewish man and woman on the planet. The news of this event would have spread to every Jewish community across the globe.
And yet…Paul, a devout and highly educated Jew, says not one word about it. Not one. Not in his epistles; not in the Book of Acts. Think about that. What would be the most powerful sign to the Jews living in Asia Minor and Greece—the very people to whom Paul was preaching and attempting to convert—to support the claim that Jesus of Nazareth himself had been raised from the dead? Answer: The very public, very well documented raising from the dead of Lazarus of Bethany by Jesus!
But nope. No mention of this great miracle by Paul. (A review of Paul’s epistles indicates that Paul seems to have known very little if anything about the historical Jesus. Read here.)
And there is one more very, very odd thing about the Raising-of-Lazarus-from-the-Dead Miracle: the author of the Gospel of John, the very last gospel to be written, is the only gospel author to mention this amazing miracle! The authors of Mark, Matthew, and Luke say NOTHING about the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Nothing.
This is a tall tale and nothing more!
Gary,
It is surprising that you acknowledge that the raising of Lazarus was a public and well documented event when referring to Paul’s silence on the matter, yet end by stating that, because the synoptics do not mention it, and it is included in only John’s gospel, it is a “tall tale and nothing more!” The fact that John wrote of it while Matthew, Mark and Luke did not, has nothing to do with its historical validity. All of the canons of Scripture are definitively held to be the inspired word of God by the Catholic Church. Whatever event may be left out of one does not negate the truthfulness of it as found in the others.
The synoptic authors, although they don’t mention Lazarus, did write of Jesus raising others: Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9:23-26, Mark 5:35-43, and Luke 8:40-56), as well as the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:12-15).
It is helpful to remember that the gospel writers each wrote in somewhat unique ways, narrating the word of God to their particular communities, not as human-dictation-machines, each producing exact word-for-word replicas of events, but as human authors inspired by God who wrote within a particular historical context and to diverse communities. Although the synoptics are quite similar, John’s gospel is more unique, often referred to as the “gospel from above” because of the heavenly perspective characterized by its first chapter and others.
Additionally, Paul’s epistles where written from a different perspective than the synoptic gospels. Paul wrote from a post-resurrection perspective in which he is intent on handing on the oral tradition of the Church with respect to salvation through faith in the resurrected Christ (among other things); whereas the synoptic gospels are historical narratives of the deeds and words of Jesus, along with accounts of the figures who interacted with him, including of course his disciples and the apostles who walked with him during his public ministry. Therefore Paul’s epistles do not include everything the gospels include because they are written from a different point of beginning.
The fact that Paul does not mention Lazarus and the gospel of John does, is inconsequential to the historical truth of the raising of Lazarus. Also, the fact that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead does not of itself prove Jesus’ own resurrection. One does not prove the other, just as other miracles recorded in Scripture do not prove that Jesus is God in the flesh.
There were many witnesses of the resurrected Christ. It is this witness, the historical witness of the body of Christ, the Church, that provides for us proof that Christ really did rise from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is a matter of history within the community of the people of God.