Raising of Lazarus

Introduction

Context

Jesus received news of Lazarus's death ( is key)

Waits two more days before making a day's trip

Many Jews had come to help Martha, Mary grieve their brother.

Interaction between Martha and Jesus where she confesses him as the Messiah. ( is key)

Mary hears of Jesus' arrival and makes her way to them while consolers follow.

*

Introductory scene

Who is there? Jesus, disciples, Mary, Martha, Jews to console

What is there? Lazarus' tomb and body

When did they get there? Mary, Martha had been there since brother's death, Jesus gets there 4 days later

Where are they? Bethany

Why are they there? More importantly, why do others think Jesus is there? This is where it depends on who you ask

Mary, Martha- mourning of their brother, same

Disciples - Accompanying Jesus, practicing what any pious Jew would in that time, especially a friend.

Jews - This is where I had to dig into extrabiblical sources since I am not an expert in first-century Jewish culture

Craig Keener quote on slides

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament 11:17–37—Comforting the Mourners

Visiting and consoling the bereaved in the days immediately following a close relative’s loss was an essential duty of Jewish piety. The neighbors would provide the first meal after the funeral. Lazarus would have been buried on the day of his death.

* (Slides) Visiting and consoling the bereaved in the days immediately following a close relative’s loss was an essential duty of Jewish piety. The neighbors would provide the first meal after the funeral. Lazarus would have been buried on the day of his death. The first week of deep grief after a close relative’s burial would be spent mourning in one’s house, sitting on the floor and visited by friends. This custom, called shivah (for “seven” days), is still practiced in Judaism today and is very helpful for releasing grief. Mourners abstained from adornment for the next three weeks and from common pleasures for the next year.

Visiting and consoling the bereaved in the days immediately following a close relative’s loss was an essential duty of Jewish piety. The neighbors would provide the first meal after the funeral. Lazarus would have been buried on the day of his death.

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament 11:17–37—Comforting the Mourners

The first week of deep grief after a close relative’s burial would be spent mourning in one’s house, sitting on the floor and visited by friends. This custom, called shivah (for “seven” days), is still practiced in Judaism today and is very helpful for releasing grief. Mourners abstained from adornment for the next three weeks and from common pleasures for the next year.

The first week of deep grief after a close relative’s burial would be spent mourning in one’s house, sitting on the floor and visited by friends. This custom, called shivah (for “seven” days), is still practiced in Judaism today and is very helpful for releasing grief. Mourners abstained from adornment for the next three weeks and from common pleasures for the next year.

Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. Print.

Read

John 11:32–37 NLT

When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

NLT, translation I carry around says, “When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.

Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2013. Print.

Any time I see Jesus expressing strong emotion it makes me curious so I started comparing with other translations

Text comparison 11:33 slide

I wasn’t convinced because it was the minority in translation so I dug a little.

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John (Second Edition) The Wrath of the Revealer in the Presence of Unbelief (11:28–44)

The rendering of the main clause, “Jesus … became angry in spirit and very agitated” requires discussion, not to say justification, in view of its departure from most English translations.

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John (Second Edition) The Wrath of the Revealer in the Presence of Unbelief (11:28–44)

“The word ἐμβριμᾶσθαι … indicates an outburst of anger, and any attempt to reinterpret it in terms of an internal emotional upset caused by grief, pain, or sympathy is illegitimate” (2:335).

The key could also be found a couple of verses later since there is a consensus as opposed to previous verse comparison.

text comparison slide

The New American Commentary: John 1–11 (4) The Encounter with Mary and the Mourners (11:28–37)

John carefully used a different word (dakryein) for Jesus’ tears, a word that is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. It was almost as though the evangelist wanted to send a signal to his readers not to misinterpret Jesus’ weeping

Now I was brought to the question that had been burning in my mind since reading this passage originally: Why was Jesus angry?

After some more digging I was able to find the following responses I wanted to share with you.

The New American Commentary: John 1–11 (4) The Encounter with Mary and the Mourners (11:28–37)

His problem in this story, however, was not death. It was the mourners. Jesus was not a helpless human in the face of death. The story has a much different focus. Martha had been full of words, and here Mary and her supporters were full of tears and wailing. But for all of them Jesus was an unrecognized power in their midst.

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John (Second Edition) The Wrath of the Revealer in the Presence of Unbelief (11:28–44)

They sorrowed, as Paul put it, “like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thess 4:13), which is irreconcilable with faith in the resurrection. Despite the testimony of the Bible, despite the signs of Jesus wrought among them, which all bore witness to the life of the divine sovereignty that had come into the world through him, and despite the word that he proclaimed, with its emphasis on the promise of life now and hereafter, they mourned “like the rest of men.”

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 36: John (Second Edition) The Wrath of the Revealer in the Presence of Unbelief (11:28–44)

“So seen, the anger of Jesus becomes a question to our own faith” (Die Auferweckung des Lazarus, 53).

The story continues with three commands Jesus issues to perform the miracle through the ones who doubted his power.

Altar Call

Aware of where we lack trust

Ask God to help our unbelief

Find our sufficiency in the one who is present in the face of the impossible in our lives.