A one-of-a-kind gift for Lazarus
The raising of Lazarus is arguably THE preeminent public miracle in Jesus' ministry and it certainly is the one that finally moved the religious leaders to carry out the killing of Jesus that they'd long talked about.
Jesus healed the blind man but the religious leaders did not seek to kill the blind man, so clearly they weren't driven to wipe away all tangible proof of Jesus' miracles. What IS fact is that they sought to kill Lazarus and he was the ONLY other person besides Jesus that scripture tells us merited a hit-contract from those religious leaders. It was the raising of Lazarus IN PARTICULAR that the religious leaders felt the need to respond to -- by getting rid of both Jesus AND Lazarus.
But given that the raising of Lazarus is perhaps the most profound public miracle in the earthly ministry of Jesus and given the fact that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back with the scholars who killed Jesus as a direct result of what he did for Lazarus, we should find it surprising that this "friend" whom "Jesus loved" seems to virtually disappear from scripture soon after this -- for that is hardly the response that one would expect after being given this miraculous, one-of-a-kind gift from God.
Those interested in Lazarus might want to check out LazarusComeForth.com -- a free Bible study that seeks to encourage Bible students to heed the admonition to “prove all things” and think through the profound implications of being raised from the dead and the effect that this would have had on this "friend" whom "Jesus loved".
Created over 3 years ago
