I find the Gospel of John can be tricky sometimes. I love it dearly, the language is beautiful and so evocative, but I also know that it was written significantly later than the other gospels and writings that are included in christian scripture. The author likely knew the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke - and much more than that, probably - and had more experience of the followers of Jesus and their lived understanding of what Jesus was all about.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing, not at all. I just think it’s helpful to remember that when the author of John says something that no one else does. It makes me wonder.
Take the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This story only appears in John. It’s not the only story of Jesus raising someone who appears to be dead. The other gospels have Jesus raising the daughter of Jairus, a leader in the synagogue, and Luke has one about Jesus and the son of a widow. John doesn’t have these accounts and Lazarus’ story is different. It’s more complex and here John seems to double down on the death: Lazarus isn’t newly dead, he’s been dead for days and is already in a tomb. In fact, the author of John quite pointedly has his sister describe his condition - and the King James Version text is just the best here - "Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.”
Jesus tells them to move the stone from the tomb’s entrance and he calls to Lazarus to come out. Lazarus does, still wrapped in the burial cloths. “Unbind him and let him go,” Jesus says.
Cool.
Traditionally, we’ve interpreted the story as demonstrating both Jesus’ humanity (this is the story with the famous shortest verse in the Bible - “Jesus wept”) and his divine power over death (the verse “I am the resurrection and the life” is part of this story). It also advances the narrative. It’s the moment, as the story continues, that inspires the temple authorities to want to kill Jesus. His bringing life leads to his own death.
But the story continues without Lazarus in it. One more mention, that Jesus is at Lazarus’ house for dinner the night before going into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. The author of John writes that people came to see Jesus but also Lazarus because he’d been raised from the dead. So now, the temple authorities plan to Lazarus as well as Jesus.
There’s no mention if they did, but I’m already wondering what happened to Lazarus. And I think that’s pretty critical to how I understand the story.
I don’t know if the story’s real, if it really happened this way, but there’s something very true here.
Jesus’ life shows us how the divine spirit is alive in all of us. To be fully alive, to be whole, is to be more than the physical being we are, it’s to connect with that spirit of life. When it feels like the world has become a tomb, overwhelming our living with hate, anger and despair, Jesus calls us out. Jesus is the Way, according to John, and the Way is true and life-giving. Not the name Jesus, but the Way of being Jesus shows us and calls us to: the love, grace, empathy and compassion that we learn from the life of Jesus is the way to respect, justice and equity, the way to wholeness.
I wonder what Lazarus did next. I bet he lived.
