Sunday April 2
Jesus rises Lazarus. This chapter constitutes a whole episode. Its content is the resurrection and life made possible by Jesus. Within the narrative structure of the gospel, it acquires a vital importance, because it will become the event that triggers the death of Jesus.
It also has a very suspenseful nature, due to the theological work of John. It is the seventh and last sign of Jesus. That is why he had endowed it with a special beauty and attractiveness. The gospel writer did not just want to tell a miracle, but also to confirm the revealing word of Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
In the intention of the evangelist, the resurrection of Lazarus is directly related to Jesus Christ, the giver of life. The gift of life is presented here as victory over death. Jesus conquered death by dying. This is the meaning of the dialogue between the Master and his disciples (7-16).
Upon arriving in Bethany, Jesus finds Lazarus already dead for and buried for four days in the tomb (17). That is, he was publicly and totally dead.
The gospel writer reflects the deep humanity of Jesus in his weeping for Lazarus (35); his tears express pain in the face of the death of a friend; they are the tears of God before the death that separates people who love each other.
Jesus goes to the sepulcher to face death and to conquer it. The miracle is briefly narrated (43-44). The cry of Jesus that rises from the thanksgiving to the Father is none other than an advance of the cry by which he calls all those who believe in him. “I tell you solemnly that the hour is near, indeed is already here in which the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (5:25). The bodily life that Jesus gives to Lazarus is a sign of the true life that he grants all those who believe in him.
There is a double reaction to the prodigy: faith and incredulity. Faith opens the doors to life while incredulity closes them.
The religious authorities then decide to take action: they are afraid that the activity of Jesus, his prodigious signs, might foster a mass movement of a messianic nature that would jeopardize the established order (47-48). They fear the retaliation of the Romans. For the high priests and Pharisees Jesus was a dangerous man.
With his suggestive idea Caiaphas (49-50) is just an instrument in God’s hands to solemnly proclaim that Jesus is dying for the people, in order to gather the scattered children of God (52). The tribes are no longer the ones convening (Ezek 37:21-26), but all the “children of God”, that is, all those who believe in Jesus.
