Second Sign: Jesus Heals an Official’s Son (4:43-54)
Jesus then travels back to Galilee where the people welcome him.
He goes to Canaan where a royal official asks him to heal his sick son.
Jesus seems annoyed because people only seem to believe in him if he performs miracles.
Nevertheless, Jesus says the boy will be healed.
The official goes back home to find his boy well again.
According to John, this is Jesus' second miracle (after Marriage in Cana).
Third Sign: The Healing at the Pool (5:1-15)
Jesus goes to Jerusalem for a feast.
At the Pool of Bethesda he sees a paralyzed man
The ruins of the Pool of Bethesda are still standing in Jerusalem.
Later editions of John’s Gospel state that a angel of God would come and stir up the water of the pool on occasion, and that the bubbling water had the power to heal people. This is why the paralyzed man was there in the first place.
Jesus tells the man to pick up his mat and walk.
This takes place on the Sabbath, and Jewish religious leaders see the man carrying his mat and tell him this is against the law.
He tells them the man who healed him told him to do so, and they ask who that was.
He tries to point out Jesus, but he has slipped away into the crowd.
Jesus comes to him later and tells him, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."
The man then tells the Jewish religious leaders it was Jesus who healed him.
The Authority of the Son (5:16-30)
People begin to persecute Jesus because he is working on the Sabbath and comparing himself to God.
Jesus responds that his power comes from his Father, and that he has been given the power to judge men from the Father.
This power is granted to the Son because he is the Son of Man, presumably meaning that because Jesus is fully human he knows all that is to be known about men and so can accurately judge them.
He then speaks of the future when the dead will rise and the righteous will be given life and the evil condemned.
Testimonies About Jesus (5:31-47)
Jesus then talks of John's testimony about him.
He also says that people study the scriptures hoping for eternal life, but that the scriptures speak of him, and people still refuse to come to him for life.
People accept people who preach in their own name but not in one who comes in the name of the Father.
"How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?"
He then speaks of Moses as the accuser of humanity.
"But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"
These teachings of Jesus are almost only found in John. In the Synoptic Gospels Jesus only speaks of himself as the Messiah in such a straight forward way at the very end, shortly before his death.
All this occurs in Jerusalem, whereas the Synoptic Gospels have very little of Jesus' teachings occurring in Jerusalem and then only before his death.
Fourth Sign: Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (6:1-15)
At the beginning of this story, John mentions that the Jewish Passover Festival would soon take place.
Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee, but the crowds follow him around the lake because he had previously healed them.
Jesus and his disciples go up on the mountainside and Jesus asks Philip for suggestions on where to buy bread to feed all these people.
Philip says, “It would take half a year’s wages to pay for everyone to just get a bite!”
Andrew’s like, “Here’s a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but what good will that do?”
Jesus has the crowd sit down on the grass and he gives thanks and distributes what food they have to the crowd.
By the end of the meal, the whole crowd of over 5,000 people has had enough to eat and the disciples pick up twelve basketfuls of leftovers.
After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
The Prophet refers to the promise Moses had made that another person like himself would arise to lead Israel.
Jesus knows that the crowd is about to declare him King of Israel and start a revolution, so he runs off and hides in the mountains.
Fifth Sign: Jesus Walks on the Water (6:16-24)
But the wind starts blowing hard and the water gets very rough.
When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened.
But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”
Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.
The next day when the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into some boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
Jesus the Bread of Life (6:25-71)
When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus says, “You’re looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Don’t work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
They then ask Jesus for a sign, and they hint not so subtly that they would prefer another bread miracle… like Moses did with the manna in the desert.
Jesus said to them, “It wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
He adds, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Then the Jews get cranky and they say, “How can this guy say he came from heaven? We know who his parents are!”
Jesus tells them to stop grumbling, and says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
But this made the Jews even angrier, and they were like, “What’s this cannibalism nonsense he’s blabbing about?”
Jesus declares that everyone who doesn’t eat his flesh and drink his blood is dead.
So many of Jesus’ disciples were offended by this that they stopped following him and left.
Jesus then turns to the twelve disciples and asks them if they want to leave too.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles (7:1-53)
After this, Jesus hangs around in Galilee because he wants to avoid the Jewish elders in Judea who wanted to kill him.
But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
But Jesus tells them that his time hasn’t come yet, and they go on up without him.
After they leave, Jesus actually does go up for the festival, but he does so in secret, and he listens to all the rumors that the crowds are whispering about him there – some people say he’s a good man, and other people say he’s a liar.
Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.
The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
He then accuses them of breaking the law Moses gave them by trying to kill him.
They accuse him of being demon-possessed, and are like, “Who do you think is trying to kill you?”
Jesus reminds them of how shocked they were the last time he performed a miracle there because he had done it on the Sabbath.
He then points out that they care more about making sure they’re boys get circumcised than they do about the healing of a cripple… even though both events took place on the Sabbath.
And Jesus is like, “How is circumcision better than healing a whole person?”
The elders ignore him, so the people begin to wonder if the elders are actually considering that Jesus might be the Messiah after all.
But they are also confused because they believe that when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from… and they know where Jesus is from.
Jesus then starts shouting in the Temple courts, “Yes! You know me! And you know where I’m from! I’m not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true! You don’t know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me!”
At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Still, many in the crowd believed in him, and they said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him, so they sent temple guards to arrest him.
Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
The people were confused by this and were like, “Where’s he going? Is he going to go teach the Greeks now?”
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
The crowd was divided – some people thought he was the Prophet, some thought he was the Messiah, and others thought he was a fraud and wanted him arrested.
Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
The Woman Caught in Adultery (8:1-11)
The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.
Jesus goes to the Temple early in the morning to teach, and after he arrives, the Torah-teachers and the Pharisees bring to him a woman that they caught in the act of adultery.
Note that they didn’t bother to bring the man as well.
They remind Jesus that Moses commanded that such a woman be stoned to death, and they demand Jesus give his opinion.
Jesus’ first response when the woman was brought to him was to bend over and write with his finger in the dust. He continued doing this, even as they questioned him.
We, as westerners, always want to ask the question – what did he write?
To the listener in the first century, particularly a Jewish listener with intimate knowledge of Torah (as most observant Jews had), what he wrote may have been superfluous, as they would have understood the story without it.
It is his act of writing in the dust which brings to mind (as an unspoken remez) the prophet Jeremiah:
“I the LORD search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.”
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.”
Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
is the man who gains riches by unjust means.
When his life is half gone, they will desert him,
and in the end he will prove to be a fool.
is the man who gains riches by unjust means.
When his life is half gone, they will desert him,
and in the end he will prove to be a fool.
A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
is the place of our sanctuary.
O LORD, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
because they have forsaken the LORD,
the spring of living water.
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
because they have forsaken the LORD,
the spring of living water.
So, from the verses around the remez, what should we conclude about Jesus’ action?
I suspect it was the names of the individuals standing there that Jesus was writing in the dust, but (as noted) the very act of writing in the dust would call this passage to mind.
And what is the sin for which those who turn away from God? From this passage, it is “the man who gains riches by unjust means.”
And so, after writing in the dust, Jesus tells the men that ”If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,” which as part of the ritual of stoning would mean, “If any one of you is without this sin…”
Which sin, though?
David Flusser, Ray Vander Laan, and others suggest it is the sin of injustice – which Jesus was referencing by writing in the dust.
However, it may also be the sin of adultery – for how would the men know how/where to catch the woman if they were not in some way complicit in her crime (if she was a prostitute), or in only partially prosecuting it (by leaving the adulterer out of the judicial proceedings).
Remember also that the two witnesses had to push her off of a drop-off, and that they had to stone her first – as witnesses.
At this point, the men begin to slowly slip away – the oldest (and therefore, culturally, the wisest) leaving first, followed by the youngest.
And then, when Jesus is alone with the woman, he gives her his ruling, as well.
Without any witnesses as accusers, she had no one to condemn her.
And so, Jesus sent her away, telling her not to sin any more.
Dispute Over Jesus’ Testimony (8:12-20)
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.
Dispute Over Who Jesus Is (8:21-30)
Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
The Jews then wonder if Jesus is threatening to kill himself here.
But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
“Who are you?” they asked.
Jesus says, “It’s like I’ve been telling you all along! I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
Even as he spoke, many believed in him.
Dispute Over Whose Children Jesus’ Opponents Are (8:31-59)
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
“You’re not even fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
Sixth Sign: Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind (9:1-41)
One Sabbath day, Jesus and his disciples see a man born blind, and the disciples want to know whose sin caused him to be born blind – his own or his parents.
Jesus thinks this question is ridiculous, and tells them that it wasn’t anybody’s fault that he was born blind, but rather it happened so that God might be glorified in him.
Jesus spits in the dirt, makes some mud balls, sticks them on the man’s eyes, and tells him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam.
The man does so and is healed.
Later, the Pharisees find out that Jesus healed this guy on the Sabbath, so they drag the guy in for questioning.
The man tells them that he thinks Jesus is a prophet.
They bring the man’s parents in to identify him and to confirm that a miracle actually took place.
They confirm that the man is their son, but claim they don’t know who healed him or how it happened.
They were afraid they might get kicked out of the synagogue if they repeated any of the rumors they’d heard about Jesus being the Messiah, so they said, “Why are you asking us questions? Talk to our son – he’s a grown man!”
They put the man under oath and ask him if Jesus is a sinner.
He’s like, “I don’t know if he’s a sinner or not! All I know is this: I was blind! But now I can see!”
They then tell him to tell them exactly what happened.
He’s like, “I told you already, but you weren’t listening. Do you also want to become his disciples or something?”
They then began throwing insults at him, and they tell him he would be far better off being a disciple of Moses like themselves rather than being a disciple of Jesus.
They add, “We know where Moses came from, but we have no idea where Jesus is from!”
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
They then accuse him of being a sinner since he was in the womb and they throw him out.
Later, Jesus finds him and says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man says, “Show him to me and I will believe in him!”
Jesus says, “He’s the one speaking to you right now.”
The man believes and worships Jesus.
Jesus says, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
But the Pharisees just scoff when they hear this.
The miracle of the blind man is remarkable in two respects: firstly, that although there are other accounts in both the Old Testament and the New of the blind having their sight restored, this is the only time someone born blind was given sight for the first time.
Although the biblical text does not explicitly say so, the traditional interpretation is that not only was this man born without sight, he was born even without eyes.
Jesus' act of making clay is an act of creation (creating eyes where none were before), a repetition of the first act of the creation of man in Genesis 2:7.
This indicates the traditional Christian teaching that in the act of salvation Jesus makes his disciples a "new creation."
The second remarkable aspect of the miracle is that not only did Jesus give the man physical sight, but he bestowed upon him spiritual sight as well. In the blind man's dialogue with the Pharisees, he holds his own in the dispute, engaging in reasoned theological discourse as though he were educated.
The Good Shepherd and His Sheep (10:1-21)
Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd who knows his sheep and lays down his life for them.
The image of the shepherd brings together several aspects of Jesus' identity.
First, leaders were often called shepherds. Good leaders were those who cared for people, in contrast to the negligent leaders or shepherds who did not. Jesus fits the role of a good shepherd by caring for others (see Ezekiel 34:1-2).
Second, the good shepherd was an image for the Messiah, who was to rule over the people of God. Here Jesus identifies himself as the one in whom this promise is fulfilled (see Ezekiel 34:23).
Third, God was known as the best of shepherds, who gathered and nurtured the flock. As the good shepherd, Jesus is the one in whom God comes to God's people (see Ezekiel 34:11-12).
Jesus also says that the principal trait of the good shepherd is laying down his life for the sheep. This occurs when Jesus lays down his life in crucifixion. By dying, Jesus reveals the lengths to which he will go to provide life for others.
This is one of the seven "I am" sayings in John's Gospel. Since the expression "I am" recalls the name of God, who is the "I Am" (Exodus 3:14), these sayings emphasize that Jesus is God's Word in the flesh.
Jesus also claims to be the gate by which the sheep enter the fold. Those who do not enter by the gate are there to steal and kill and destroy. They are there to harm the sheep, but those who enter by the gate are God’s own.
Jesus also says that the sheep will always recognize the voice of their shepherd, and they will come to him, but they will not respond to the voice of an impostor.
This is true of both physical sheep in the pasture, and it is true in a spiritual sense with Jesus and his followers.
When the people hear him talking about sheep, they think he must either be a lunatic or demon-possessed… but a few people defend him, saying that demon-possessed man could never be able to heal a man born blind.
Further Conflict Over Jesus’ Claims (10:22-42)
Later that year, during the Festival of Dedication (Hanukkah), the Jews ask Jesus how long he is going to keep them in suspense.
They thought that he might be planning to start a messianic revolution on the anniversary of the Great Maccabean Revolution.
They say, “Tell us if you are the Messiah or not.”
And Jesus says, “I did tell you, but you didn’t believe me.”
And he starts comparing himself to a shepherd again, saying that his true followers will recognize his voice (the people still didn’t understand who he was in their Maccabbean expectations of him).
Jesus then proclaims, “I and the Father are one!”
His opponents picked up stone to throw at him, and Jesus asks, “For which one of my good deeds are you about to stone me?”
And they say that they’re not stoning him for the good things he has done, but because he just committed blasphemy.
Jesus then reminds them that in the Books of the Psalms, God himself had referred to his people as “gods.”
Jesus is like, “If that’s what God says about his people, then how much more appropriate is it to say that about the one whom God has set aside as his very own and sent into the world?”
He asks, “Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days, and many people came to him and said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.”
The Seventh Sign: The Resurrection of Lazarus (11:1-57)
The Death of Lazarus (11:1-16)
Jesus is informed by messengers that Lazarus is ill, and that his two sisters are seeking his help.
Jesus tells his disciples, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
Jesus then delays for two days.
The disciples are afraid of going back to Judea, but Jesus commands them to go with him, stating, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe."
Thomas then proclaims, “Let’s go so that we may die with him!”
Jesus waits to show up until after three days have passed, when Lazarus is now “legally dead” – the point of no return
Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus (11:17-37)
When they arrive in Bethany, Lazarus has been dead and buried for four days.
Before they enter the town, Martha, a sister of Lazarus comes to meet them and tells Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
But Jesus assures her that her brother will rise again.
Martha says, “I know that he will rise again – in the Resurrection at the Last Day.
Jesus proclaims, "I am the resurrection and the life! He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die! Do you believe this?"
Martha affirms, "Yes, Lord! I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world!"
This is only the second time (after Nathanael) that someone declares Jesus as Son of God, and the first time someone equates him as 'Messiah' and 'Son of God' together. The only other time this happens in the entire gospel is in the explanation the author of the Gospel gives for writing his Gospel as the very end.
After entering the village Jesus is met by Mary and the Jewish people with her, and upon seeing their grief and weeping, Jesus is 'deeply moved'.
Then, after asking where he was buried, the shortest verse in the four Gospels is found - "Jesus wept."
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead (11:38-44)
After that, Jesus ask for the stone of the grave to be removed, but Mary interjects that there will be a smell.
To which Jesus responds, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
So they took away the stone.
Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
After saying this, Jesus screams, “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
The Plot to Kill Jesus (11:45-57)
The miracle of the raising of Lazarus, is the climax of John's “Book of Signs.”
It explains the crowds seeking Jesus on Palm Sunday, and leads directly to the decision of the High Priest Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to plan to kill Jesus.
Caiaphas ironically prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
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