My regular round of Bible reading has brought me to John 11, in which Our Lord Jesus Christ raises his friend, Lazarus, from the dead–after he has been four days in the tomb and by now, says his sister, Martha, “he stinketh.”
In John 12 we find the last mention of Lazarus in the Bible: “But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death; because by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus” (verses 10-11).
That’s the last we hear of Lazarus. Did they put him to death, or did they decide to let him be? Did Lazarus have to flee to another country? In various church traditions, many centuries old, Lazarus winds up as a bishop in Cyprus… or, at the other end of the Mediterranean, in Marseilles. I have no way of knowing which, if any, of those traditions is factually true.
But I do believe the Biblical account: God’s Word is always factually true. Lazarus died. He was dead for four days. Jesus Our Lord raised him from the dead, and a few days after that, he was eating dinner with his family, with Jesus as their guest. And the authorities in Jerusalem were trying to decide whether to murder him.
I believe they decided not to kill him. I don’t think they could have stifled the uproar that would have then ensued. Nor do I think the apostles would have failed to mention it.
And why did Jesus weep, when he arrived in Bethany and was shown Lazarus’ tomb? He knew in advance that he would restore Lazarus’ life–so why was He so sad?
Jesus had many, many things on His mind that could have made Him sad, with the sight of the tomb only serving as a catalyst.
But this we know: Our Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, after four days in the tomb, and by this mighty work demonstrated who He was. The testimony has stood for nigh on two thousand years, and will stand forever.