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Imagine you heard of a man who had raised someone from the dead. Imagine you could find proof of it in the man he raised. What would you do? 

John 12:9–11 (NET)

⁹ Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there, and so they came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too,¹¹ for on account of him many of the Jewish people from Jerusalem were going away and believing in Jesus.

Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, in front of a crowd of mourners after he had been in the tomb for four days. If this had happened today cell phones would have come out and Lazarus walking from the tomb complete with burial cloth would have been all over Facebook, YouTube and the evening news.

Word had spread and everyone wanted to see Jesus and to see Lazarus who was walking proof of Jesus’ power. I’m sure many people would have done their own investigation, taking to the people who saw Lazarus dead and talking to the people who saw him alive.

Now let’s imagine that you are convinced that the stories are true, that the people who testify to both Lazarus’ death and the public event of Jesus raising him are credible and that there isn’t any doubt in your mind that this Jesus, somehow, raised this man from the dead. What would you do?

Your first thought would probably be, “I want to meet this Jesus and see what he can do for me!” Your mind would immediately turn to whatever difficulty, illness, obstacle or recent death you may have suffered.

You would also be aware that you are not alone in realizing the opportunity that this Jesus presents to you. Dozens if not hundreds of people will be doing the same investigating, questioning and thinking about what they might be able to get Jesus to do for them. Chances are good, unless you somehow have an “in”, you’ll be in a long line and likely never get a chance to have a personal audience with Jesus. Last week the text began with some Greek speaking Jews who wanted to see Jesus so they tried to work their way up the chain of command.

Very quickly people are going to start trying to anticipate the next move. Events like this are rare and if you want to have a say in what comes you need to act fast.

The raising of Lazarus would not be welcome news to those already in power. Religions leaders had for a while already been approaching Jesus to see if there might be a way that they could recruit him to their position in their culture wars. Jesus, if he would align with one side or another could be a powerful piece that might bring their group towards triumph over their adversaries.

It seemed, however, that at every turn, Jesus refused to take a side. Jesus would repeatedly seem to assert that he was his own side and he would appropriate titles like “Son of Man” and make alarming claims to have come from heaven. He used the signs he did to legitimate his words and his claims that in fact he, and he alone, apart from the other culture war actors spoke for God and that if anyone wanted to align with God they should align with him.

This kind of thing was of course a complete non-starter when it came to forming a political/religious alliance. It would mean that those who had taken a public posture on one thing or another would have to abandon their cause and their religious/political and even familial tribe and align with Jesus. Factions were looking for an ally, not a Lord.

The chief priests who had as much to lose as anyone in this turn of events planned on killing Jesus and Lazarus, the quickest way to stop what seemed like an inevitable religious and political calamity. This might sound extreme today but in first century Judea killing was a common and fairly acceptable way of addressing a political adversary, at least if you could get away with it without crossing the Romans.

If you were not necessarily invested in the political/religious status quo, this Jesus presented an exciting possibility.

First, you want to keep someone like this around. Jesus, in himself, represented the opportunity for power to heal, power to command, power to change human history. Your parent, sibling or child might die and keeping this Jesus around meant a hope that they might be saved from death.

Second, you probably are willing to take a chance even on this religious man’s crazy talk.

If someone walking down the street says “I’m the Son of Man spoken of in Daniel 7. According to Daniel 7 God the Father will crush the empires that have been corrupting your children and taking your money and deliver into my hands an eternal kingdom that will never pass away!”

Most people hearing that might say, “Well, OK. You could be nuts. I won’t commit. Let’s just wait and see what happens.”

Then this person seems to have legitimately not only done a bunch of other rumored miracles including raising this known guy Lazarus from the dead. Well then you consider more carefully all that talk about “the Son of Man” and his special connection to the Creator God of Israel.

Maybe its now worth it to you to make a bit of noise, draw some attention to him and implicitly warn the ruling officials in Jerusalem who you rightly imagine will want to see him dead that if they act hastily they might have a riot on their hands. You have seen the crowds do this before, rehearse the centuries old Maccabean script of a Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

Triumphal Entry Continue reading →