Unvarnished Jesus: A Lenten JourneyMuestra

Thursday, March 28

John 11:1–44

Jesus Raises Lazarus

The raising of Lazarus is the seventh sign in the Gospel of John. John first introduces us to the miracles of Jesus with the whimsical sign of turning water to wine and culminates with Jesus’ seventh and greatest sign — raising a man who was four days dead. The first sign points us to a Jesus who brings the feast of kingdom come and the seventh sign points us to a Jesus who saves us from our ultimate enemy — death itself. The seventh sign wrought upon Lazarus is a foreshadowing of the Easter triumph. Jesus will defeat death because, as He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Or as the Orthodox Paschal Hymn says,

Christ is risen from the dead,

Trampling down death by death,

And upon those in the tombs

Bestowing life.