What happened to Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead?

"The whole story is of a nature calculated to exclude all suspicion of imposture, and to confirm the truth of the miracle. A well-known Person of Bethany, named Lazarus, falls sick in the absence of Jesus. His sisters send a message to Jesus, announcing it; but while He is yet absent Lazarus dies, is buried, and kept in the tomb for four days, during which Jesus is still absent. Martha, Mary, and all his friends are convinced of his death. Our Lord, while yet remaining in the place where He had been staying, tells His disciples in plain terms that He means to go to Bethany, to raise Lazarus from the dead, that the glory of God may be illustrated, and their faith confirmed. At our Lord's approach, Martha goes to meet Him, and announces her brother's death, laments the absence of Jesus before the event took place, and yet expresses a faint hope that by some means Jesus might yet render help. Our Lord declares that her brother shall be raised again, and assures her that He has the power of granting life to the dead. Mary approaches, accompanied by weeping friends from Jerusalem. Our Lord Himself is moved, and weeps, and goes to the sepulchre, attended by a crowd. The stone is removed. The stench of the corpse is perceived. Our Lord, after pouring forth audible prayer to His Father, calls forth Lazarus from the grave, in the hearing of all. The dead man obeys the call, comes forth to public view in the same dress that he was buried in, alive and well, and returns home without assistance. All persons present agree that Lazarus is raised to life, and that a great miracle has been worked, though not all believe the person who worked it to be the Messiah. Some go away and tell the rulers at Jerusalem what Jesus has done. Even these do not doubt the truth of the fact; on the contrary, they confess that our Lord by His works is becoming every day more famous, and that He would probably be soon received as Messiah by the whole nation. And therefore the rulers at once take counsel how they may put to death both Jesus and Lazarus. The people, in the meantime hearing of this prodigious transaction, flock in multitudes to Bethany, partly to see Jesus, and partly to view Lazarus. And the consequence is that by and by, when our Lord comes to Jerusalem, the population goes forth in crowds to meet Him and show Him honor, and chiefly because of His work at Bethany. Now, if all these circumstances do not establish the truth of the miracle, there is no truth in history."

A large number of Jews came to Bethany to see Him, while others came out of curiosity to see Lazarus. Then the wicked chief priests held a consultation that they might put Lazarus also to death. We do not hear another word about Lazarus after this.

"A (or, the) great crowd226 of the Jews therefore knew [learned] that He was (lit. 'is') there, and came not on account of Jesus only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom He raised from (the) dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might kill Lazarus also, because on his account many of the Jews were going away and believing on Jesus" (verses 9-11). "The Jews," as often remarked, are not merely Israelites, but men of Judæa, and greatly under the influence of the rulers in their hostility to Jesus, as in other things. But they are not the rulers, and one sees the difference marked in these verses. The great crowd, however, seemed influenced quite as much by curiosity as by better motive. To see Lazarus who was raised from the dead is a very different thing from believing God. Still, there was reality among some; and hence the deeper and deliberate malice of the chief priests, because many of the Jews were deserting them and believing on Jesus. A few witnesses of the highest antiquity and character (ℵBpmL) read the article, as to which some of the old versions are ambiguous [W. and H. insert, Weiss and Blass omit].

To turn to the history. Jesus' presence again at Bethany attracted some of the common people thither. His fame from raising Lazarus had spread. Numbers would, therefore, go to Bethany to see Him, and Lazarus also. To the chief priests such a move seemed like a check to their purpose. For many of the Jews went away, and believed on the Lord. The miracle struck them. No one could deny it. There was Lazarus, the raised one. There was Jesus, the raiser from the dead. The effect on people evidently spreading, might well have made the chief priests pause and reflect. Instead of that, counsel afresh was taken. The death of Lazarus was now mooted, as well as the death of Christ. No wickedness was too great, if only thereby the spread of the movement could be arrested. And, like many others in later times, they thought to act on people's fears by taking the life of Christ, and that of Lazarus as well. What had the latter done to deserve death? He had been the subject of almighty power, over which he had no control. Yet he, too, must die (9-11). But a greater apparent check were those people about to receive.

But there is another point in this picture: we not only have worship and service flowing from life, liberty and communion with the Lord; we have testimony, too. The man with a new life in communion with the Son of God is a testimony (see verses 9, 10, 11). Much people of the Jews came not only to see Jesus but Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead, and many of them went away and believed on Jesus, from just seeing the man with a new life, sitting, feeding with Jesus. This draws out the jealousy and opposition of the chief priests, who consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, because that, by reason of him, many went away and believed on Jesus.

How blessed to know that if we are only going on in communion with the Lord, people will be attracted by it, and some of them will go away and believe on Jesus, too, through God's grace using those who have a new life and liberty from the Son of God, and are in communion with Him. And it is not here direct service, such as preaching and talking to people, at least we do not know that Lazarus preached to anybody, blessed as that is, but the new life being manifested and so soon in the ways, manners, business, everything, that others are led to think of and to believe in Jesus, too. This draws down religious opposition and the religious leaders try and kill the testimony.

When the Lord proposes to go to Judea again the disciples say; "Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again?" Thomas says, "Let us go also, that we may die with Him." Death is upon all their souls, — nothing but death. When He comes, He finds them overwhelmed at the thought that death had come and touched one of the Lord's own. Instead of Lazarus being this making it better, it made it worse in one sense. Was He indifferent? or was death master even over His? What does He do? He has said from the beginning "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Facts might seem to be against Him, for Lazarus does die. But even so is it seen, as else it could not, that He, not death, is Master. Lazarus is raised. And what is the consequence? Such a testimony to Himself they never had before: crowds come out from Jerusalem to learn about this wonderful thing; and the very presence of Lazarus there, the man who had actually come through death, is the thing that draws them. They come, "not merely that they may see Jesus, but to see Lazarus also, whom He has raised from the dead." Think of a man who had actually come through death and come out of it! If we apprehended that we are just such a people, — if we did apprehend, in any proper sense, that we really belonged to another sphere, what a testimony for Christ it would be! It would indeed bring persecution. It brought it in that case. It was then that the Pharisees consulted about putting Christ, and Lazarus also, to death, because by reason of him all men, as they thought, would believe on Him. They would like to put out the lamp which God had lighted; but it just shows what the power of such a testimony is. And let me say again, there is no real and sufficient testimony — there is no proper Christian testimony now — but that.

The enmity of the Jews (alas! that of man's heart, thus given up to itself, and consequently to the enemy who is a murderer by nature and the enemy of God — an enemy that nothing merely human can subdue) would fain kill Lazarus also. Man is indeed capable of this: but capable of what? Everything yields to hatred — to this kind of hatred of God who manifests Himself. But for this it would in fact be inconceivable. They must now either believe in Jesus or reject Him: for His power was so evident that they must do the one or the other — a man publicly raised from the dead after four days, and alive among the people, left no longer any possibility of indecision. Jesus knew it divinely. He presents Himself as Ring of Israel to assert His rights, and to offer salvation and the promised glory to the people and to Jerusalem. The people understand this. It must be a deliberate rejection, as the Pharisees are well aware. But the hour was come: and although they could do nothing, for the world went after Him, Jesus is put to death, for "he gave himself."

So those sisters received their beloved brother alive from the dead, and their perplexity and sorrow were turned into wonder and joy. But that was not the end of the story, there was a most blessed sequel, given to us in the following chapter. That family of three made Him a supper. There were others admitted to it, but they made it for Him. And there He sat at their table—the Resurrection and the Life, the Master of death, and mightier than the grave, their Lord, and yet their Friend and their Guest. He sat there as one of themselves, so gracious was He, He found His joy in their company, such was His love. And Lazarus sat with Him, saying nothing as far as is recorded, silent in the joy of communion. And Martha served not now with question and scolding, no longer excited and cumbered, but with a quiet grace that blended well with that feast. “Then took Mary a pound of ointment—very costly.” It was the most precious thing in the house, and she had prized it and kept it. She loved her brother and she might have poured it upon him when death laid him low, and so have preserved his body from corruption for a while, but she did not. She had kept it for the supreme hour of her life, and that hour had come. She did not pour it on herself, self was eclipsed and forgotten in His presence who had wept with her in her sorrow. Upon His feet and upon Him alone it was poured out, her heart’s tribute to Him, her soul’s adoration of Him who was more to her than sister and brother and self. With a spiritual intuition that none shared with her she realised what lay ahead of Him, and He knew what was in her innermost heart when He said, “Against the day of My burying has she kept this.”

SOME little time had elapsed since the raising of Lazarus, and Jesus was found again at Bethany. The notable miracle which had been wrought, testified to by so many witnesses, even by some who still rejected Christ (ver. 46), produced such a commotion at Jerusalem that a special council was summoned by the Jewish authorities to consider what should be done. No attempt was made, remarkable to say, to deny that Lazarus had been raised from the dead; the fact was tacitly admitted, for they said, "What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." God acted behind their deliberations, and took up Caiaphas, as in former days He had used Balaam, to prophesy that Jesus should die for that nation; and "from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death." Jesus retired with His disciples from before the hostility of the Jews., for His hour was not yet come, and waited in a city called Ephraim. But the time was drawing near when the true Passover Lamb was to be killed, although it is ever to be remembered that no man took His life from Him, but that He laid it down of Himself; and six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, "where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead." There — in the house of Simon the leper, both Matthew and Mark say — "they made him a supper." John does not specify where the supper was made — and no doubt he is silent on this point purposely — as his object is rather to call attention to the fact that Martha and Mary and Lazarus were all present, and in the enjoyment of the fruit of their exercises and divine teaching in connection with the sickness, death and resurrection of Lazarus. How blessed for the soul when the object of God's dealing with it is reached and realised!

The first record of the Spirit of God is — "and Martha served." She had served before, but she had been "cumbered" with her service; she had rendered it in her own way, and had thus felt it to be a burden. Now her heart is at rest, and she enjoyed, in true liberty of soul, the happy privilege of waiting upon, of ministering to, her Lord. Quite a different vessel from Mary, she occupies a suitable place, the place for which she had been fitted, and she fills it too for the Lord's pleasure. "But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him." He had passed through death, and had been raised, if still in his former condition, by Him who was, and is, the Resurrection and the Life, and thus he was seated with the Lord in the enjoyment of the feast. In like manner, quickened together with Christ, and raised up together, we are made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; but Lazarus, as seen here, is rather a figure of those with whom the Lord, in a future day, will drink "new wine" in His Father's kingdom. It should be observed, before passing on, that the supper was made for Jesus, they delighted His heart, even as Levi, in another way, made Him a great feast in his own house, when he gathered a great company of publicans and sinners — those whom the Lord came to call to repentance.

The supper was made for Him, and then there was the sweet odour filling the house, and Lazarus; the trophy of His power over death, and witness of the manifestation of the glory of God, was at table with Him.