Two Unique Miracles in John
How Things Work – Consideration #136 (Book II Science & Religion)
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Tuesday May 21, 2024
“But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus' love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead… But we remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers.”
– Shane Claiborne
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
The first miracle in the Gospel of John is not even hinted at in the other gospels. In a very human situation, Jesus finds himself the guest at a wedding where they have run out of wine. At the insistence of his mother, Jesus turns the water into wine.
While some Christians argue that alcohol is a sin, and that Jesus did not drink “real” wine with alcohol, John’s account tends to argue against that assumption. So does Orthodox Judaism and Catholicism, in addition to human nature. The guests at the wedding specifically state that most people serve the best wine first, not last, because once people are drunk, they really can’t notice the difference. However, this bridegroom saved the best wine, Jesus’ wine, until last.
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.”
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
John 2: 1-12
This miracle is unique for three specific reasons. First, it is the only recorded public miracle in the New Testament that occurs prior to Jesus being baptized by John. Second, this miracle was not related to healing or demon possession. And third, it was generated by the faith of Jesus’ mother, who knew prior to Jesus beginning his earthly ministry of his special abilities. In addition, it is a very personal miracle based on the relationship between Jesus and his mother, which is reflected as very close and intimate in this narrative.
It also foreshadows some of the miracles in the synoptic gospels, such as feeding the multitude with only two fish and five loaves of bread.
CONSIDERATION #136 – Two Unique Miracles in John
Another famous story found only in John is the story of Lazarus. Two women, Martha, and Mary, come to Jesus asking him to help their sick brother and Jesus’ close friend, Lazarus. The “Mary” in this story is the same Mary reported to have poured oil on Jesus’ feet and then dried them with her own hair. So, they knew, and were disciples of Jesus. However, Jesus seems to dismiss their concerns, waiting another two days before going to see Lazarus.
This is essentially a set-up by Jesus, so that he might demonstrate his glory to the world through an extraordinary manifestation of divine power. Once again always in control, despite appearances. When the disciples caution Jesus about returning to a place where he had just nearly been killed, he explicitly explains that everything is part of the plan. Here, the disciple known as Thomas is already expressing doubts and pessimism.
“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
11:8-16
When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has been dead and buried four days: not four hours or four minutes. Jesus had purposely chosen to manifest the impossible in order to prove his authority from God. Even those who knew and believed in Jesus would find it difficult to believe such a miracle. However, Martha expresses the faith that Jesus can raise her brother if he chooses.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world…”
However, her sister, Mary, found it more difficult to comprehend such a possibility:
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
The verse, “Jesus wept,” is the shortest verse in the Bible. However, it directly demonstrates the ambiguous reaction by the Jewish community, and perhaps the duplicity of the Jewish leadership, in regard to Jesus and his message. Most saw Jesus weeping in this situation as an act of love; but some found a way to see it as an action stemming from a lack of love.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
At this point, Jesus begins to manifest the miracle that becomes a turning point in the Gospel of John; leading directly to Jesus’ eventual execution.
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will 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.”
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “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.”
John 11:21-44
Perhaps the most often asked question regarding this narrative is, “How could such an important event be left out of the other gospels?” If it is true, why is it only recorded in the Gospel of John?
POSTSCRIPT
John’s gospel reveals it was this miracle that alerted and alarmed the Jewish leadership, causing them to take more aggressive action against Jesus. Remember that in John, Jesus visits the Temple in Jerusalem several times. However, after raising Lazarus from the dead, things changed drastically for Jesus. The miracle of raising Lazarus begins the countdown to the end. This will be Jesus’ final visit to the holy Temple in Jerusalem. His hour had come.
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish…”
Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
John 11:45-57
One possible explanation for why the story of Lazarus only appears in the Gospel of John may have something to do with what Biblical scholars call protective anonymity. While it is believed that most of Mark’s gospel is based on Peter’s eyewitness testimony, as previously considered, the passion narrative of Mark is suspected to have originated from another source; an earlier source perhaps recorded during, or directly after, the actual events. Because of the “contemporary nature” of the earlier source, some names were purposely omitted as a way of keeping those people safe from the authorities.
Consider the person who cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant in Mark 14:47. Mark never mentions him by name. He simply notes that “one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.” Mark doesn’t even make it clear if this is one of Jesus’ disciples. It’s not until John’s Gospel—written around AD 90—that we discover that the identity of this sword-wielding character is none other than Peter himself. John no longer feels the need to protect Peter’s identity because he was long dead by now. Since Peter most likely would have faced arrest for this attempted murder on the high priest’s servant, this early pre-Markan tradition kept him anonymous.
– Ryan Leasure, Why Don’t the Synoptic Gospels Mention Lazarus?
According to John, this was the miracle that brought Jesus to the attention of the authorities and led to his crucifixion. Therefore, it would be dangerous for anyone involved in the incident, particularly Lazarus.
If we are right to believe that the pre-Markan passion narrative intentionally kept people anonymous for their protection, we could understand how it would leave Lazarus out of the story altogether. After all, John 12:10-11 notes that “the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.” That is to say, Lazarus was a thorn in the side of the Jewish leaders because he was convincing Jews to become Christians by simply walking around. Because Jewish leaders continued to persecute the early church for decades, this early passion narrative had to leave him out of the story altogether for his own protection.
– Ryan Leasure, Why Don’t the Synoptic Gospels Mention Lazarus?
Perhaps the passage of time made it possible for John to be more direct in his naming of specific people related to specific events, and might also have given him the confidence to reveal some of the deeper spiritual aspects related to the less public “secret” teachings of Jesus; which may be why John’s consistent use of theological language and concepts are so ubiquitous throughout his gospel. It also permeates his text throughout the final book of the Bible, The Book of Revelation.
Next week we consider the more confrontational side of Jesus in John…
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