Lazarus part 3 - John 11:17-24

Arriving in Bethany, Jesus “found that (Lazarus) had lain in the grave four days already.” Thinking about the math here, if it took the messenger 2 days to get to Jesus, then Jesus waited for 2 days to leave, and then it took Jesus and company 2 days to get to Bethany, we can deduce that Lazarus probably died around the time that the messenger arrived meaning that even if Jesus had left immediately, He still wouldn’t have made it in time to heal Lazarus while he was still alive. Jesus still would have maintained the ability to raise Lazarus from the dead if he had only been dead for 2 days, but the fact that it was four days since Lazarus had died is significant. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as saying, “decomposition was well under way; death had long since been established as an absolute certainty… To the Jews the term of four days had special significance; it was the popular belief among them that by the fourth day the spirit had finally and irrevocably departed from the vicinity of the corpse.”

We have to remember that at this time ancient peoples had rudimentary medicine at the very most. Even now there are legends or “potions” to take that will make a person appear dead and then magically restore them to life after a few days. There is cryogenics, which freezes people with the intent of bringing them back to life later, and the “appearing dead” is the whole climax of Romeo and Juliet, so this isn’t a completely unheard of concept. This reminded me of the saying “saved by the bell” which I thought came from the time back in the day when people would be passed out drunk and so they would be buried and then if they came around and woke up they could ring a bell outside of their coffin and be dug out, otherwise they would just stay in there. The fear of being buried alive was so strong that according to www.phrases.org.uk George Washington’s death bed request was “Have me decently buried, but do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead.” Two days was an acceptable time frame to be certain of death for George Washington, and ancient society was no less steeped in superstition. The article also noted that despite these special coffins being invented “There not evidence to show that anyone was ever saved by these coffins or even that they were ever put to use.” Turns out that phrase is a boxing term.

But let’s think about it, I’m not saying that it’s impossible for someone to appear dead when they are in fact not, especially if we take away all the conveniences of modern medicine. For someone to appear dead their heart rate would have to slow to an undetectable level and their breathing would have to take in hardly any air at all. This means that a person’s tissues would become hypoxic quickly and irreversible damage would be done to the person’s cells. Even while living day to day in our current environment the rule is humans can’t go 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, or 3 weeks without food, generally. Just on the dehydration principle alone, an untreated coma or unconsciousness of some sort after 3 days would almost guarantee the death of the victim. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but I’ve worked in medicine my whole life, and I’ve heard stories of someone coming back to apparent death at most 20 minutes after pronouncement, and that was in very few, miraculous, unexplained cases, but nothing ever longer than that. I mean think about it, if it were easy to fake your own death by simply appearing dead, and then being able to wake up and start a new life somewhere else, there would be tons of people doing it, maybe myself included. “Four days is an appropriate time limit for a person to “come back from the dead” because it’s one of those things where “if he wasn’t dead when we put him in there, he is now.”

Lazarus must have been a well liked guy in the community and Bethany probably wasn’t a huge city, so the house of Mary and Martha was over run with “many of the Jews… to comfort them concerning their brother.” JTC comments “the bereaved sisters were at home, where had gathered, according to custom, friends to console them in their grief. Among these were many prominent people, some of whom had come from Jerusalem.” This group probably consisted of some of the Jewish leadership that hated Jesus so much, which is an interesting conundrum because Lazarus and his sisters were such loyal friends with the Savior. We can see that whatever Jesus has planned is going to be received by a mixed audience, so the results will definitely vary. But let’s talk for a minute about what Lazarus’ death means for the surviving sisters. We know that women’s rights were minimal anciently, and it doesn’t seem that either of the sisters were married, so they were going to have a hard time now that the man who was their protection was dead.

Martha got word that Jesus was almost there first and “went to met him: but Mary sat still in the house.” This is a call back to the time when Mary sat at the Savior’s feet to hear him teach, and Martha stayed in the house taking care of the guests. It seems that this time the roles have reversed, with Mary staying behind with the guests and Martha going to Jesus. Martha’s first words to Jesus are “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, god will give thee.” This goes along with the sentiment that people might have believed that Jesus’ power stopped once death had taken hold, despite the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the son of the widow of Nain. Martha clearly believes that Jesus is powerful enough to intervene on Lazarus’ behalf, had he been there sooner, and considering the circumstances, that belief alone is a pretty significant achievement. Jesus was not generally regarded as the Messiah, clearly many of their friends hated him, as is evidenced by the friends from Jerusalem who came to mourn with them. But despite this, she believed that he was powerful enough to stop death from touching her family.

Jesus responded to her saying, “Thy brother shall rise again.” Seeing the story from hindsight, it think “how could Martha possibly not know that Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead?” But from her perspective, even if she knew about the raising of the widow’s son and of Jairus’ daughter, they had been dead only a very short time when they were risen, and Lazarus had been dead for 4 days! It may have well been 4 years, the effect was the same. She didn’t understand what He was saying, and JTC explains why, “Perhaps some of the Jews who had come to comfort her had said as much for they, the Sadducees excepted, believed in a resurrection; and Martha failed to find in the Lord’s promise anything more than a general assurance that her departed brother should be raised with the rest of the dead. In natural and seemingly casual assent she remarked: ‘I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’” It’s one of those statements like, “I’m sorry he died, but at least he’s at peace now,” or “he’s in a better place” or something like that that people say to others who are grieving, which logically makes sense, but emotionally is worthless. I’m going to stop here because the next part is really important and long, so I’m going to dedicate tomorrow to that.