NEW TESTAMENT 51
Lazarus to come out, and to the amazement of the crowd
the resurrected man emerges in his burial shroud.
For many of the witnesses, the miracle of Lazarus
proves thatJesus is the Son of God. Some, however, are
uneasy about the holy man’s growing fame and report the
incident to the Pharisees, a Jewish sect that sees Jesus as a
threat to their power.
“If we let him go on like this,” the Pharisees agree, “ev-
eryone will believe in him: and the Romans will come
and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” Know-
ing the Pharisees want to kill him, Jesus withdraws to the
city of Ephraim with his disciples and, according to John,
performs no further miracles.
The Pharisees also consider the living Lazarus as evi-
dence of Jesus’ divinity, and therefore a threat to their lead-
ership. They plot to have Lazarus killed as well, though the
Bible never mentions his fate. ▪As they roll it away, Jesus commands
Lazarus to come out, and to
the amazement of the crowd the
resurrected man emerges.TAKE AWAY THE STONE
The Raising of Lazarusby Carl
Heinrich Bloch (c. 1871). Jesus
awaited Lazarus’ emergence
from his grave. This act, the
last of many miracles that Jesus
performed, was a testament to
both faith and fear.