and Lazarus would die again, but Jesus only died because He Himself purposefully laid down His life.
the obvious question i have is why bother raising the flesh of Lazarus at all? and immediately prior to that saying "I AM the Resurrection. .. do you believe this? "
if the resurrection is physical, this makes perfect sense. but if it is only spiritual, then what He does raising the flesh of Lazarus takes on an air of deceit.
Hell of a question….. The most prominent thing that came out of raising Lazarus was…
John 11:45 "Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him."
This would also give more evidence that Christ was God…
In verse
John 11:25 "Jesus said unto her, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:"
Now this is nothing to hang your hat on, but when you see the words “I am” the implications of that statement is Jesus claiming to be God.
For example…
John 8:58-59
58
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was,
I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. (KJV)
What was it about Jesus saying "I Am" that so caused the Jews to want to kill Him? "I AM" is the sacred name, Jesus was calling Himself God! Observe God's sacred name that he Himself spoke to Moses:
Exod 3:14
14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (KJV)
Jesus was/is God and He stated so. While it is somewhat obscured in our English translations, the Jews knew full well that
Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh (for Jesus spoke to everyone in their native tongue, therefore when Jesus told them in Hebrew that He was the
"I AM," what He was saying was
'EHaYEH , or the title fully stated
'EhaYEH aSHER 'EYaYEH which means:
I AM THAT I AM, or I will be what I want to be –— I exist (by self), self existent, God Almighty, created by none, but simply became –— was –— is. To this day, Jews will not pronounce
'EHaYEH , for they reason that for a Hebrew in the Hebrew tongue, to say the name
'EHaYEH, is itself calling oneself God.
It is kind of like if our name in English for God was something like
"I Am God," then for us to pronounce His name would be to call oneself God (or so the Jews suppose, anyway). But the Lord said
"..this [I AM THAT I AM] is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations" (Ex 3:15), so why wouldn't they call Him that? Jews today call God "
Hashem" (meaning: "The Name"), and write His name as G-d.
Another reason one might look at is the following…From TSO
John 11:43 "And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth."
There were two miracles that happened here, don't miss either of them.
John 11:44 "And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said, Loose him, and let him go."
Lazarus was bound like a mummy and in the style that the dead were wrapped, they simply cannot walk. Jesus called and not only did the Lazarus come to life and come forth, but the Spirit of God brought him forth, for Lazarus could not have walked. He did not see where he was going because his face was covered and bound with a napkin.
The real priesthood was loosed, and freed, for all those that have the eyes to see and ears to hear the word of God. This is not a parable, or any story, it is a fact to point out to us that in Christ there is no death, there is no sting of the grave, but victory that will never end. It is eternal life that doesn't look for any rapture, or soul sleep of the dead.
John 11:45 "Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him."
Like I said… Hell of a question…it’s a lot going on here.. 🤔