1:10pm
I started reading Sproul’s commentary on the book of John today. I like Sproul a lot, especially his exegetical work.
“Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.’”
At the end of John 10, Jesus is in Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedication. Jerusalem is in Judea, which is the southern region of Israel. Jesus is confronted by a number of Jews who ask him directly if he is the Christ. He responds that he did tell them, but they don’t believe. The reason they don’t believe is because they are not his sheep. Only his sheep hear his voice. Jesus says that he gives his sheep eternal life and that his father has given these sheep to him. He goes on to say:
“I and the Father are one.” 10.30
The Jews don’t like that. So they pick up stones to kill him. Then they try to arrest him. But he escapes. And we’re told he goes across the Jordan to the place where John the Baptist had been baptizing.
“He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.” 10.40
This story is what immediately precedes the events in John 11, so it seems safe to assume that Jesus was at this place when he received news of Lazarus’ illness.
The place where John had been baptizing at first is recorded in John 1:
“These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.” 1.28
The Bethany across the Jordan is not the same Bethany where Lazarus and his sisters live. Though it is interesting that Jesus is a town by the same name. Jesus leaves Jerusalem where the Jews are trying to kill him and travels East, across the River Jordan, to a town called Bethany. Presumably then it is in Bethany when Jesus receives message of Lazarus’ illness.
Jesus now tells the disciples that accompany him that they will return to Judea, the region where the Jews just tried to kill him. This reminds me of something the Apostle Paul does year later as recorded in the book of Acts.
On Paul’s first missionary trip (Acts 14), he and Barnabas visit a town called Lystra and heal a paralytic. The people of Lystra immediately regard Paul and Barnabas as gods. Paul rebukes them for such. Jews from the region come to Lystra to stir up trouble for Paul and then persuade the people there to stone them. The Lystrans assume they have killed them, when in fact they hadn’t (though undoubtedly they had the impression they were in fact dead). Paul and Barnabas leave Lystra for the nearby town of Derbe. They make many disciples in Derbe. They then return to Lystra to continue working with the disciples there. They do this despite the attempts to kill them. Paul again returns to Lystra on his second missionary trip with Silas where he meets Timothy.
So Jesus returns to the people that tried to kill him. I’ve read various accounts as to the time duration it would take to travel between these towns (Bethany to Bethany) and the common conclusion is that it would take about two days. We’re told in verse 17 that Lazarus had been dead four days by the time Jesus arrives.
If it did in fact take two days to travel between these towns, then it would seem that Lazarus would have died about the time the messenger arrived across the Jordan. Jesus then waits two more days before making the two day journey. Therefore four days in total.
1:50pm