THE LAZARUS/JUDAS CONNECTION

 

            Firstly, please understand that this is an off-the-wall hypothesis, with no intention to challenge or harm anyone’s faith.  Nor do I believe that it is in any way disrespectful to the authority of Scripture.  I believe that the Bible is quite dynamic and constantly revealing.  It is indeed appropriate for us to ask the far out questions and allow the Bible to speak to us afresh today.  As long as there are unanswered questions, then we must keep asking and searching.  Such is one point about why I engage in such speculation.

            I have long been intrigued by the story of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-53).  It is surrounded by so many unanswered questions: Who was Lazarus?  Why is this story only told in the Gospel of John?  Is Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus (told only in Luke 16:19-31) about the same person?  Whatever happened to Lazarus?  If the Gospel of John is the first of the gospels written (as I suppose), did the other gospel writers deliberately exclude the story of Jesus’ miraculous and revelatory resuscitation of Lazarus?  And, if so, why?

            My hypothesis is that the raising of Lazarus became such a point of embarrassment in the early Christian Church that Mark and Matthew, writing gospels for the convincing and converting of Jews and Gentiles to Christianity, deliberately chose not to include this event from Jesus’ ministry.  It was difficult to explain why Jesus would chose to delay his visit to the ailing Lazarus (John 11:6) when he loved him so much.  It is difficult to explain why Jesus would raise someone from the dead, only for that person to die again.  The point is too difficult to explain in an evangelical treatise.  Luke, on the other hand, specifically tells us that he is making a scholarly attempt at reconciling all the evidence about Jesus (Luke 1:1-4).  How then can Luke ignore the raising of Lazarus?  Still being sensitive to the embarrassing nature of the incident, Luke includes Lazarus in the form of a parable told by Jesus about the great chasm between heaven and earth.

            How much more embarrassing does the raising of Lazarus appear if the person raised from the dead by someone who loves him so much becomes the person who later turns Jesus over to the Jewish authorities, leading to Jesus’ crucifixion!

            How did I ever get there?

            All the Biblical evidence supports the existence of a family unit in Bethany of two sisters and a brother: Mary, Martha and Lazarus ( John 11:1-3).  But when Luke tells the famous story about Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) there is no mention at all of Lazarus.  Lazarus has again been expunged from the story.

            Later in Chapter 12:1-11, Jesus again comes to Bethany, to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, where Mary anoints Jesus and wipes his feet with her hair.  Judas Iscariot, who seems to be a distinctly different person, objects at the apparent wastefulness.  He seems to be a corrupt Treasurer (John 12:6).  Is this the same Mary and the same story as Matthew 26:6-13?  We are told here that this anointing takes place in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper.  Is Simon the father of Mary, Martha and Lazarus?  How interesting that immediately following this we are told about Judas’ contract to betray Jesus!

            Now go to John 13.  This is John’s version of the Last Supper.  Notice in verse 2 and verse 26 how Judas is referred to as: “Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son,” or “Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.”  Is this the same Simon the leper who seems to be the father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus?

            The table seating is a bit curious at John’s version of the Last Supper.  By the table conversation and actions that take place it is apparent that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, is on one side of Jesus (13:23) and that Judas is on the other (13:26).  The place on the right hand of Jesus would be a place of honor for the disciple whom Jesus loved, while the place on the left hand of Jesus would be for the host.  Is Judas the host? i.e. this last supper is taking place in the home of Judas, the son of Simon?  It is interesting to read in Psalm 41:9 this prophetic word: “Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”  The term “bosom friend” may not be one we associate with Judas, but it most certainly is one we would identify with Lazarus (John 11: 3, 5, 36).

            Finally, what about the name, Lazarus?  I propose that “Lazarus” was something of a nickname that Judas, son of Simon, and brother of Mary and Martha, received at his raising from the dead.  Only John retains that nickname stemming from that event.  It is derived from 11:43 when Jesus commands the exit of the dead from the tomb.  Lazarus is the Greek version of the Hebrew name/word, Eliezar, meaning, “God is my helper.”  Rather than a calling out by name, this could be something of an invocation preceding the miraculous event.  Roughly translated it would be: “As God is my helper, come out!”  See Psalm 54:4 as an example of such an invocation.  And from then on, Judas is known as Lazarus; at least until Judas betrays the one who raised him from the dead.

            I wonder if the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke - where the rich man, “Divas,” is in eternal torment and “Lazarus” rests in the bosom of Abraham - is meant to represent the two natures of Judas.

            That, in a nutshell, is my theory.  It’s meant to be as curious, interesting, and something to make you go, “Humm!”