Sunday School March 29, 2020: κατα Λάζαρον

Well, okay then, a joyful Sunday morning to you, remember, a Sunday IN Lent is surrounded by Lent, bracketed by Saturday of Lent and Monday of Lent; but is not Sunday OF Lent. In fact, there are no Sundays OF Lent, and no Sundays are Fast days. Sundays in Lent are, like all other Sundays (BCP p.16), feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ: enjoy chocolate, eat ice cream, spread butter on your cracklin' bread and eat two big pieces, eat fried chicken, say the bad words you swore to give up for Lent, you're clear, because Sundays are not part of the forty-day Lenten fast. If anyone gives you a ration about it, come to me for Absolution!

Thinking that the rector may preach on the Gospel lesson this morning, I normally would not do a Sunday School lesson on it; but today's different because I'm pretty sure what's in my mind for John 11:1-45 will not be in his sermon. This is what I would bring to the table if we were gathering in the parish library for our 9:15 to 10:15 session.

The first thing is that, reading this gospel aloud, I "correct" the Greek word Ἰουδαῖοι from its usual English rendering "Jews" to "Judeans". I've done that in the written text below (using Ἰουδαῖοι in each case without taking time to bring over the Greek noun's grammatical case in John's NT Greek) (verses 8, 19, 31, 33, 36, 45). Granted, many scholars have said that whoever wrote the Gospel according to John was anti-semitic; but Ἰουδαῖοι can be translated either Jews or Judeans. Seeing that Jesus himself is a Jew, and the Galilean disciples with him also are Jews, and I believe the beloved disciple and evangelist may himself be a Judean Jew, it makes most sense to me that they are not afraid of "Jews" but of the Judeans who are murderously hostile toward Jesus the Galilean Jew.

My second issue is John 11:3 where the sisters say specifically ἴδε ὃν φιλεῖς "he whom you love". It is not erotic, mind, the evangelist's word is φιλεῖς, reflecting Jesus' love for his friend. The verse is, to me, most significant, because it's the first identification in the gospel of the disciple Jesus loved, the beloved disciple, who in closing identifies himself as the gospel's author. From John 11:3 on, this carries through the rest of the story, and there's a logic to it. I think (and I'm not alone, any number of scholars have written about this) it's the gospel writer himself, quietly, subtly perhaps because the Christians by then were being persecuted, but tenderly with precious memories from long ago, identifying himself as the disciple Jesus loved:

The one (13:23) ὃν ἠγάπα who sat at table with Jesus during the Last Supper. 

The one who, being a "local" (Bethany was a "suburb" of Jerusalem, just over the hill) prominent and wealthy young man who lived nearby, was (18:15,16) well known to the high priest and therefore had ready access and took Peter into the courtyard where Jesus was being questioned. 

The one who (19:26,27) was standing at the foot of the cross, ὃν ἠγάπα to whom Jesus said Behold, your son and Behold, your mother; who, because he lived just over the hill in Bethany, was able to take her into his home that very hour. 

The young man who (20:2), when alerted by Mary Magdalen on Easter morning, ὃν ἐφίλει outran the older Peter in racing to the empty tomb, and courteously honoring Peter's age, entered the tomb after Peter.

The one who (21:7), there with the disciples when they saw Jesus cooking breakfast on the beach, ὃν ἠγάπα told Peter, "It is the Lord".

The one (21:20f) to whom Peter pointed ὃν ἠγάπα and asked Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" and Jesus retorted "What business is it of yours if I want him to remain until I come?!"

Finally, most astonishingly and notwithstanding that many scholars observe that John chapter 21 is a second final ending and not unlikely addendum to the Gospel, (21:24) the one who identifies himself as the Gospel writer. Whom history has named "John the beloved disciple" over the ages, but who in fact was Lazarus, the disciple Jesus loved, the beloved disciple. We have here the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ κατα Λάζαρον according to Lazarus.

I'm serious. I'm not kidding. I'm not alone. Make what you will of the varying NT Greek words the evangelist uses for loved - φιλεῖς and ἠγάπα - it makes no difference: Jesus' special friend and beloved disciple, of whom Peter obviously was jealous (20:21) because Lazarus was closer to Jesus (13:23 and all the rest of the story), was Lazarus.


Den Jesus liebte: er heißt Johann, aber er war Lazarus.

I suggest as well, a Sunday School Lesson For Another Time, that this same Lazarus is also the unnamed young man who, in Mark's gospel (Mark 14:51) escapes from the guards, whose clothing is ripped off as he jerks loose and runs away naked. And that it's the same unnamed young man spoken of in Secret Mark, original to Mark but later for two obvious reasons, excised from Mark chapter 10.

κατα Λάζαρον
John 11:1-45 New Revised Standard Version

11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Ἰουδαῖοι Judeans were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Ἰουδαῖοι Judeans had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Ἰουδαῖοι Judeans who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Ἰουδαῖοι Judeans who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Ἰουδαῖοι Judeans said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

45 Many of the Ἰουδαῖοι Judeans therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

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Top: Rembrandt van Rijn 1630-1632

Center: Giotto di Bondone, 1306

Bottom: attributed to Christoph Schwarz, Germany, 16th century. Enlarged, the detail in this painting is absolutely spectacular. https://www.masterart.com/artworks/5564/christoph-schwarz-the-raising-of-lazarus

It's not without issues of course, questions. A Palestinian, Judean, Jew writing in Greek some sixty or more years after Good Friday and Easter; but it's not unlike the questions about the Jew Matthew, first century tax collector, writing forty years on, in koine Greek, to persuade members of his Jewish Christian church to stick with Jesus despite the tensions between them and their Jewish families, and possibly official persecution. I'm sticking with my notion about Lazarus.