Departing Bethany

Jesus the Messiah has just given the Jews of Judea a sign proving that He IS the Son of God. For after traveling some distance on foot to Bethany the Lord arrived to find his friend Lazarus dead. Then to the amazement of all, Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb.

The Messiah gives back to a man dead in the grave life itself!

We pause once more in the chronological events in Jesus’ journey to the Cross and His own resurrection to look back briefly at Bethany, the town of this miracle, from Luke’s Gospel.

Luke 10:

Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come…

“Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

This was Jesus’ caution to seventy disciples following Him. Do not be so innocent as to think that because God will save you that God’s enemies of this world will not harm you.

“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

Luke 10:16 – Commission of the Messiah Jesus to followers

Luke makes his point from Jesus’ parable most likely told to crowds coming to Jerusalem, then proceeds to introduce us to the family of Lazarus in Bethany.

38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said,

“Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”

But the Lord answered and said to her,

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Luke then moves on with another time and place without providing detail about their brother Lazarus, who presumably is at work somewhere away from this scene.

Returning now to the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha on the Lord’s later journey witnessed by John.

John 11:

… Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.

Two paths leaving Bethany

(God-willing, we will return to this while considering Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem, completing that for which He was sent by God the Father.)

A road through Bethany to the Cross

Now let’s depart Bethany with Jesus as the Lord left after healing Lazarus from death itself.

but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.

Returning to Bethany

Then as the Passover approaches many leave for Jerusalem with other pilgrims traveling to the Temple to purify themselves.

John 12:

Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.

Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.

The Apostle John adds further description of the fragrance, adding the reaction of Judas with witness of his motives:

“Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

“Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”

Dining with dear friends

Jesus and the Twelve have returned to Bethany from the small city of Ephraim in the hills to the north full-well knowing of the plot of Jerusalem’s religious leaders to kill them all.

Yet for a brief evening, they share precious mortal time together. No man knows the value of this more than Lazarus, their host and the Son of Man who must soon depart for Jerusalem one last time.