6 LAZARUS, LAZARUS, MARY, MARY -- WHO YOU ALL?

6

Lazarus, Lazarus, Mary, Mary – Who You All?

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." John 11:1-3

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' Luke 16:19-24

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Mark 14:3

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. Matthew 26:6-7

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner." Luke 7:36-38

Sometimes it is easy to get confused reading Scripture. Similar circumstances and names can cause us to mix events or feel we have conflicts where there are none. Even the style of a writer can lead us astray if we aren't careful.

In reading the Gospels it is well to remember these are not biographies as we think of biography. Each Gospel writer was presenting a different aspect of Jesus' role as the Christ. What they wrote was to that purpose. Sometimes they presented different happenings in Jesus' life, but even where they shared the same ones, they may have looked at it from a different angle. When you put the four Gospels together they form a whole.

The Gospels appears as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This was the order it was thought they were written. Now it more accepted that Mark's Gospel was first. This is the most accepted dating of the Gospels: Mark (55-65 AD), Matthew (60-65 AD), Luke (60 AD) and John (85-90 AD). It seems obvious that these men were aware of some of what the others wrote, at least the first three. Matthew seems to expand on Mark. Luke set out to pull the facts of Christ's life together and so uses what Mark and Matthew wrote in places. I believe John wrote to fill in the gaps and explaining things the others glossed over or missed. I think we need to note who the Gospel writers were, as well. Mark was probably a teenager at the time Christ was crucified. He was a follower, but had not been with Christ and the Disciples over the whole time. He was an assistant to Paul and to Peter and it is believed he got much of his information from Peter. Matthew was an Apostle, but not among the first or among the inner circle. He was an eyewitness to many of the events, but not necessarily to them all. Luke was another assistant to Paul and was writing his Gospel as a historian, gathering facts and data and putting it as a narrative, not as an eyewitness. John was unique among these. He had been a disciple of John the Baptist and of the earliest of the Apostles. He was also in the inner circle and thus had much more exposure and insight into the events of Christ's life.

Some of this interrelationship between the Gospel writers may add some of the confusion between Mary, Martha's sister and the "sinful woman" because both performed similar acts toward Jesus. It also causes a bit of mix up between two people named Lazarus.

John begins Chapter 11 this way: Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

As an aside, note he writes Lazarus was from the same village as Mary and Martha, not that he lived with Mary and Martha. This, again, could explain why Lazarus wasn't present on Jesus' earlier visit to Martha's house, because he didn't live in the same house.

Anyway, John says here that Mary was the "one who poured perfume on the Lord". Why would this cause confusion? because it comes before the fact. One could easily think it referred to the "sinful woman" back in Luke 7 who poured perfume on Jesus' feet. After all, it sounds as if he is referring to a past event. But no, instead he is mentioning something which is going to come later in sequence of what he is writing. But why does he state this? Because he is going to fill in some information about what led up to Mary doing this that both Matthew and Mark left out of their narratives, including the name of Mary. You can see why this could be confused with the "sinful woman" described by Luke, but reading both events shows that the circumstances, times and descriptions are really totally different.

John then deals with the death and resurrection of Lazarus, something Mark, Matthew and Luke did not comment upon, yet is actually the impetus for the dinner that is described here by Matthew and Mark.

There is also some confusion about Lazarus. Some people have claimed this Lazarus, this brother of Mary and Martha, is the same Lazarus whom the Rich man ignored. The story of the raising of Lazarus from the tomb was an actual event in the life of Christ, while Lazarus and the Rich Man was a parable to illustrate a point. You can see why some might want to claim they are the same man, though. They are both named Lazarus. They both die. But that is about the only similarity. The Lazarus involved with the rich man was a poor beggar, totally alone with no one to care for him. There is no indication Mary and Martha's Lazarus was poor or alone.

Parables could be about actual people, but not necessarily. They are little short stories with a moral, often one hidden. The story of poor Lazarus the Beggar and the Rich Man is told some time after he raised Lazarus of Bethany from the tomb. It was a known event. Jesus might have chosen the name Lazarus for exactly that reason when he told of the deaths of the Rich man and the Beggar. Think about the end of that parable. The Rich Man begs Abraham to send the Beggar back to his family to warn them and this is what Abraham said:

'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " Luke 16:29-31

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, did the Pharisees and Sadducee believe in Christ? No, this was one of the generators of the plot to kill Jesus.

Illustrations in this section:

"The Raising of Lazarus" by Duccio di Buoninsegna 1319

"Lazarus at the Rich Man's House" by Gustave Dore 1865

"Mary, Lazarus' Sister, Anoints Jesus" by Harold Copping year unknown

"Christ at Simon the Pharisee" by Pieter Pauwel Rubens 1618-20