The Sign of Lazarus
- In a paper entitled To die for the People, originally published in 1996 in The Priest: A Journal of Catholic Theology, Reb HaKohain argued that the vast majority of Jews and Jewish authorities of Yeshua’s time not only accepted Him as Messiah, but, after raising Lazarus from the dead, after four days in the tomb, precipitated His death in order to inaugurate the Redemption of Israel.
- HaKohain suggests that after being informed of the
great ‘messianic sign’ of the raising of Lazarus and Yeshua’s claim to being
‘the Resurrection and the Life’, the Pharisees and High Priest, acting on an
Oral Scripture (such as Zohar 5:218a) realised that Yeshua was the Messiah of
Isaiah 53, Messiah ben Joseph, who had to suffer and die. (Jn 11:49)
- This would explain why the Jews are said to have
shouted “Hosanna!” (“Save us!”) and “Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai!” (“Blessed is
He who comes in the name of the Lord!”) as Yeshua entered Jerusalem on the
donkey; and then only one week later, “Crucify Him!” (Jn 12:13, 19:15)
- The Talmud states, “On the eve of the Passover, Yeshua
of Natzrat was [crucified]. For 40 days before the execution took place, a
herald went forth and cried, “Yeshua of Natzrat is going to be stoned [Jn 11:8]
because he is guilty of practising sorcery and enticing the people to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and
plead on his behalf’. No one came forward and so Yeshua was crucified.
- Why did none of Yeshua’s followers respond to the call
~ including powerful and respected allies such as the ‘rich young aristocrat’
of Matthew 19:16, Joseph of Arimathea (Mk 15:43), Jairus the ‘synagogue
official’ (Mk 5:35), the ‘centurion of Capernaum’ (Lk 7:1), the ‘rich son of a
leading family’ (Mk 18:18), Zacchaeus the ‘senior tax collector’ (Mk 19:1),
Nicodemus the Pharisee (Jn 3:1), the ‘court official of Cana’ (Jn 4:46), or
even the cautious scholarly Gamaliel?
- Rabbi Ulla provides the answer in the Talmudic Gemara
in question, “… with Yeshua of Natzrat it was different, for he was descended
from the royalty [i.e. the throne of David]” This implies that Yeshua was a
legitimate heir to the office of Messiah, probably based on his step-father, Joseph’s, lineage (tabulated in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke), and that
it was because of His apparent royal lineage that ‘a defence could not be made’ on His
behalf (by the people).
- In the Gospel of John a sequence of three events took
place that precipitated Yeshua’s death: He announced that He was the Messiah
(Jn 10:25) and called Himself ‘the Resurrection’ and then raised Lazarus from
the dead (Jn 11:25), which forced the Jewish elders into making a very tough decision...
- The theme of resurrection had always polarised the
warring parties of Pharisees (who believed in it) and Sadducees (who did not).
In accordance with Jewish tradition, Messiah has always been strongly
associated with the resurrection of the dead. Thus, by raising Lazarus (and
later rising from His own death), Yeshua aligned Himself with the Pharisees,
but also showed Himself to be the actual embodiment of the Resurrection.
- It was for this reason that after the raising of
Lazarus some of Martha and Mary’s guests “went to tell the Pharisees what He
had done”; after which the Pharisees called an urgent meeting with the High
Priest and his chief priests to decide what should be done about Yeshua.
- The Jewish leaders were in a quandary. If they
accepted Yeshua as Messiah because of this Messianic ‘sign’, they ran the risk
of provoking the Roman rulers. If they rejected the Messiah, they ran the even
greater risk of opposing HaShem. (Jn 11: 47-53)
- A prophetic statement was made by the High Priest,
Caiaphas, which resolved their dilemma. In order to fulfil the Messianic
commission, Yeshua had to die, not only for the salvation of Israel, but to redeem
Israel and gather the scattered children of God. (Jn 11:52)
- Yeshua had foretold His death by crucifixion (Mt 16: 21) and it
appears that He was acutely aware of the fact that raising Lazarus from the
dead after four days would be ‘the sign’ that He was, irrefutably, Israel’s
Messiah. At that point the authorities would have no option but to respond in a
decisive manner; they, as Israel’s well-schooled scholars, all knew that this resurrection,
after four days in the tomb, was a clear sign of Messiahship.
- The authorities realised that detaining Yeshua would cause a riot amongst his many followers and were therefore careful to arrest Him at night (Matt 26:5)
- Archaeologists have confirmed that the area of ‘The Pavement’ (Gabbatha), outside of Pilate’s residence in the Antonio Tower, could have accommodated no more than about one hundred people.
- The crowd that gathered on the Pavement on the night of Yeshua’s trial, therefore, in all probability, consisted only of the priests of Israel and scholarly religious leaders who had understood, in the light of their messianic tradition, the inevitability of His arrest and trial.
- Furthermore, because Yeshua was tried on the eve of Passover, most Jews ~ approximately 70,000 residents of Jerusalem and thousands more who had travelled to the city to observe Pesach ~ would have been preparing for the Passover Seder and would have avoided the area where Pilate was staying, as it would have rendered them ceremonially unclean.
- Thus the small crowd of Jewish priests that cried
“Crucify him!” and “Let His blood be upon us and on our children!”, as He
willingly went as a Lamb to the slaughter (in accordance with His earlier
prophetic statements), probably did so precisely because the
Oral Scriptures concerning Messiah ben Joseph – the suffering Messiah --
clearly stated that His sacrificial death would bring redemption to Israel and usher
in the Messianic era.
- Furthermore I submit that the words “Let His blood be
upon us and on our children!” were pronounced by the Temple priests; that they saw
this as their specific responsibility because it was always their duty to perform such tasks; and that their words were thus not cruel or
condemnatory, but a plea to God for merciful atonement. In keeping with this
observation, I offer the thought that their words were pronounced, as was appropriate
for all Temple offerings, as an earnest prayerful request to the
Almighty; the only difference being that in this case the Lamb was the ultimate
offering, God’s Messiah as the Korban (one through whom people ‘draw
near’ to God).
- As on the night of the exodus from Egypt, when the
firstborn children of Israel were saved from death by the blood of Passover
lambs painted on the doorposts of Israelite homes, so on that first century eve
of Passover, the Temple priests, based on what they had seen, heard and
understood, made a prophetic decision regarding this ‘Lamb of God’, whose blood
would redeem the children of Israel.
- Reb HaKohain’s proposal is feasible; that the priestly
decision – “It is expedient that one man die on behalf of the nation” (Jn
11:50, 51) -- did not arise from aggression or hostility towards Yeshua, but their need to perform their duty in the unfolding of the prophetic destiny of Messiah ben
Joseph.
- Having recognised Yeshua as Messiah ben Joseph, the
Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 ~ (by means of His appearance*, the fact
that He was a miracle-working priestly figure from the northern territories of
Joseph, and the phenomenon of the messianic sign of the resurrection
of Lazarus after four days in the tomb – the rabbis allowed a maximum of
three days before acknowledging such a phenomenon as a ‘resurrection’) ~ Yeshua was
offered on behalf of the nation in order to bring about the redemption of
Israel; with the understanding that only then could the warrior-king, Messiah
ben David, come and finally free the nation from Roman rule.
- Early historians (Josephus and others) and several Church Fathers bear witness to the fact that Yeshua was small in stature – making Him fit, exactly, the depiction of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. Note that Yeshua rode on a donkey’s (small) colt on Palm Sunday, on several occasions disappeared into the crowd (only possible for a man of small stature) and that the ambiguous reference to Zacchaeus as a man “small of stature” could just as easily have referred to Yeshua… And then there are the words in Luke 4:23; “Healer heal yourself”, inferring that Yeshua was also sickly, “familiar with disease”. In all, the Isaiah image of one crushed by humanity’s iniquities and infirmities -- throughout His life, from birth -- has to be considered.