Session 17: October 8, 2022

Scripture Reading: John 11:1-57

Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2 (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” 4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.)

6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he remained in the place where he was for two more days. 7 Then after this, he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone you to death! Are you going there again?” 9 Jesus replied, “Are there not 12 hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks around at night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.”

11 After he said this, he added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going there to awaken him.” 12 Then the disciples replied, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 (Now Jesus had been talking about his death, but they thought he had been talking about real sleep.)

14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas (called Didymus) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.”

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days already. 18 (Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 so many of the Jewish people of the region had come to Martha and Mary to console them over the loss of their brother.) 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant you.”

23 Jesus replied, “Your brother will come back to life again.” 24 Martha said, “I know that he will come back to life again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, 26 and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world.”

28 And when she had said this, Martha went and called her sister Mary, saying privately, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” 29 So when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 (Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still in the place where Martha had come out to meet him.) 31 Then the people who were with Mary in the house consoling her saw her get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep there.

32 Now when Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell 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 people who had come with her weeping, he was intensely moved in spirit and greatly distressed. 34 He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They replied, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 Thus the people who had come to mourn said, “Look how much he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “This is the man who caused the blind man to see! Couldn’t he have done something to keep Lazarus from dying?”

38 Jesus, intensely moved again, came to the tomb. (Now it was a cave, and a stone was placed across it.) 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, replied, “Lord, by this time the body will have a bad smell because he has been buried four days.” 40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. 42 I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

45 Then many of the people, who had come with Mary and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and reported to them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called the council together and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary and our nation.”

49 Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is more to your advantage to have one man die for the people than for the whole nation to perish.” 51 (Now he did not say this on his own, but because he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not for the Jewish nation only, but to gather together into one the children of God who are scattered.) 53 So from that day they planned together to kill him.

54 Thus Jesus no longer went around publicly among the Judeans, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples. 55 Now the Jewish Feast of Passover was near, and many people went up to Jerusalem from the rural areas before the Passover to cleanse themselves ritually. 56 Thus they were looking for Jesus, and saying to one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? That he won’t come to the feast?” 57 (Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should report it, so that they could arrest him.)

Main Themes

Why is Lazarus not in the Synoptics

The other three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are called the Synoptic Gospels or simply the Synoptics. They are called so because “they are so similar in structure, content, and wording that they can easily be set side by side to provide a synoptic comparison of their content.” John is the only non-Synoptic Gospel. It leaves out stories that are included in all three of the other gospels, and it includes stories that are not found in any of the other three gospels. The raising of Lazarus is one of those stories.

In the Synoptics, Jesus’ last great act of defiance against the religious (and political) elite is cleansing the temple followed by an incendiary discourse. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ last act of defiance is raising Lazarus. There is no contradiction between the two accounts—that’s not the issue (if there is any). The question is an editorial one. What are the odds that the climactic event (other than the cross, of course) in John’s telling of the story does not feature at all in the other narrations of the same story?

I will briefly present two ideas that should be considered. First, each gospel writer has a different angle. This is not a criticism of the gospels. It is simply a fact. Each gospel highlights different themes by means of what material it includes and excludes and how that material is organized and presented. We do this every day. Consider how you could retell the Kyle Rittenhouse saga in different ways—using completely true facts—to show Kyle as a dutiful servant of his community or as a protector of his community. The former telling may spend a great deal of time describing his efforts to clean unwanted graffiti and briefly mention that he was unsuccessfully attacked. The latter telling of the story may not even mention the graffiti cleaning and describe the attack in extravagant detail. But notice that if both narratives are true (that is, they present true information), they are complementary. By reading both stories we get a better picture of who Kyle is and what happened.

The Gospel of Matthew, for example, is aimed at a Jewish audience. It emphasizes the fact that Jesus is the Messianic Davidic King who fulfills the Old Covenant prophesies. The Gospel of Luke, instead, is aimed at a Hellenized audience and emphasizes that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah who came to save people of all nations. Mark had a Roman audience in mind and emphasized Jesus as the true ruler. The Gospel of John—our main concern in this study—is more interested in showing Jesus as truly divine, who brings true life through his willing sacrifice. Which gospel is right? All of them. These are complementary accounts.

With the above idea in mind, consider whether we should expect the story of Lazarus in all gospels. All gospels agree that Jesus brought people back to life. Jesus brought Jairus’ daughter back to life (Matthew 9:23-26, Mark 5:35-43, and Luke 8:40-56), as well as the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:12-15). John doesn’t mention either of these miracles! So Jesus’ ability to raise people from the dead is not the issue at all. In John’s Gospel, Lazarus is a prefigurement of what Jesus would go through (physically, i.e., death and resurrection) and what the believer will go through (spiritually and eschatologically). It connects all the dots. Perhaps the other gospel writers preferred to end on a religious and political dispute (the temple cleansing) to show Jesus as the true prophet, the true king, and the true priest, while John wants to end on a scene that shows Jesus as the true life.

There is another reason the Synoptics may have deliberately excluded the story of Lazarus. This is called the protective anonymity theory. As one website explains:

There may be a good reason Mark, Matthew and Luke failed to mention Lazarus’ resurrection, even though they described similar miracles. When Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, “many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother” (John 11:18). Martha even went out to meet Jesus prior to his arrival, seemingly aware of the disciple’s concern that “these Jews were just now seeking to stone [Jesus]” (John 11:8). Jesus performed the miracle in the presence of these Jewish witnesses and “many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him” (John 11:45). As a result, the chief priests and Pharisees convened a council and “from that day on they planned together to kill [Jesus]” (John 11:53). The raising of Lazarus had an impact on the Jewish opposition that was unique amongst those who had been raised by Jesus. Early chroniclers may simply have wanted to minimize Lazarus’ presence in the gospel accounts to protect him and his sisters earlier in the first century. By the time John penned his version of the ministry of Jesus (much later than Mark, Matthew or Luke), this concern may have rightfully waned.

The Miracle

The Call

The chapter opens with Jesus being needed by his dying friend in Bethany. Bethany was a small town in Judea about 2 miles from Jerusalem. Remember that Judea (and Jerusalem in particular) was the part of the country that strongly opposed Jesus. In Chapter 10, Jesus’ life was threatened several times. Jesus’ decision to travel to Bethany was effectively a decision to turn himself in. The apostles understood this all too well when they argued with him, “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone you to death! Are you going there again?”

Two women call for Jesus, Mary and Martha. Mary, the text explains, is the one who anointed Jesus with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. This refers to a story found in all four gospels. In the Gospel of John, however, the story won’t be told until Chapter 12. You could consider this a proleptic reference for those already familiar with the entire Gospel of John. The much more likely explanation is that John was writing to an audience that was already familiar with at least some of the other three, earlier gospels. This could be the very reason that John’s Gospel is not a synoptic gospel. John wrote his gospel to supplement what had already been written, not merely to confirm it.

The Response

Jesus will go to Judea, but not immediately. Jesus intentionally waits for Lazarus to be dead and buried before he goes. Why? “So that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” What does this mean? Consider the following verses from Chapter 12 (23-28):

Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. The one who loves his life destroys it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards it for eternal life. If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

“Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me from this hour’? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

From a very practical perspective, to say that Jesus will be glorified by the Lazarus miracle is to say that it will lead to his death at the cross. But what does glory mean beyond that? Glory is a difficult term with great depth of meaning. What the current passage emphasizes is the idea of revealing (or proving) who one really is. Jesus is not praised at the cross. He is not treated like a king at the cross. But, he is revealed at the cross.

Jesus gives a cryptic response to the disciples’ attempt to dissuade him from traveling to Judea. “Are there not 12 hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks around at night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.” I will do my best to explain this. First, we need to know that the Jews divided the day into twelve hours. With that in mind, consider the following conversation:

Disciples: Jesus, it’s too late in the day to be traveling. (This is rhetorically implied by Jesus’ response to the disciples.)

Jesus: The day is not over yet. As long as there’s light, traveling is still acceptable. (“Are there not twelve hours in a day?”)

Jesus: It would only be unwise to travel if it were already dark. (“[I]f anyone walks around at night, he stumbles . . . .”)

Now remember that Jesus is the light of the world. In short, Jesus says that the disciples should trust him. He knows exactly what he is doing. If he were gone, then that would be a different story. (Jesus’ comment regarding “the light is not in him” may simply be part of the analogy while assuming an extramission theory of sight. Or it may have theological significance. I leave that part up to you.)

The Apostles

Jesus refers to Lazarus as being asleep. The disciples are confused when they take Jesus too literally. Jesus means the same thing he meant a few verses prior when he said that “this sickness will not lead to death.” This is a condition from which Lazarus will awake. It is not permanent. But he is dead.

Jesus then emphasizes a second purpose for the Lazarus miracle: that the disciples may believe. This miracle will be irrefutable proof of Jesus’ identity and claims.

Thomas is on board. Fine, he says, they are gonna kill us but let’s go. He is right except regarding his own bravery. He will let Jesus die alone.

The Arrival

Jesus arrives while many are visiting Mary and Martha due to their loss. In their culture, there was an intense mourning period for seven days (called shiva). First-century Jews buried the deceased on the day of death followed by six days of mourning (for the total of seven). The family would stay home and others came to supply food and express sympathy. Visiting the family was an important aspect of piety. A sizable proportion of Bethany probably visited Mary and Martha.

Because funerals were such public events and Jesus was a “wanted man,” we can understand why “when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him.” If Jesus had made it to the house, he would have run into half the town—colloquially speaking. At the same time, we should remember that Martha was supposed to stay home. By going out to meet Jesus, she shows Jesus great respect.

The conversation with Martha can be interpreted in different ways. She obviously demonstrates great faith. She acknowledges that Jesus could have healed Lazarus. Then she adds, “even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant you.” What does she mean? Most commentators explain this comment as being similar to Mary’s (the mother of Jesus) implied request during the wedding at Cana. Remember that passage (John 2:1-5):

Now on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine left.” Jesus replied, “Woman, why are you saying this to me? My time has not yet come.” His mother told the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.” [emphasis added]

Notice that Mary did not request that Jesus turn the water into wine. She presented the problem and then told the servants to do whatever Jesus requests. Martha seems to follow an identical pattern. She presents the problem: Lazarus is dead. She then adds, God the father will do whatever Jesus requests.

Martha’s belief that Jesus could and would raise Lazarus from the dead appears warranted if she was aware that Jesus had raised people from the dead before (Jairus’ daughter in Matthew 9:23-26, Mark 5:35-43, and Luke 8:40-56, as well as the son of the widow of Nain in Luke 7:12-15), and if Jesus words that “this sickness will not lead to death” had been reported to Martha.

As far as I can tell, the interpretation above is the majority opinion among scholars. As a personal note, it seems to me that Martha may mean something different. Her brother has just died, she is in great agony, and her teacher and Messiah failed to save her brother although Jesus certainly could have done so. In that moment of grief, her words “even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant you” could mean, “yet I have not lost faith in you.” Notice that this would still be a great demonstration of faith and loyalty. I think my interpretation makes more sense of the dialogue that follows:

Jesus replied, “Your brother will come back to life again.” Martha said, “I know that he will come back to life again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Martha does not seem to expect an immediate bodily resurrection. However, to give credit to the majority opinion, she could just be making her request clear. “I know he will be raised in the last day, but I humbly request he be revived today.”

Regardless of which interpretation of Martha’s words is the correct one, two facts are indisputable. She is a great example of faith. Also, she is certain of the resurrection of the dead in the last day. We have discussed this in the past, but recall the last lines of the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

A core belief of the Christian faith is bodily resurrection. We believe in eternal life in a very real way. Eternal life will be good and plentiful in a way we can hardly imagine. And it will come through belief in Christ:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world.”

Mary the Sister of Martha

Martha calls Mary. Mary heads to the rendezvous point. The mourners, however, assume that Mary is headed to the tomb outside the boundaries of Bethany proper. They follow her such that they might mourn with her at the tomb. This would have been proper and expected. The ending to the scene, though, certainly would have been a surprise: the crowds find Jesus instead—the famous rabbi and miracle worker, despised by the authorities.

Mary falls at Jesus’ feet. This might seem odd to us. Feet are strangely significant in Jewish and other oriental cultures. Consider this excerpt from the Jewish Encyclopedia

Since the Israelites, like all other Oriental peoples, wore sandals instead of shoes, and as they usually went barefoot in the house, frequent washing of the feet was a necessity. Hence among the Israelites it was the first duty of the host to give his guest water for the washing of his feet (Gen. xviii. 4, xix. 2, xxiv. 32, xliii. 24; Judges xix. 21); to omit this was a sign of marked unfriendliness. It was also customary to wash the feet before meals and before going to bed (comp. Cant. v. 3); to abstain for a long time from washing them was a sign of deep mourning (II Sam. xix. 24). Though there are no extant laws for laymen in regard to washing the feet, such laws for priests are given in Ex. xxx. 19-21. There mention is made of brazen vessels, placed between the Tabernacle and the altar of burnt offering, in which the priests had to wash their hands and feet on entering the Tabernacle or before approaching the altar of burnt offerings: hence at all their priestly functions. Just as no one is allowed to approach a king or prince without due preparation, which includes the washing of the hands and feet, so the Israelite, and especially the priest, is forbidden in his unclean condition to approach Yhwh, for he who comes defiled will surely die.

In short, feet were dirty in a literal sense and in a ceremonial sense. To come close to someone’s feet was a dramatic demonstration of humility.

Mary expresses faith much like her sister. She knows that Jesus could have healed her brother.

Jesus is Moved

At the sight of Mary and the crowds, Jesus is “intensely moved in spirit and greatly distressed.” Depending on which translation you are using, those words are sure to range from great distress to anger. What does the Greek actually mean? That’s a tough question. I will quote Craig Keener at length from his The Gospel of John: A Commentary:

[H]e was "moved" (ἐμβριμáομaι, 11:33, 38), an unusually strong term, usually denoting anger, agitation, and typically some physical expression accompanying it (cf. Mark 1:43; 14:5). Scholars debate whether he is angry with Mary and Martha for lack of faith (11:32, 40), at the crowds for their unbelief (11:37), or at death itself. On the one hand, the term might be qualified by a parallel expression in 13:21 (cf. 12:27; 14:1), suggesting that John figuratively stretches the sense to include emotional disturbance without anger per se; it may stem from observing Mary's grief and wailing (11:33). Some think that "anger" overstates the case, though "troubled" is too weak.

Keener adds, “If Jesus is angry, one may think he is angry at sin, Satan, or death as a consequence of sin. While that proposal may be good theology . . . , it lacks direct support in this text. More likely, he is angry at the lack of faith on the part of those who should be exercising it . . . .”

Again, I want to make sure I present what is the majority position (as far as I know). Personally, I think that commentators fall in the either/or trap. Think about the situation. Everything is wrong about it. Death has broken a family. That was never the plan. We were made for eternal joy and life—not for sorrow. Martha has to meet Jesus in secret because God’s own chosen people wish to kill the Son of God. Despite the prophesies. Despite the miracles. Martha, Mary, and the crowds mourn and wail as they have God himself next to them. He can do anything. Anything. Yet the people choose to mourn instead. The people who have seen Jesus do incredible miracles—including raising people from the dead—think it is too late for Jesus to fix this problem. I think this scene is the encapsulation of sin and fallenness. So Jesus weeps in distress and anger. I am reminded of his words in Matthew 23:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it! Look, your house is left to you desolate!

The Miracle

Throughout the miracle scene, the main idea we must keep in mind is the comparison with Jesus’ own revival. I will highlight the points of comparison as we go along.

At the time of Jesus, many private burials used vertical shaft tombs. This burial was in a cave, though. It was probably oriented horizontally with a stone across the cave entrance to keep out the animals. This is a similar “setup” to how Jesus was buried. Lazarus had been buried for four days! His stench would have been strong. Sure, the spices used to anoint the body would help at first, but not for this long. Martha is well aware of this fact.

Jesus asks that the stone be moved. When Jesus is raised from the dead no human has to move the stone; the stone is moved by an angel. Jesus looks up to heaven an prays. Lifting one’s face to heaven was a known posture for prayer. (We normally put our hands together, bow our heads, and close our eyes. That is a cultural difference.) Notice that Jesus does not pray before his other miracles (with the possible exception of giving thanks for the loaves of bread that were then multiplied). This lack of prayer emphasizes Jesus’ deity. For the raising of Lazarus, however, Jesus prays for the benefit of the audience. He wants everyone to understand that his miracles come from God the Father. Jesus is not some kind of sorcerer acting out on his own.

Presumably Jesus calls Lazarus loudly for the benefit of the crowds as well. Lazarus comes forth in his graveclothes. Notice that when Jesus is raised from the dead, he is able to simply leave his wrappings behind. Lazarus has been revivified—into his old body. Jesus was raised into something else entirely.

Jewish sources frequently mention such shrouds for wrapping the dead. They wrapped the decedent tightly, especially around the face to prevent distortion of the tissue. Lazarus, fully healed and energized, would have struggled greatly to “untie” himself. He probably could hardly move and not even speak. This scene is climactic. To put it in a modern context, imagine someone being brought back to life while they are locked in their coffin. You hear them knocking from the inside and screaming, “Let me out!”

The Response

The Council

After Lazarus struggles out of the tomb, bound in his graveclothes, after being dead for four days, many believe. Not all though. Some report him. Forgive my sense of humor, but I find this quite funny. I picture a biblical Karen calling the police about a man raising people from the dead at the skate park. Despite the humor, and I doubt any was intended, the situation is dire. The authorities finally decide to act:

“What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary and our nation.”

We have several historical records that indicate “plotting” was quite typical of Jewish and Roman aristocracies. We also know from the historian Josephus, that Jerusalem’s leaders were desperate to prevent actions that could provoke the Romans. Romans did not take kindly to insurrection, and the Jews had a history of it. The most prominent example was the Maccabean Rebellion in 166 BC.

We must also keep in mind that the Roman legal system depended on “accusers” or delatores. For local aristocracies to bring persons to trial before the Romans was typical.

Caiaphas the High Priest

Caiaphas, “the high priest that year,” makes an appearance. Caiaphas held power for nineteen years. His long tenure and other contemporary sources lead scholars to suspect that he was a ruthless politician. He had the impossible job of appeasing both an anti-Roman religious populace and Rome. (I am not claiming that was the true, God-intended job of the high priest. I only mean that is how a politician would have understood it.) Somehow (wink, wink) Caiaphas accomplished this. We also have reasons to believe that Caiaphas was well-to-do and highly Hellenized.

Notice how John refers to Caiaphas: “the high priest that year.” In the Old Testament, the office of high priest was hereditary and for life, like royalty. Greeks usually changed priests annually. In Jesus time, the office of high priest was no longer held for life. John’s description could be merely to inform his audience of who was the high priest during Jesus’ crucifixion, in what time period was Jesus killed (e.g., the “reign” of Caiaphas), or perhaps John is subtly critiquing the office of high priest as no longer divinely appointed but little more than a Roman political appointment.

Caiaphas speaks more than he knows, and in so doing he utters the most ironic words perhaps ever uttered. “It is more to your advantage to have one man die for the people.” Insert “Chad Yes” meme here. Caiaphas meant that the death of one man would prevent a rebellion and Roman retaliation. Just kill him. It will save the political nation of Israel. God meant this statement quite differently. Jesus goes to the cross willingly. Kill him that he may atone for the sins of all people and save whosoever believes in him. God is a good history writer—I’m just sayin’.

We could point to other ironies, like Caiaphas exclaiming, “You know nothing at all!” Caiaphas was in dire need of a mirror.

One question bears asking: are Caiaphas’ ethics in line with Jewish beliefs? Should a man be murdered to save a nation? The principle of expediency was certainly a staple of Greek and Roman thought. We also find it expressed by Jewish elite, like Josephus. Perhaps this was a popular view among the Jewish people. But does the Old Testament support such a principle? No. Remember, for example, Exodus 23:7:

Keep your distance from a false charge—do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify the wicked.

After this point, Jesus ends his public ministry and withdraws to “a town called Ephraim.” Ephraim was the name of the northern kingdom, known as Samaria in Jesus’ day. Perhaps this means that Jesus withdrew to Samaria until he returns for “the feast.”