The raising of Lazarus is what finally gets Jesus killed — and watch how it happens. The council meets in a panic, and the high priest Caiaphas stands up and says, "it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish" (11:50). He means it cold — kill this one troublemaker before Rome comes down on all of us. But John stops the story and tells you something Caiaphas never knew: "he did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation" (11:51). The man plotting the murder just preached the gospel and didn't even know it. Caiaphas meant raw politics. God meant the cross — one man dying in the place of many, "and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (11:52). The one who gives life to Lazarus is marked for death in the same chapter — so he could give that life to you.
