![]() But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (John 11:20-22). Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus arrived in Bethany at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Lazarus had already been dead for four day (John 11:17-18) and “ when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. It’s interesting to note that to Jesus, death is sleep since He stated more than once that “ he is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38) so to Jesus, death is like a sleep since they are still alive. ![]() Jesus said something interesting in John11:11 about Lazarus that “ Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” and the disciples misunderstood Him and thought that if he’s sleeping, he’ll get better (John 11:12-12) so Jesus clearly stated “ Lazarus has died” (John 11:14). Lazarus was a very common name among the Jews during Jesus’ earthly ministry so there could have been hundreds or more in Judea at that time. The Lazarus I am writing about is not the one from the account of Lazarus and the Rich Man. ![]() There is no way to prove that he was the same Lazarus but honestly, I cannot conclusively prove that this wasn’t the same Lazarus either but it seems unlikely. Some speculate that the same Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead (John 11) was the same Lazarus who went to Paradise after he died and was in the “bosom of Abraham” and that Jesus could have brought him back to life. There is no reason to believe that this is the same Lazarus who is the brother of Martha and Mary and even though there is some speculation that they are one and the same, since both died, there is really no nearness of these two separate accounts in the chronological order in which these two Lazarus’ were mentioned in the gospels of Luke and John. He typically says “now the master’s servants” or something like that but here in this parable, Jesus gives a specific name the name of the poor, beggar Lazarus who entered Paradise but the Rich Man didn’t. Jesus doesn’t customarily use names of real people in parables. The story of Lazarus and the Rich Man was given by Jesus in Luke 16:19-31 but nowhere does Jesus say that this is a parable.
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