The Raising of Lazarus - Setting the Stage

This episode occurred while Jesus was staying in Perea and shortly before Passover. It is an important point of transition in John's account, not because it stands between the Feast of Dedication and Passover, but because of the way it looks backward and forward. On the one hand, it clarifies John's theme of Jesus having come to give life to the world; on the other, it prefigures and so anticipates the climactic work of Calvary by which this life-giving mission was realized.