Pre-Holy Week — Bethany

“Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.” (John 12:1)

Jesus returned to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus — a small village about two miles east of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. A dinner was prepared; Martha served, and Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus.

Word had spread about the man who had been four days in the tomb. Crowds came not only to see Jesus but also to see Lazarus — living proof of divine power. (For the full account of the raising, see the Background section below.)

Timeline: This miracle occurred weeks earlier, not during Pre-Holy Week. Afterward, Jesus withdrew to Ephraim (John 11:54) until returning “six days before the Passover.”

When Jesus arrived in Bethany on that earlier occasion, Lazarus had been dead four days — beyond any hope of resuscitation according to Jewish belief.

Martha met Jesus with faith and grief: “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Jesus responded:

“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

At the tomb, Martha objected to removing the stone — “Lord, by this time he stinketh.” But Jesus called with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth.” And Lazarus emerged, still bound in grave clothes — a dramatic foreshadowing of Christ’s own resurrection.

At the dinner, Mary of Bethany — sister of Martha and Lazarus — took a pound of spikenard, pure and extremely costly (worth nearly a year’s wages), and anointed Jesus’ feet, wiping them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.

This was no casual gift but an extravagant act of worship. Mary seemed to understand, at some level, what the disciples had not yet grasped: that Jesus would soon die.

Judas Iscariot objected to the “waste,” but Jesus defended Mary: “Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.” She was anointing Him for burial — even before His death. In ancient Israel, prophets, priests, and kings were set apart through anointing. By anointing Jesus’ feet before His triumphal entry, Mary symbolically anointed Him as King.

Judas Iscariot objected: “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?”

John’s Gospel provides a devastating editorial comment: “This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.” Judas, the treasurer, had been stealing from the common fund.

Jesus rebuked him: “Let her alone… For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.”

Where Judas saw waste, Jesus saw worship. Where Judas calculated worldly value, Mary recognized eternal worth. The contrast between them foreshadows what was to come: within days, Judas would betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver — far less than the value of Mary’s ointment.

The chief priests began consulting together — not only to kill Jesus, but Lazarus as well.

“Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.”

Lazarus was living proof of Jesus’ divine power. As long as he walked the streets of Bethany, people would keep believing. The religious leaders had no theological argument against a man who had been dead four days and now lived. Their only solution was to eliminate the evidence.

The miracle that brought Lazarus from the grave would lead Jesus to His own. Scholar John W. Welch argues that when Christ raised Lazarus, He understood this act would likely result in His own execution. The Jewish leaders had been seeking a legal pretext against Jesus, and Deuteronomy 13:1–5 warned against prophets who perform “signs” that lead people astray. By raising a man who had been dead four days, Jesus effectively signed His own death warrant.