Section 118a
Sickness and death of Lazarus
Perea → Bethany, near Jerusalem
John 11:1-16
1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2(Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.) 3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, behold, the one you love is sick.” 4But when Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6But when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days. 7After that he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and yet you are going there again?” 9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11After saying this, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.” 12His disciples said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13(They thought Jesus was speaking about natural sleep, but he was actually speaking about Lazarus' death.) 14Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15and I rejoice for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.”
Notes
Perea
Perea was the term used by the historian Flavius Josephus, and others, for a section of the territory east of The Jordan River, opposite Judea and Samaria. Although the word Perea is not found in the Scriptures, the area was mentioned frequently in the Gospels as the “land beyond the Jordan”. John the Baptist baptized in Perea, and was also martyred there at Herod’s fortress of Machaerus. Jesus Christ often visited Perea during His ministry, and had many followers from there, which at the time had a large Jewish population.
Jesus spent most of his final 3 months before Passion Week traveling around Perea, teaching in its towns and villages. Jesus had been in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22-39), and the Jews tried to stone him again. He escaped their grasp and went back across the Jordan into Perea for the final months before his crucifixion. During these months he taught his disciples about the cost of following him and he tried to prepare them for his coming death.
Today, most of Perea is in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.