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Episode 61 Comforters and the Comforter (John 11:19) Ron's Notes

Ron Jones

Many Jews

So why are there many Jews who want to comfort Mary and Martha? Are they super well known? Is Lazarus well known? And why is it put this way: many Jews? As far as we know, these people would not be very acceptable to the “in” crowd - the “religious” crowd. Isn’t Mary a prostitute who pulls down her hair in public and scandalizes Jesus’s dinner companions? I think it’s reasonable to believe this family is a curiosity because of their connection to Jesus. The discussions that follow lend themselves to this idea. Did they come out to see them because they really wanted to comfort them or because they wanted to see if Jesus would show up or because they were curious about people who knew Jesus so well suffering g such a catastrophic loss? Probably there was a mixture of things going on as in every crowd.

Which would I be? I might go out of a sense of duty if I was close enough to the family. But I’m not going to be around death if I don’t have to be. But if Jesus is involved I might be curious to see what he would do at a funeral; especially the funeral of someone he loved.

*additional thought: why is it the author emphasizes the identity of the people who came to mourn? Why not just say “a whole bunch of people came”? For some reason throughout this gospel the Jews are called out and nailed down. Maybe it’s because John is the only gospel author who is writing to gentiles and he feels the need to do this. But it is a feature worth exploring.

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