Resurrection of Lazarus
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The Jewish authorities counseled together as to what course they
should pursue to counteract the effect of this miracle upon the people;
for the news spread far and wide that Jesus had raised Lazarus from
the dead, and the reality of the event was established by many eye-
witnesses. Still the enemies of Jesus sought to circulate lying reports,
perverting the facts in the case as far as they were able, and endeavoring
to turn the people away from one who had dared to rob the grave of its
dead.
In this council of the Jews were some influential men who believed
on Jesus; but their wishes were overruled by the malignant Pharisees,
who hated Jesus because he had exposed their hypocritical pretensions,
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and had torn aside the cloak of precision and rigorous rites under which
their moral deformity was hidden. The pure religion that Jesus taught,
and his simple, godly life, condemned their hollow professions of piety.
They thirsted for revenge, and nothing short of taking his life would
satisfy them. They had tried to provoke him to say or do something
that would give them occasion to condemn him, and several times they
had attempted to stone him, but he had quietly withdrawn and they
had lost sight of him.
The miracles performed by Jesus on the Sabbath were all for the
relief of the afflicted, but the Pharisees had sought to use these works
of mercy as a cause by which they might condemn him as a Sabbath-
breaker. They endeavored to arouse the Herodians against him; they
represented that Jesus was seeking to set up a rival kingdom among
them, and consulted with them how they should destroy him. They had
sought to excite the Romans against him, and had represented him to
them as one who was trying to subvert their authority. They had tried
every pretext to cut him off from influencing the people, but they had
so far been foiled in their attempts; for the multitudes who witnessed
the works of mercy and benevolence done by Jesus, and heard his pure
and holy teachings, knew that these were not the words and deeds of
a Sabbath-breaker and a blasphemer. Even the officers sent by the
Pharisees had been so influenced by the divine presence of the great
Teacher that they could not lay hands upon him. In desperation the
Jews had finally passed an edict that if any man confessed that he
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believed on Jesus he should be cast out of the synagogue.
So, as the priests, the rulers, and the elders gathered together
for consultation, it was their fixed determination to silence this man