The Gospel of Lazarus? ~ Week 3

My apologies for making you wait an extra day this week for last week's clues. Vacation Bible School has begun and the church is frenzied with activity. This past week helped me answer a question that I have had for many years. We looked to the 19th chapter of John as Jesus made arrangements for his mother Mary to be taken care of by the Beloved Disciple. If we look to the synoptic gospel stories (Matthew, Mark & Luke), the synoptics all declare that all the apostles fled. Therefore, John of Zebedee has also fled according to three other accounts of Jesus' crucifixion. Again if we assume that the Beloved Disciple is Lazarus, we find no contradiction in these accounts. In preparation of our next textual clues, I pointed out something missing from this gospel account. A glaring omission from John is the account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. One would assume that if John of Zebedee was the author / Beloved Disciple / that this important story would have been included in this retelling. Due to an opportunity to have Marsha Alexander from the Philippines come speak to us this week, we will postpone our series by one week. When we resume the following week, we will look more into John's omissions and inclusions to this text. Our text comes from the 20th chapter where Peter and "the other disciple" race to the empty tomb after Mary Magdalene reports about her encounter with the Living Lord. This is my favorite Easter morning text and look forward to sharing with you more clues in a message titled, "Foot Race." Come join us for worship in Music, Word & Table!