It’s no coincidence that Thomas appears in the lead-up to the story of Lazarus. Assuming that, as I’ve suggested, Esau’s mantle passed to King Saul on its way down through the ages to Jesus and Thomas, then the iniquity Saul visited on the nation has to be addressed. The night before he died, Saul visited a medium asking her to use her oracular pit to call up the spirit of Samuel the prophet from the grave. In doing so, Saul made a covenant with Death and with Sheol.

However this terrible decision involving covenant was entwined with another terrible decision involving covenant—that of David in ignoring his obligations to both Jonathan and Saul. David knew the Philistine objective and, as Saul’s former armour-bearer and Jonathan’s blood brother, he utterly betrayed them. Jonathan is, when it comes right down to it, David’s threshold sacrifice as he assumes the kingship.

To resolve David’s action and bring about a healing of history, someone in Jesus’ entourage has to express their willingness to risk death to protect the King of kings. Someone has to go to the defence of the Messiah, someone has to keep covenant with the leader. It’s Thomas. John’s gospel tells us that when Jesus decided to return to Bethany, after Lazarus had died:

Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with Him.’

John 11:15 NIV

This is the sort of statement a loyal bodyguard makes on realising the battle ahead is unlikely to end well. It is reminiscent of the famous lines of the lord’s besieged retainers at the Battle of Maldon: Courage shall be the fiercer, heart the bolder, Spirit the greater, as our strength lessens.

The story of Jesus and His friend Lazarus is a recapitulation of the story of David’s betrayal, not just of Jonathan but of his sisters, Michal and Merab. David was responsible for the grisly execution of all Merab’s sons at the Passover on the hill outside the Tabernacle, just as Pontius Pilate was responsible for allowing the death of Jesus at Passover on a hill outside the Temple. In both instances, there is an eerie similarity of wording by those requesting permission to sacrifice innocent men:

‘We are not allowed to execute anyone in Israel.’ (John 18:31 and 2 Samuel 21:4)

Mary and Martha are immensely significant in the Lazarus story because it’s not simply a recapitulation of David and Jonathan but also of David and Merab as well as David and Michal. The reconciliation and restoration involves family, just like covenant does.

Now Jesus is at Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan when He receives the news of Lazarus’ illness. Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan is where John the Baptist began his ministry. It is on the far side of the Jordan, at least two days’ walk from Bethany near Jerusalem, perhaps three. It is therefore near the northern crossing of the Jordan on the first century route that avoided Samaria, not the southern crossing. That locates it right at the ancient Brook Cherith, where Elijah hid out during the early days of his ministry. It was the perfect place for John, as the Elijah-who-is-to-come, to begin his own ministry.

It was here, at Jabesh Gilead, that both Saul and Jonathan were buried after the men of the town risked their lives to rescue their bodies from the Philistines. And it was also from here that David, in finally realising how his dishonour of the family of Saul had made the famine worse and not better, had their bones disinterred and brought to a tomb just outside Jerusalem.

So, in effect, what Jesus did when He went from Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan to Bethany was to retrace the route taken by the bones of Saul and Jonathan as they were brought to the family tomb, and finally accorded the honour of a royal burial.

We might expect that, in this recapitulation, Jesus would arrive in time to save His friend, rather than come too late. Surely that’s how it should play out—since that’s what it would have looked like back in the days of David and Jonathan.

But don’t forget—there’s more than mere death to overcome in this healing of history. There’s also a covenant with Death and with Sheol, the grave, to cancel. The only way for Jesus to show that the covenant Saul raised on the night before he died is now null and void was by bringing someone back from the dead. That’s why He delayed in setting out once He knew Lazarus was at death’s door. His friend had to be dead to prove the covenant was no longer in operation.

This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May Jesus of Nazareth bring you full resurrection life.

Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.

John’s gospel is an epic poem in the mirror-reflective style of Hebrew prophetic poetry. Many commentators have noticed this and shown how the matching pairs line up. However, they haven’t looked beyond the loveliness of the design to the clues offered by the clues embedded in the symmetry. John reveals the inheritance given to specific disciples—the mantles of the patriarchs, prophets and kings that were handed on by Jesus as specific legacies: Elijah’s, Joseph’s, Reuben’s, Jacob’s, David’s, Esau’s… and more! The Elijah Tapestry, The Summoning of Time, The Lustral Waters, The Inviolable Kingdom and Bathing in Bronze (coming late 2026) work verse by verse from the front, matching to various verses from the back to unveil the not-so-hidden secrets of the mantles.