On most Saturday mornings, I meet with a friend to read Greek and talk about Scripture. We usually do this on Zoom, but this weekend we were able to meet in person, an annual Labor Day tradition. We read and talked through John 11:47–12:8.

What stood out to us was the way John includes little references to Joseph and Lazarus as he sets up Jesus’s anointing at Bethany. You already know the story. What I want to point out is the setting and the frame. The setting points ahead to Jesus’s death, and the frame points to Jesus’s resurrection.

Setting: The Passover and Jesus’s Coming Death

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Pharisees began plotting to kill Jesus (John 11:53). The next major scene has a clear, meaningful setting: It’s “six days before the Passover” (12:1). The plot to kill Jesus is intermingled with multiple mentions of the Passover:

• Plot — “From that day, they plotted to kill him.” (11:53)
• Passover — “The Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the region into Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.” (11:55)
• Plot — “So they were looking for Jesus and were saying among themselves as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? Surely he won’t come to the festival will he?’ Now, the leading priests and the Pharisees had given commands that if someone knew where he was, they must make it known so that they could arrest him.” (11:56–57)
• Passover — “So Jesus, six days before the Passover, entered into Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead.”
  

John says clearly, “Think about the Passover story and Jesus’s coming betrayal (12:4) and death (12:7).” Jesus will be betrayed, he will die, and … Well, consider the frame.

Frame: Joseph and Lazarus

If you see the frame, it changes the mood of the entire portrait. First, between his mention of the plot to kill Jesus (11:53) and his first reference to the Passover (11:55), John includes a a little story about Jesus going to stay in a city called Ephraim (11:54) — Ephraim, the son of Joseph. Jesus was living in Joseph (κἀκεῖ ἔμεινεν).

Second, John frames Jesus’s anointing in Bethany as the place “where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead” (12:1). “Lazarus was one of those reclining with him” (12:2). John might as well say, “Don’t forget what just happened with Lazarus. He’s here, too.”

John wants you to envision this story with a resurrection frame. Both Joseph and Lazarus were raised from the dead. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, descended to the depths, and was raised to the right hand of royalty. Lazarus literally walked out of a tomb just a few verses ago. The day of Jesus’s betrayal (12:4) and his burial (12:7) is close at hand, but John’s resurrection frame says, “Remember Joseph and Lazarus.”

The Signal to Look Up, Dear Reader

John wants his readers to look up and reflect on the meaning of Jesus’s anointing. He includes a signal, an invitation, for you to look up and consider the symbols: When Mary opens the expensive oil and pours it on Jesus’s feet, the scent “fills” (ἐπληρώθη) the room. Bible readers know this fill-word. It’s the word used in other contexts to talk about “fulfillment.” This story is about fulfillment.

In the drama of the scene, when the scent fills the room, it causes people in the story to ask, “What is happening?” We are supposed to do the same thing. Judas erupts (12:5): “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?!” Obviously, Judas is missing it, but John doesn’t want this for his reader. Judas doesn’t see the way the scene points to Jesus’s upcoming death. He doesn’t recognize how Jesus is filling up Joseph’s story (11:54). He misses the significance of the recently resurrected Lazarus sitting on the other side of the table.

If we were there, we might have missed it, too. But we have a perspective that’s better than Judas’s. We have John’s help. He’s given us a beautiful portrait. He included an instructive setting and a resurrection frame. As the scent fills the room, John signals us to look up and think in terms of fulfillment (12:3, ἐπληρώθη).

The stories of Joseph and Lazarus are not an end in themselves. They are filled up with hope and meaning in the story of Jesus. The true Passover Lamb is about to be slaughtered, but he will not stay dead. He’ll rise like Lazarus and Joseph. The end of Joseph and Lazarus’s story is located here in Jesus’s death and resurrection.

As I look up, across the room of this Labor Day cabin, I recognize that it’s true for us, too. Like Joseph and Lazarus, the end of our story is the Passover Lamb anointed at Bethany. In our cabin, some are starting to prepare dinner. The scent of barbecue is filling the room, and I’m thankful to see the resurrection frame.