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The story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead is a remarkable and dramatic one. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were Jesus' intimate friends. Lazarus died shortly before Jesus' final entry into Jerusalem. However Jesus did not arrive at the Bethany home until four days after Lazarus had been interred.
Gathered at the Bethany home were many influential family friends. When Jesus arrived, Martha exclaimed, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:21). Jesus answered that Lazarus shall rise again, then asked where he had been laid. Arriving at the tomb he commanded, "Take away the stone." Martha protested, "Lord, by this time he stinketh. He has been dead four days." (John 11:39) However the stone was removed and Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth--which he did while still wrapped in grave clothes.
Apparently circumstances were such that there was no argument about whether Lazarus had really been dead rather than in a coma. However some of the mourners took the story to Caiaphas and the council, who decided Jesus was likely to cause a mob riot and a Roman crack down, hence Caiaphas' comment, "It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people that the whole nation does not perish." (John 11:50)
This story appears only in the Gospel of John, the last to be written. Many Jesus scholars believe the story is a kind of Jewish midrash, written not as factual truth, but to emphasize the point that even if Jesus had actually raised somebody from the dead, still his persecutors would not have believed in him.
Because of the total absence of such a sensational story from the remainder of the New Testament, this certainly appears likely to be the correct interpretation. Why then is the Lazarus story told in even greater detail in the Urantia Papers? Did the revelators decide it would be premature to deny its literal truth? And if so, what of other miracle stories?
It is true that the Papers dismiss most of the miracle stories--and certainly those that have Jesus walking on the water and the like. Further, they remark upon the failure of miracle healings of the body to bring about similar advantage for the spiritual progress of the soul. But they have left in much that appears doubtful--like the water into wine and the feeding of the five thousand.
It is quite wonderful that there is now such a powerful movement towards reformation in the Christian Churches, virtually all of which is in line with teaching in The Urantia Book. However it is also disturbing that we Urantia Book devotees may have already fallen behind. For the book does inform us:
"The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness."
Did we fail to take up that challenge by getting bogged down in things secular while basking in the glory of thinking of ourselves as enlightened leaders at the forefront of spiritual progress?
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