Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
This verse opens a pivotal scene in the Gospel of John — the story of Jesus being anointed at Bethany. Passover was the most important annual Jewish festival, celebrating God's rescue of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, and this particular Passover would end with Jesus' crucifixion. Bethany was a small village about two miles from Jerusalem. Lazarus was a man Jesus had recently raised from the dead after he had been in a tomb for four days — a miracle that had stunned everyone who witnessed it and heightened the tension between Jesus and the religious authorities. John marks the time precisely: six days before it all comes to a head.
Jesus, you sat at a table six days before everything fell apart, and you stayed present. Teach me that kind of courage — to stop running from hard things by hiding, and to let the people who love me actually be near. Help me be that kind of presence for someone else too. Amen.
Six days before Passover. John is counting. When a writer marks time that specifically, he wants you to feel the clock ticking. Jesus arrives at Bethany knowing exactly what is waiting for him in Jerusalem — the arrest, the trial, the cross. And he goes to have dinner with his friends. With Lazarus, who had been dead and was now sitting across the table. With Mary and Martha. He does not rush toward his death with grim, white-knuckled resolve. He sits down at a meal. There is something worth holding here on the days when you can feel something hard approaching — a diagnosis, a conversation you have been dreading, a season of loss already casting its shadow. Jesus did not skip the meal. He did not isolate or power through the countdown alone. He gathered with the people who loved him and let himself be loved. Presence before the storm is not avoidance — it is wisdom. It is deeply human. And it may be an invitation for you to stop white-knuckling it alone and let the people around you actually be close.
Why do you think John specifically mentions that Lazarus — the man Jesus raised from the dead — was present at this gathering? What does his being there add to the weight of this scene?
Knowing that Jesus was fully aware of what was coming in Jerusalem, what does his decision to stop in Bethany for a meal with friends tell you about how he faced suffering?
Do you tend to pull away from people when something hard is approaching, or do you draw closer? What drives that pattern in you, and where do you think it comes from?
How might Jesus' example here — choosing presence and relationship even in the shadow of suffering — shape the way you show up for someone else who is in a hard season right now?
Who is someone you could share a meal or intentional, unhurried time with this week — not because everything is fine, but precisely because it isn't?
And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
Luke 24:50
Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
John 11:1
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
Luke 10:38
For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
Matthew 26:11
And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.
Matthew 21:17
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
Matthew 26:6
Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom He had raised from the dead.
AMP
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
ESV
Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
NASB
Jesus Anointed at Bethany Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
NIV
Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead.
NKJV
Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus — the man he had raised from the dead.
NLT
Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently raised from the dead, was living.
MSG