FANTASIES ABOUT LAZARUS

Most of you know, by now, that I enjoy engaging in mental imaginations about stories in the Scriptures. This practice has a long tradition, usually fallacious. Here are a couple of examples.
The “Longer Ending” of Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. Well, surely, this must have meant she was a sinner (aka, prostitute). And so she became linked with the woman caught in adultery from John 8, and the repentant woman of Luke 7. These links are dubious at best.
Another example is the attempt to identify James, the “brother of the Lord” with James the Less (from the list of the apostles), and to make him the author of the Letter of James. This, too, is problematic. So, with these examples (and others) as a caveat, I will still enter into the realm of imagination, at least knowing that that is what I’m doing. And my fantasies revolve around Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary (John 11), whom Jesus raised from the dead.
One thing we cannot know is Lazarus’, or Mary’s, or Martha’s age. The three were living together, seemingly unmarried. Is it because they were too young (ie, teenagers)? Maybe. And if this were the case, Lazarus could well have lived into old age in the last decade of the first century. You’ll see in a minute why this might be important.
When Lazarus is dying, the word sent to Jesus was “Master, the one you love is ill” (John 11:3). This description intrigues me. Might he be, then, the “Beloved Disciple”? One thing scholars are pretty convinced of: he was not John the son of Zebedee. This is suggested in John 21, where the sons of Zebedee want to join with Peter in fishing, along with other apostles and “two others.” This is a mysterious description for members of a fishing party where everyone else is named.
Lazarus, the Beloved Disciple? Who better, whether the girls were finally married or not, for the Lord to entrust care of His Mother from the cross? Might Lazarus have been at the Last Supper? Possibly, and perhaps (with a touch of irony here) Martha and Mary were united in serving the meal! On Easter Sunday, at the tomb, while Peter went away perplexed, the Beloved Disciple saw and believed (John 20). Who better to believe in resurrection than one who was himself raised up?
By the end of his life, meditating on all the wonders he saw and heard of about Jesus’ life and miracles and teaching, he would become the apostolic authority on which the evangelist of the Fourth Gospel based himself.
I do not recommend that this is the truth, but if this kind of train of thoughts/imagination can help you enter into prayer in the Fourth Gospel, then hooray! They’re just my fantasies.