Death and Resurrection in John’s Gospel

There is an interesting, predictive structure in John chapter 10 and 11. John 10 contains the Good Shepherd discourse. It is the first time, since John 3 that Jesus explicitly explains His death. He has certainly mention His death in His interactions with the Jews who do not believe, but He did so under the veiled language of “going away.”  He was going away by means of His death and resurrection. But after He gives the blind man sight–illustrating the sight He came to give the spiritually blind–He immediately explains the nature of His work more clearly.  “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep;” “Therefore the Father loves Me because I lay down My life and take it again. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again;” etc. Then in chapter 11, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and says, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in Me, though he die yet he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” The resurrection of Lazarus, and the resurrection that Jesus promises to those who believe in Him, is contingent upon His own resurrection from the dead. There is, then, a structure of Jesus predicting, first in parabolic form, then in the form of a miracle. Jesus was explaining the centrality of these two most important aspects of His work–His atoning death for the sheep, and His representative, bodily resurrection from the dead.