John 11.3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
Something has to be said about Lazarus being loved by Jesus, a friend of Jesus, and NOT one of the disciples. Considering that the 12 are mentioned in several places and arguing about who would be the greatest and who would get to sit next to Jesus, here is a guy that is close to Jesus, but isn’t literally following Him and isn’t one of the 12.
I remember a guy asking me one time if I wanted to be one of the 12 or one of the 5000 that followed Jesus around. Now that I look back on the context of that, I see there was some pride in there. It was Jesus that called the 12 to be a part of the 12, but to Jesus, the rest weren’t second class. Those were the 12 for one reason, and the rest were the rest for different reasons.
Here is Lazarus, loved friend of Jesus, who lives with his sisters in Bethany and doesn’t travel around to Gallilee etc. I think that says something to the pride of boasting “I’ll follow Jesus anywhere.” because Lazarus was friends with Jesus just where he was.
Let us put off the boasting of who we follow or who saved us. Let us boast only in God. When a boy pees in his pants at school, he doesn’t boast in what a good mom he picked when she brings him a clean pair. Neither should we boast in what a great God we picked when we were saved, but rejoice in Him that loves us, regardless of our rank or position in His kingdom.
