Lazarus

Lazarus is introduced as Jesus' close friend who is gravely ill in Bethany, whose sickness sets the entire chapter in motion and will become the occasion for Jesus' most dramatic public miracle.

Lazarus is seated at the dinner table, his mere presence at the meal a living testament to Jesus' power over death that everyone in the room cannot ignore.

Lazarus is cited here as one of the Gospel's signature signs — his emergence from four days of death now seen in retrospect as a preview pointing toward Jesus' own resurrection and the life available through belief.

Lazarus is the poor man covered in sores who lay at the rich man's gate — notably, Jesus gives him a name while the wealthy man remains nameless, signaling whose story God has been watching all along.