John 12:1

The day when Jesus arrived in Bethany was evidently Saturday. [Note: Ibid., p. 91.] As noted before, John frequently grouped the events he recorded around the Jewish feasts and related them to those feasts. At this Passover the Lamb of God would die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. John’s reference to Lazarus helps the reader identify which of the two Bethanys that John mentioned is in view here. It also shows that Lazarus was still alive, another testimony to the reality of the resurrection miracle that Jesus had performed.