Lent 5- The Raising of Lazafrus






In today's Gospel reading, the finality of death is felt by Mary and Martha, who are grieving the death of their brother Lazarus. 
Lazarus is dead. 
His heart has stopped beating. 
He breathed his last breath. 
His body is wrapped. 
Lazarus is laid in the tomb. 
His tomb is sealed. 
His spirit has left. 
The community has gathered to grieve. 
The ceremonies and prayers have been said, and they enter into a season of mourning. 
 All there is left to do is weep. 
Everyone is in shock.

Almost all of us can relate to this feeling. During my time as your pastor, we have been through this experience numerous times. Last year we took part in 35 funerals. Shortly before Covid hit, we had a year with 28 funerals. These are people we love and still miss. We have shed tears at their loss, and we still do, at times. We can relate to Mary and Martha.

They believe Jesus could have done something about Lazarus' sickness. He had performed so many miracles. Surely, he could have done the same for his friend. Jesus could have done something, but he waits two days. He doesn't come. He loves Lazarus. He loves Martha and Mary, but he waits.

I think all of us know what it is like to offer prayers on behalf of someone you love who is sick. We know Jesus loves them, and we know he has the power to heal them, but no healing comes.

Jesus waits until it is “too late”. If only Jesus had been there a little earlier, then he might have prevented it. But now it's too late. His body is placed in its resting place. By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead for four days. There was a tradition that the soul of a person would linger around the body for 3 days, but now it has been four days. His soul has departed.

When Jesus does show up, Martha and Mary both say the same thing, 
"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died".
 Even Jesus begins to cry now. He cries tears he himself could have prevented by coming earlier. The other mourners look on and say "see how he loved him! ... Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" The onlookers know Jesus has great power, but they cannot understand why he waited.

We can feel like this too. Why wait? We need help, and the world is in a mess, so why wait? … We, too, have people we love who have gotten sick, and we have also called for Jesus to save them. Only to watch them get worse and die. … We call out and ask God to come and fix things before it’s too late, but He waits. Then, it’s too late. … Why wait?

Jesus relates to the pain of the mourners. He feels the pain of the human condition where earthly relationships all end in death. He weeps with Martha and Mary over their dead brother, even though he knows what he's going to do. … He weeps with them in their pain. Jesus is no Stoic. He weeps with them in their pain, and he weeps with us in our pain. They are mysterious tears that leave us wondering, "could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have prevented our pain". Couldn't he prevent his own tears by preventing ours?

The weeping Jesus arrives at the tomb and orders it to be opened. They do, and the stench of death drifts to the mourners. Jesus prays a prayer, and he calls out to the one he loves, 
"Lazarus, Come out!" 
Wide eyes are fixed on the dark entrance to the tomb. … Perhaps some were thinking that this thing should be stopped, and the sisters should be left to grieve without this spectacle. Others watched the open cavern with hope. … And to everyone's amazement the dead man comes out. They unbind Lazarus from his grave clothes, and he is alive. Mary and Martha have their brother back.

Who is this man who can call back the dead to the land of the living? We read about the Word in the first chapter of John, 
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. … ." (1:1-4,14)

When we see Jesus as the incarnate Word, The Logos in human form, God come among us, … and not just as a mere human being, we see the raising of Lazarus in a different light. If this really is the Word come among us, then of course he can call a dead man out of his tomb. Of course, the One who breathed stars into being can give life back to dead human flesh. Of course, the One who created the law of gravity can undo death. Of course, he can.

Jesus did this with Lazarus to show the people that he had the power. This is more than a healing could show. … CS Lewis (I think in his book “Letters to Malcolm”) once talked about how we can have this particular doubt about prayer for healing that makes it nearly impossible to fully believe in the power of prayer. This is the doubt- if I pray for someone and they get better, then I will tell myself that they probably would have gotten better anyway. My prayer really didn’t do anything. … If I pray and the person doesn’t get better, then I tell myself that prayer really doesn’t do anything. So either way, my doubt has made it impossible to believe in prayer’s effectiveness regardless of the outcome. If they get better, they would have gotten better without prayer. If they don’t get better, then prayer doesn’t work. And when we doubt in this way, we usually don’t see the impossible situation we have put prayer in to defend itself.

But this doubt has no power when it comes to raising someone from the dead. This was a sign of God’s power. It was a sign of authority over death, and a foretaste of the true resurrection that would show that death has been conquered. He did this as a sign of who he was. It was, in fact, the seventh and most amazing sign in the book of John. He has this power.

But there is a mystery in this. First, is that he has the power, but he waits. He has the power to give life to all the death around us. He has the power to heal everyone we pray for. He has the power to save those we love who are stolen away from us by death. He has the power, but he waits.

The second part of the mystery is that he weeps. He is affected by our pain. When he looks into our lives, sometimes he weeps, and angels look at his tears and our lives and say, "See how he loves him", "See how he loves her", just as those mourners said about Jesus and Lazarus. This is a mystery because we know that he who made the blind man see has the power to bring life back to the death we see around us. He weeps at our pain, and yet he waits.

Bringing someone back from the dead is a much more convincing sign than a healing from sickness. Lazarus was privileged to experience a foretaste of the power of God that will eventually flood into every corner of our lives. … But this miracle came at a great cost. It was this miracle of giving life that will ironically lead to Jesus' death. And Jesus knows it. This miracle is too much and leads to the High priest Caiaphas turning against Jesus, saying (out of fear of the Romans), "it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish". Unknowingly, he is speaking prophetically. … Jesus has waited because this act will bring God glory. Out of his love for us he will soon be the one wrapped in grave clothes lying in a sealed tomb. And it will be to show us his love. It will be to join us in our death so that he can lead us to life. The power of God will push Jesus through death and out the other side. And unlike Lazarus, Jesus will never die again.

Lent begins with the imposition of ashes on our foreheads with the words, 
“remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
 Lent is a time to take seriously that we will all die, and that our time on earth is limited. All of us will be in Lazarus’ position. Many of our friends are in Lazarus’ position. … Though there is death all around us, God has the power to give life even to dry bones- Even when it seems too late. … But, mysteriously God waits. And we weep. And even more mysteriously, Jesus weeps with us. … But, we know that in the end none of the death that infects our lives will have any power. Jesus has trampled down death by death. The raising of Lazarus is a foreshadowing of Easter, though it is of a completely different kind. We might say that Lazarus was resuscitated rather than resurrected. Lazarus would eventually die again. But, in the raising of Lazarus we see Jesus’ power over death. And on Easter we will see death defeated. Jesus will leave behind his graveclothes, never needing them again. Amen

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