Lent 5- Lazarus

 

Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45

Our readings point us to the reality of death and God’s power to overcome it. In a vision, Ezekiel stands in a valley of dry bones that represent Israel, and God gives back life to what is completely and undeniably long dead. Psalm 130 is a sinner’s cry from the depths, hoping for God’s mercy and redeeming love- It is a kind of spiritual death. And our reading from Romans teaches that the way of fallen flesh is the way of death, but life in the Spirit frees us from the death-bound mindset of the flesh. … So, our readings lead us to consider death. The hopelessness of a destroyed community that seems doomed to the dust, more a part of the past than the future. And we are invited to consider the deep pit of our own sin and our inability to get out of it on our own.

And this brings us to our Gospel reading. Here, the finality of death is felt by Mary and Martha, who are grieving the death of their brother Lazarus. His body is wrapped. Lazarus is laid in a tomb. His spirit has departed. 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 priest here at St. Leonard’s, we have been through this experience numerous times. … We can relate to Mary and Martha.

They believe Jesus could have done something about Lazarus' sickness. They know he performed many miracles. They believe that he could have done the same for his friend Lazarus. Jesus could have done something, but he wasn’t there. He didn’t come. They know he loves Lazarus. He loves Martha and Mary, too, but he wasn’t there.

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. If only Jesus had been there a little earlier, then he might have prevented it by his healing touch. 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 spirit of a person would linger around the body for 3 days, but now it has been four days. His soul has departed. … In Princess Bride terms, he’s “All dead”, not just “mostly dead”.

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 to come.

We can feel like this too. Why wait? We need help, and the world is in a mess, so why wait? … We have people we love who have gotten sick, and we have called for Jesus to save them. Only to watch them get worse and die. … Why wait?

Jesus relates to the pain of the mourners. He feels the pain of the human condition where earthly relationships are ended by 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 prompt us to ask, “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 over the mourners. Jesus prays, 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? That’s the question John wants us to ask. 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 humankind. ... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. … ." (1:1-4,14)

When we see Jesus as the incarnate Word of God, God with skin on having come among us, … we see the raising of Lazarus in a different light. If this really is the Word of God 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.

Jesus did this with Lazarus to show the people who he was. 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 peculiar doubt about prayer for healing that makes it nearly impossible to believe in prayer for healing. … This is the dilemma- 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 healing prayer 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 strange dilemma we’ve put ourselves in.

But this doubt has no power when it comes to raising someone from the dead. This was a sign. It was a sign of who Jesus is, … his authority over death, and a foretaste of the resurrection of Jesus that would show that death has been conquered. This is the seventh sign in the book of John.

But there is a mystery in this. First, is that he has the power, but he waits. He has the power to overcome 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 … and he has the power to prevent the reason for those tears. … 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. … But this miracle came at a great cost. In the Gospel according to John, it is this miracle of giving life that will ironically lead to Jesus' death. And Jesus knows it. This miracle 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 will soon be the one wrapped in grave clothes lying in a tomb. And he will go there willingly as an expression of his love for us. He will 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. 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. … But, mysteriously God waits. And we weep. And even more mysteriously, Jesus weeps with us. … But, we trust 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. 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