Lent V

By the Reverend Martha Frances

Year A, Lent V

9 March 2008 

Text:  John 11: 1-45

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

      "I am the resurrection & the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, & everyone who lives & believes in me will never die."  This is today's Gospel.  Such is the heart of the extraordinary story I have just read you from John's Gospel.  I could sit down right now, & you would have heard the Gospel.

      But you know I'm not going to do that.  I won't stop there because Jesus didn't stop there nor did the writer of the 4^th Gospel.  In fact, for 2000 years, brilliant theologians & scholarly monks & nuns & ordinary, godly people like you & me have been exploring how Jesus' statement relates to their own lives & those of others around them.  So what?  If Jesus is resurrection & life, what difference does that mean to you & me today?  Why are these verses most often chosen to comfort the loved ones of someone recently deceased? What does it mean that those who die will live & those who live & believe in Jesus as resurrection & life will never die? 

      First, let's reenter the story to find Mary & Martha sending a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is on his deathbed.  Having heard & no doubt seen Jesus' healings, when they are in sorrow & fear for Lazarus' life, they call on Jesus.  Surely this man whom they love & trust can restore their brother, his good friend, to health.

      Why on earth doesn't Jesus jump up immediately to rush to Lazarus' side?  All we're told is Jesus' delayed action is for God's greater glory—hardly comforting to Lazarus' sisters as we learn when Jesus finally arrives in Bethany.  Since the subsequent action is obviously a preview of Jesus' own death & resurrection, Lazarus must be raised from death.  Jesus timing, just like God's, is not ours.  Can you imagine Jesus having to spring forward into Daylight Savings Time this morning?  We often want Jesus to act on our time schedule & are disappointed & sometimes lose faith if God doesn't respond to our prayers when & how we expect.  What impatient humans we are!

      Jesus' conversation with the disciples allows us to see them once again misunderstanding him yet also having the courage to accompany him.  Notice that it is Thomas, often called the Doubter, who takes the lead, recognizing they are entering a life-threatening situation.  How many of us could declare with Thomas, "Let us also go, that we may die with him"?  They travel to almost certain death.

      Martha confronts Jesus in grief with accusation, for she truly believes Jesus could have cured Lazarus.  In this poignant scene, Jesus engages Martha in a theological discussion just as he did with Nicodemus & then the Samaritan woman.  When his followers misunderstand Jesus, it allows him to explain the significance of his words & actions.  Martha, as a good Jew with pharisitical learning, states that she believes in resurrection on the last day—an Orthodox Jewish belief.  Thus, Jesus declares: "I am the resurrection & life."  Just so had God declared to Moses out of the burning bush, "I am who I am."  Jesus' identification with God is clear to us, but those to whom he was speaking had not yet experienced his crucifixion and death or resurrection.

      Martha's response is more powerful than she is given credit for:  "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."  Her confession parallels that of Peter yet it's curious we don't label this "The Confession of St. Martha"?  Of course, I've always been fond of Martha!

      Martha reveals to us what the Gospel writer as well as Jesus wants us to know—Jesus is Messiah, Son of God, the one who has been promised to come into the world.  In fact, that promise has been fulfilled—Jesus fulfills all the traditional Jewish anticipation of the expected one.

      The virtual repetition of this scene with Mary & the  mourners seems anticlimactic to us, but Jesus did not come to us individually for our own personal salvation.  Jesus came into the world to redeem the world so we all might be saved.  The encounter with Mary & the Jews extends the good news—the gospel acclamation—to all in the community.  We do not live out our salvation in isolation.  We live in community as we are expected to do, & our life, death, & resurrection is a public experience.

      We also see the depth of Jesus' humanity in this scene.  He arrives at Lazarus' tomb greatly disturbed in spirit & deeply moved.  Having already seen clear evidence of Jesus' divinity in this story, it is crucial for us also to witness his humanity.  When I grieve the death of a friend or loved one, it comforts me to know that Jesus also wept.  Our Prayer Book tells us in our burial liturgy that human grief isn't unchristian.  It continues, "the very love we have for each other in Christ brings deep sorrow when we are parted by death.  While we rejoice that one we love has entered into the nearer presence of our Lord, we sorrow in sympathy with those who mourn."  Jesus is indeed fully human here, grieving in sympathy with those who mourn.

      But that is not the last word, is it?  Jesus asks the mourners to remove the stone & thanks God before the miracle even accomplished.  His prayer is one of thanksgiving—Eucharist—the same name we use for our sacrament of bread & wine.  Jesus already trusts which we learn by his next command: "Lazarus, come out!"  Lazarus does just that.  Lazarus is brought again from the dead by the power of Jesus' command.  Then Jesus tells his companions to unbind him & set him free.

      Just days before Jesus' own crucifixion & death, we evidence his reviving Lazarus—exhibiting power over death.  Jesus shows us that belief in him allows us to live freely, unbound, because not even death can separate us from God's love, from resurrection & life.  What had been hoped for throughout much of Jewish history came to pass in Jesus.  Jesus' upcoming death was not to be the final word.  Despite the pain the disciples would feel & the disbelief expressed by those such as Thomas, the final word is not death but life.  Those who live & believe in Jesus have overcome death.

      On this last Lenten Sunday before Palm Sunday, Jesus' raising of Lazarus is not just a prefiguring of Easter but is part of the Easter message itself.  Resurrection life begins here & now in this life before it continues into the life to come.  This story at this time of the Christian year gives me great courage & more than a little comfort, especially in terms of our lives in the community of Hope.  The three movements toward belief outlined here are guidelines for this church community in embracing who God calls us to be, I believe.  I borrow some thoughts from the Rev. G. Porter Taylor in naming three movements through death into resurrection.

      Martha & then Mary confront Jesus with their need for him & his healing power because they cannot revive Lazarus on their own.  In turn, Jesus confronts their old way of belief & calls forth from them a new level of belief, a deeper trust in God & recognition that Jesus is divine.  Confrontation is necessary for us in this community to trust God to lead us from our old way of doing things—in many cases life-draining—into a new vision of how to grow in depth as well as in size to fulfill our mission as a parish.  We must truly pray for discernment, praying for each other as we pray for ourselves, & for courage to let go of the past which is dead in order to see what future Christ is laying out for us.  We must encounter God at the depth of our being & be willing to turn our lives personally & as Hope parish over to the care of a loving God who can do for us more than we can ask or imagine.

      Consolation is the 2^nd movement in this Lenten journey.  Martha & then Mary were offered Jesus' consolation, the assurance that Jesus would be with them in their grief.  Jesus himself showed his very human side in his own tears; perhaps they consoled each other.  We at Hope need to become much better at consoling each other but most at believing Jesus' promise that he will be with us as we die to the old & open ourselves to the new.  Belief is not just an intellectual proposition; it really means "to give one's heart to."  Are we willing to trust that Christ will lead us through the murky depths of Good Friday into the morning light of the resurrection?  Jesus doesn't wait until we have it all together to be with us;  Jesus accompanies us—weeps with us—comes to us in our pain & frustration as we are coming apart at the seams.  Jesus promises to be present all the way.

      Finally, when we let go of the dead parts of our past & trust Christ completely to accompany us, putting our whole lives in his hands, then we are ready for the new life of conversion.  Jesus calls to Lazarus—& to us—to come out of the tomb of Good Friday & to embrace new life, living into it fully.  Jesus cried out to his friend in love & companionship & moved Lazarus to new life.  Then Jesus told his friends to unbind him so he could get about the business of living, more fully than he'd ever known before. 

      In the next two weeks, we will be walking the steps of Jesus' last days on earth, & Jesus is calling us to confront & let go of our past, to trust enough that Jesus can console us in the loss & accompany us through the dark night into the light of the resurrection where we can experience the conversion of Easter.  Jesus is calling us to come out & live life abundantly with him.  Such is the hope of Hope.  Such is the hope of Easter.  Take heart in the journey!