5th Sunday in Lent
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The story of the raising of Lazarus is a central, pivotal story in the Gospel according to John.
It is the central chapter in the whole book; there are ten chapters before it and ten chapters following it.
It is the last chapter where Jesus performs one of his signs, what in other gospels is called a miracle. It is the end of Jesus’ public ministry. From now on, he will focus on the disciples only, teaching and strengthening them prior to his passion, death, and resurrection.
It is the chapter where the key words in Jesus’ teaching change. Up until now, Jesus spoke about the word coming into the world bringing life and light. These two words show up 82 times in the prior chapters, but only 6 times in the following ones. From now on, Jesus is talking much more about love. Love is mentioned only 6 times until now, but will surface over thirty times in the chapters to come.
It is the chapter where doing hands-on ministry shifts from Jesus to the community. Jesus alone raises Lazarus, but then he enlists the community to unbind him and let him go. In chapters to come, he will go on to teach about us loving one another as he has loved us.
So on many levels, this chapter marks both the center and the turning point in Jesus’ ministry.
There is one more aspect in which this story points to the center.
Both Martha and Mary greet Jesus with the words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” There is such regret in these words, such wishful thinking for the past to have been different. How familiar we are with such thoughts: If only I had done this. If only I hadn’t said that. If only that hadn’t happened. Lord, if only.
When Jesus comforts them with the promise of the resurrection, Martha responds, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” This reveals that she understands resurrection as something that happens way in the future. On the last day, a long time from now, Lazarus will rise. It sounds like she is reciting something she has learned in catechism, but that has no real impact on her.
In their grief, the sisters look regretfully into the past and with lukewarm hope into the future.
Jesus steps into the middle of these two perspectives and brings the sisters back to the present: I am the resurrection and the life. I am! Here and now, I am resurrection and life. Not ‘I was’, not ‘I will be’ – I am!
Pastor Mark Davis imagines Jesus holding Martha’s face gently in his hands and looking into her eyes and saying, “Martha, look at me. I am here. I am here for you now. I am here to grieve with you and to show you my powerful love. I am the resurrection and the life.”
The resurrection power of Jesus, the new life he came to bring, are about our lives in the here and now, today. Jesus offers us his love today. Jesus is here to share our joys and our sorrows today. Jesus is here to uplift us today.
This new life touches people whenever they do what Jesus tells them to do. Mary tell the stewards at the wedding in Kana to do whatever Jesus tells them to do, and water is turned into wine for joyful celebration. Jesus rubs mud onto the eyes of the blind man and tells him to go and wash; he does and is suddenly able to see. Jesus tells the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, “Stand up, take your mat and walk,” and he does!
Today, he tells the people to take away the stone from the tomb entrance, and even though they are afraid of the smell they do it; and lo and behold, Lazarus emerges from the tomb when he hears Jesus’ voice, telling him to come out.
Life is resurrected and blessed and new when people do what Jesus tells them to do.
At the end of today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells the bystanders to unbind Lazarus and let him go. Jesus gives the people instructions for how they are to pass on the gift of resurrection and blessing they themselves have received. All those who have witnessed this miracle and whose faith has been blessed by this amazing sign of God’s grace, they are to help other people come to the same kind of faith. They are to free others from the strips of cloth that hold them back, that tie them to sin and death, that bind them to the past with its guilt and shame, pain and disappointments.
Unbind them and let them go, Jesus commands. Help them enter the new life Jesus offers.
One pastor shared an experience online that illustrated as to what this might look like in real life. This is what Pastor Hoch writes:
Being raised from the dead entails a community dedicated to loving one another in the liberating love of Jesus Christ.
During my stay with the Cherith Brook Catholic Worker in Kansas City, I helped as the community hosted showers and opened a clothes closet for people living on the street. Many entered the shower room waiting area looking beaten, tired, and as neglected as the urban cityscape itself. People avoided eye contact. Conversation was limited. But as each emerged out of the showers, clean and wearing a fresh set of clothes, a new life seemed to come into their eyes. They shone with the warmth of their humanity restored, shining with the luster of care and dignity.
What I witnessed, I suppose, was a little resurrection, a resurrection of a person in community and a community in a person.
This reminds me immediately of our mission statement: As followers of Jesus, we are called to be an inclusive and compassionate community, where everyone is connected in relationship with God and each other to foster wholeness of mind and soul. We are called to unbind each other and let each other go. We are called to roll away stones for one another so we can all emerge from whatever tombs make our lives dark and joyless.
Where do we find the faith, the energy, the hope, the peace, the will, and the love to be that kind of disciple? In the same place where Lazarus found it.
The next chapter tells us about Mary anointing of Jesus’ feet. This happens in the house shared by Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They invited Jesus to dinner. The gospel points out specifically that Lazarus is at the table with Jesus. After the resurrection, Lazarus invites Jesus into his life and into his house. He has dinner with Jesus. He spends time with Jesus and Jesus’ friends. The community that unbound him now gathers with him in the presence of Jesus.
We all have been invited into the new life Jesus offers. In our baptism, in the love of others, in the healing touch of caring people, in the support of the community, we have been called from darkness into the light of Christ. Now we do what Lazarus did: We seek Jesus’ presence, listen to his teachings, eat at his table, and participate in the life of the community of believers.
Through all this, we will feel the resurrection power of Christ energize and uplift us. We will realize that Jesus is here for us, now, in the present. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and that makes all the difference in the world – today! Amen.