John 11:1-7, 17-45
There was a certain man named Lazarus, who was sick. He and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were from the village of Bethany. Mary was the one who had anointed the feet of Jesus with perfume and dried his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. The sisters sent this message to Jesus: “Rabbi, the one you love is sick.” When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not end in death; it is happening for God’s glory, so that God’s Only Begotten may be glorified because of it.” Jesus loved these three very much. Yet even after hearing that Lazarus was sick, he remained where he was staying for two more days. Finally he said to the disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived in Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Since Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem, many people had come out to console Martha and Mary about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary stayed at home with the mourners. When she got to Jesus, Martha said, “If you had been here, my brother would never have died! Yet even now, I am sure that God will give you whatever you ask.” “Your brother will rise again!” Jesus assured her. Martha replied, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the Resurrection, and I am Life: those who believe in me will live, even if they die; and those who are alive and believe in me will never die. “Do you believe this?”
“Yes!” Martha replied. “I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, God’s Only Begotten, the One who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, Martha went back and called her sister Mary. “The Teacher is here, asking for you,” she whispered. As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went to him. Jesus hadn’t gotten to the village yet. He was at the place where Martha had met him.
Those who were there consoling her saw her get up quickly and followed Mary, thinking she was going to the tomb to mourn. When Mary got to Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “If you had been here, Lazarus never would have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the other mourners as well, he was troubled in spirit, moved by the deepest emotions. “Where have you laid him?” Jesus asked. “Come and see,” they said. And Jesus wept. The people in the crowd began to remark, “See how much he loved him!” Others said, “He made the blind person see; why couldn’t he have done something to prevent Lazarus’ death?” Jesus was again deeply moved. They approached the tomb, which was a cave with a stone in front of it. “Take away the stone,” Jesus directed. Martha said, “Rabbi, it has been four days now. By this time there will be a stench.” Jesus replied, “Didn’t I assure you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
So they took the stone away. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Abba, thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd, that they might believe that you sent me!” Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus came out of the tomb, still bound hand and foot with linen strips, his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus told the crowd, “Untie him and let him go free.” Many of those who had come to console Martha and Mary, and saw what Jesus did, put their faith in him.
Mathew 27:45-46
At noon, a darkness fell over the whole land until about three in the afternoon. At that hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Today we have snippets of two stories that speak to us about the enormity of grief, especially when grief turns to frustration. It is so easy to place blame. In the case of Mary and Martha, it is laid on Jesus. And in the case of Jesus, he lays it on God. Because as any of us who have experienced deep grief know, it feels like we have been abandoned. How many of us have stood in the middle of a funeral home visitation surrounded by people we may know and love, and yet still feeling all alone.
Grief affects us in ways that shake us to our very core. Have you ever held onto a grief so immense that it felt like if anyone touched it, it would break and we would lose any control we have left? I often think of it as a bubble surrounding me that holds all the pain and sadness and it is pressing against me, almost suffocating me. It becomes a shield that cannot be penetrated. And it closes me off from others. Yet at the same time, if anyone actually managed to get close enough to accidentally burst it, everything would come flooding out for all to see and that feels vulnerable.
I imagine Jesus still in Jerusalem was already grieving. How could he not be for the man he loved? I imagine the invisible bubble around him filling with more and more sadness, anger, and hurt as he waited to go to Bethany.
Bad news never comes to us in a vacuum. It is always embedded in the other realities of our days. Grieving is hard, but is always made more difficult by the responsibilities we have to carry. I don’t think there is any way to experience “uninterrupted grief”. There are always things happening in our lives that interact and interrupt our grieving process. I think of the times that I have been angry with a partner and wanted to talk it out but had to wait until dinner was made and the kids were in bed. I also think that grief interrupts us. Recently I had a falling out with a friend. And every time I think I am just ready to let it go and move on, something reminds me of a good time that we had or could have had together and the grief washes over me in waves again and it feels like I move backward in my healing. If I could just get rid of the things that remind me of them, moving on would be easier, but that isn’t how life works.
Jesus’s grief must have been compounded by his stress. In chapter 7 which is left out of the lectionary reading, after Jesus tells the disciples that they are going to go to Bethany, they try to dissuade him reminding him that not too long ago the religious leaders tried to stone him, and they are surprised that he is willing to go back. Jesus knows that there are people plotting to kill him. He knows that going to Bethany is putting his life at greater risk. He also knows that if he raises Lazarus from the dead that his punishment will surely be imminent. Maybe this is why he waits two days to go to Bethany. Because the question of going there is not as simple as going to be with his friends to grieve. Instead he waits for reasons we will never know.
The timing of Jesus’ arrival in Bethany couldn’t be worse. According to the Jerusalem Talmud: For the first three days after death the soul floats above the body, thinking that it will return to the body. When the soul sees the body, that the appearance of the face has changed, it leaves the body and goes its way. (Yevamot 16:3) We know that this time has passed because when Jesus instructs Mary to “Take away the stone,” Martha responds saying “Rabbi, it has been four days now. By this time there will be a stench.” It’s gruesome and unsettling to think about, but there is absolutely no question that Lazarus is dead.
When Jesus arrives, Mary and Martha are both angry. They feel like their good friend Jesus has abandoned both them as well as Lazarus. Their faith in what Jesus can do is strong, so strong in fact that they believe he could have prevented Lazarus’s death. And so they greet Jesus with frustration and resentment. Jesus has been performing miracles and healing people, so why didn’t he heal Lazarus?
But Jerusalem is only three kilometers from Bethany, and Jesus only delayed his arrival by two days, and Lazarus had already been dead for four days. They want to know why Jesus didn’t stop his death. But the truth is, that even if Jesus had left immediately when he got word of Lazarus’s death, he still would have been too late.
So Jesus arrives and I’m sure he is surrounded by his bubble of grief, and he seems to be holding it together until he witnesses the grief of Mary and Martha.
Our story tells us that Mary threw herself down at the feet of Jesus. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. The pain of being close to the ones he loved, and seeing them suffering converged with his own grief.
It’s at this point that Jesus asks where Lazarus’s body has been laid. When they tell him that they will take him so they can see, he begins to weep. When faced with the reality of the death of his friend-in a concrete and visceral way- that’s when Jesus’s bubble bursts. It’s when the emotions all come flooding out.
Jesus wept.
It’s the shortest verse in the Bible and perhaps one of the most impactful. Because it speaks to us of the nature of God. That God is with us in our pain and suffering. And that’s the good news, that Jesus never leaves us, That God never abandons us.
Some of us have been told by preachers that if we are good enough, death can be prevented. But The reality is that Jesus doesn’t take away death. God doesn’t take away death. In both our readings today, we have death that happens and is finite. Both Lazarus and Jesus die and there’s nothing done to stop that. Even with Mary and Martha’s faith. Even when Jesus cries out to God asking why he has been abandoned. Death still happens. Even Lazarus eventually dies again.
But today’s story can teach us a lot about resurrection. Rev. Robb McCoy talks about how “Resurrection can happen on this side of death. I am the life. [Jesus] says that to Mary. Like right now, even in the midst of death we are in life. From whom shall we seek help? I think that’s the struggle, the tension that’s the human existence of knowing that we are surrounded by death and yet we are also in resurrection all the time. And resurrection doesn’t have to be something that we have to wait until we die and I think that is what we need to embrace and that’s also what was so terrifying to the leaders.” (PULPIT FICTION PODCAST 533: Bible study for Lent 5A (3-26-2023)
And it was terrifying to the leaders. Jesus commands his followers to roll the stone away at which point Jesus looks up and prays saying “Abba, thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd, that they might believe that you sent me!” And the people present do believe him. The story says that Many of those who had come to console Martha and Mary, and saw what Jesus did, put their faith in him.
And this faith is dangerous for the status quo. And this is the catalyst moment for the religious leaders who decide they need to kill Jesus. They realise as he raises Lazarus just how dangerous he is. Because to believe in resurrection is to believe that things can be different. That new life can come even in the darkest of moments. It is to believe that even when we are at our lowest and struggling, God is able to take that and make something new. And the story of Lazarus gives us the assurance that we are never alone. Even in the midst of our deepest grief, like we profess each week in our creed, God is with us, we are not alone.
Reverend McCoy goes on to say that “I think that if you realise that resurrection is something that can happen right now–it’s not something that we have to wait to get to by and by…but if we believe that resurrection is right now, if we believe and live into resurrection right now, then things can change and then things can get upset and then temples can be shaken and graves can be opened and then we’ve got something to worry about.”
And as followers of Jesus we are called to live into the reality of resurrection, that what is unbearable now, will be transformed into something
Even when we feel like death is closing in and life is too much to handle, we can lean into the resurrection life-trusting that we will be revived and resuscitated.
God didn’t intentionally kill Lazarus. God does not cause suffering in this world. But God shows that they can be revealed through this tragedy as they bring the world into transformation.
Jesus will not prevent death from occurring. Death isn’t the end of the story but we don’t get to miss it either. Jesus isn’t removed from this experience. He is there in the midst of it. Jesus is both the resurrection and the life. And when we are open to God’s grace we can be comforted knowing that even when we feel abandoned, God is there with us in the suffering. And what a blessing to know that even when we don’t feel it, we have a constant companion on this journey of life cheering for us, holding onto us, and bringing us into resurrection life. Amen.