I should probably admit that this is the hardest part of the Lazarus story for me. I struggle because I believe that what Jesus offers to Martha is what Jesus offers to all of us--the chance to witness the glory of God if we believe and trust in him. And I believe that in him there is resurrection and life. That’s not the hard part for me. The hard part is that Jesus resurrects Lazarus after 4 days, but hasn’t resurrected or even spared many of the people we’ve prayed for. I don’t have a solution for that. It’s not because we lacked faith. It’s not because we didn’t pray hard enough. It’s not because Jesus doesn’t love us as much as he loved
Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
So, if those aren’t the problems then what is? Maybe we aren’t supposed to be so focused on the discrepancies, but instead on the similarities. The gospels offer GOOD NEWS, and we should always listen to the good news in the story. Questions we can ask are “How can we identify? Where do we find ourselves in the story? What is God trying to tell us through the scripture?”
I think this story is about life after death--not just being resurrected as a corpse, but also the more figurative ways we each experience death and loss--the death of a dream, or a relationship, of normalcy, of identity, and reputation. Death happens all around us, all the time. And, so does resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection--he’s the one who brings new life, new possibilities, and new hope out of extraordinary our loss. This is a story of death and life.
And this story is a precursor. Now, we haven’t made it to Easter yet, so I don’t want to spoil the plotline ;) but I do want to underscore that part of the power of this story is it’s nearness to Jesus’ own death and resurrection. I wonder if Lazarus hadn't been resurrected if there hadn’t been a crowd of strangers there to witness it, if people would have been as ready to believe Jesus’ resurrection just a short while later?
There are multiple parallels between Lazarus and Jesus. Both men were placed in a tomb with a large stone rolled over the entrance. This isn’t a novel or unique thing--it was common practice in 1st Century Israel, but it’s important because it’s a highlighted part of both of their stories, which happen in close proximity to each other.
Both men were dead. Jesus was dead 3 days and Lazarus was dead 4. In the Jewish tradition, it was believed you could be resuscitated after death on the first or second days, but by the third day your spirit was gone and you were really dead. Dead dead. Beyond hope dead.
And both men were resurrected. Both men came back to life--new life, not resuscitated-continuation-of-the-old life, but resurrected-new-life. Now, Lazarus needed Jesus to perform this miracle, but Jesus had the power within himself for himself. Lazarus was just a man who would someday die again, but Jesus was fully human and fully divine and would never return to death.
In the story of Lazarus, a touchstone is created. For those who saw and believed,
they trusted that Jesus could give dead things new life.
They witnessed the glory of God.
They saw God do the thing Jesus had asked, which, I believe, served as a foundation for what was to come.
This story also precipitates Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. Tensions have been building throughout the course of Jesus’ entire ministry. He challenges the norms. He upends traditional teachings. He reveals the heart of the law where people have often been focused on the spirit of the law. Jesus may have been gaining disciples over the years, but he was also gaining the criticism of local leaders. We hear in this story how the Pharisees and chief priests are anxious. It’s really not so much about Jesus as it is their fear of what they might lose. They say, “This man is performing many signs and if he keeps it up, everyone will believe and if that happens, the Romans will come and take everything from us--the temple and our people”. That’s not really about 1 man--Jesus or otherwise, that’s about fear of what might be lost and because of that fear, they’re willing to forsake the one man.
And now, the journey of Jesus to the cross is virtually unstoppable. Before now Jesus had alluded to it, there was a possibility, but now there’s a definite probability. Jesus is headed that way and the authorities are doing what they can to make sure Jesus doesn’t jeopardize everything.
If you worshipped with us last week, you might remember a bit of Jesus’ conversation with Martha about “pisteuo”--believing and trusting. Martha said she did believe, but we didn’t know whether she was claiming cognitive belief or heart belief--mental ascription or trust. I think we find our answer here. Jesus asks the crowd to roll away the stone and Martha objects and says, “No Lord, he’s dead, dead. He’s stinky dead, and opening the grave is not going to go well.” Now that’s not a critique of Martha, her response is more than reasonable--for head belief--she’s very rational. But it doesn’t convey the trust of pisteuo. Martha, like many of us, struggles with the distance between the head and heart. She gets it, up here, (head) but it seems it hasn’t quite hit her here (heart). Nevertheless, Jesus brings her brother back to life. The gift of life didn’t depend on Martha getting it. It wasn’t because she understood what was happening or who Jesus was, Jesus offered this miracle because of who he was.
My guess is that’s what a lot of us need to hold onto. Jesus brings life out of death, not because we get it, not because we can explain it, or make sense of it, but because Jesus is the life-giver, he’s the resurrection. He’s the one who reveals hope and new beginnings even when the thing that died is dead, dead. Even when we’ve lost hope.
These are trying times for all of us, but the story isn’t over. Yes, Lazarus is raised from the dead, but he’s not the end of the story. He’s the preface, not the pinnacle. We have hope, even if we don’t have understanding. In this time, both for the scripture and for our world, we are called to keep leaning on Jesus. Trust in his goodness, his power, and his purpose. Amen.