John 11:1-16 I have to tell you I feel some irony, or maybe providence, that this is the story we have for today. I picked the scriptures for these few weeks almost two months ago, having no idea of what we’d be facing and it feels more than a little poignant that in a time of sickness and fear and worry, a time when we are calling on God for help and Jesus for healing that this is our scripture story. Lazarus, a dear friend of Jesus is sick. His sisters know Jesus can help. And so they send Jesus a message. “Hey Jesus, the one you love (specifically in the Greek, the one you phileo, the one you love like a brother) is sick, he’s weak and failing and he needs
you.”
Jesus gets the message. Acknowledges it and says, this isn’t going to end in death, basically, there’s a bigger story to be told and it will help reveal God to the people.
And then the scripture says, “even though he loved Martha, and Mary and Lazarus” (and love this time is agape—God’s unconditional, abundant love), even though he loved this family as God loves…he stayed where he was for 2 more days leaving Lazarus to die.
From the text, it doesn’t seem like that was too weird for the disciples. We hear no objections. We hear no urging to get to Lazarus. For them, Lazarus was sick, Jesus just said the story wouldn’t end in death. And so, seemingly, they’re cool. But, we know, even just by reading ahead a little, Lazarus dies, so Jesus hanging out seems at least a little weird, and maybe more to the point—calloused. Lazarus wasn’t some stranger (not that I think that really would have mattered—Jesus healed lots of strangers). This wasn’t just a name to Jesus. This was his friend. A good friend. A friend so close the sisters said: “The one you love like a brother”. And yet Jesus stays near the Jordan for 2 extra days.
Can you imagine how Mary and Martha are feeling? Jesus is their friend too, and they know he loves their brother, so they probably expect that as soon as he hears he’ll be on his way. So they’re home with their brother who is worse and worse by the hour, waiting for Jesus. Waiting for Jesus, and waiting for Jesus. I imagine them at the window, or down the path, a little every hour or so, “is he here yet?” He has to be coming soon. Maybe we should get some food ready. Is he here yet? Waiting and waiting and waiting. I’m sure the minutes felt endless….watching their brother die, wishing they could help him, knowing Jesus could do something, anything, and yet he wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Then after two days, Jesus says, “Let’s go to Judea.” Now, remember the disciples don’t know Lazarus has died. They weren’t keyed into the gravity of the situation, but they were keyed into the fact that people in Jerusalem had threatened to kill Jesus, so they say, “Are you sure that’s a good plan? The authorities were issuing death threats against you the last time we were there. We think it might be better if we stayed here a while longer.
And Jesus, in typical Jesus fashion responds in this sort of cryptic way, “Aren’t there 12 hours of daylight and if we walk in the daylight we won’t stumble, it’s those who walk at night stumble because they don’t have the light.” If we’re just reading along this is so tangential. The disciples didn’t say, “shouldn’t we wait until morning to get on the road”. They said, let’s try not to get you killed. And Jesus says, eh, there’s plenty of daylight for us to walk.
What?!?! Honestly, I don’t have some divine revelation about these verses. And most of the commentators that I’ve read pretty much just skip over them. What I do know is that earlier in the gospel of John Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” And I know that often in John, the things that seem to be about things on earth are really about things in heaven. So, the best I can glean is that Jesus was speaking of higher things…not worrying about his path because he walks in the light, in fact, he is the light. And, somehow it was a key part of the story because it stuck—Jesus said this thing about light and dark and people remembered it and it stayed woven in the story of Lazarus forever.
And after he said that Jesus said, “he is asleep.” To which the disciples are like, “Then we’re totally cool to stay here. If he’s asleep he’ll be fine.
My question is, why would Jesus do that? Was he trying to confuse the disciples? Was he himself confused about what was happening? Did he think Lazarus was just sleeping? Probably not. What we learn from scholars is that “sleep” was a common colloquialism for death. And before we get cranky about how misleading that is, think about the ways we talk about death…or don’t…someone passed away, someone is “gone”, someone “isn’t with us anymore.” But we hate to say “they’re dead.” It’s finite. It feels harsh and it’s hard to say when you’re the one grieving. So, to imagine that the first century had some sort of softened way to talk about death is not all that hard to imagine. But when Jesus’ disciples aren’t catching on, he says it plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” And….I’m glad I wasn’t there so you may believe. Believe here is pisteuo in the Greek. It means to believe but has a deep undertone that’s more like trust. In essence, Jesus was saying, “I’m glad I wasn’t there so you may come to trust me.”
We don’t know what that trust will mean fully yet, we’re still across the Jordan with Jesus and the disciples. But we do know that his actions weren’t haphazard or heartless, they were intentional. He’s working to build trust with these disciples—even three years in, because in the next couple of weeks, their belief…their trust in him is going to be key for his story.
Our story ends with Thomas, “Let’s go with too, so we can die with him.” Now, scholars disagree about whether Thomas is referring to Jesus or Lazarus. “let’s die with him.” Some say this is a demonstration of Thomas’ insight and dedication to Jesus—a foretelling of Jesus’ death in Jerusalem. I’m in the other camp that thinks Thomas was referring to Lazarus. Jesus said, “he died, so you may believe—so you may trust.” And then Thomas says, “Well, let’s die with him. Let’s be a part of that.” I don’t think it’s that he wants to die. I think it’s that he wants what Jesus is talking about—the glory of God, and trusting and believing…if that’s going to become really real for Lazarus, I think Thomas wants it to become really real for himself too.
So what does all of this mean for us? I mean, the scriptures aren’t just stories in a book, they’re a God story—they connect us to God’s people in another time, and them with us. As we see God acting in their lives we are invited to look for God acting in our lives.
How does our story resonate with this one? Illness and fear. Waiting on Jesus to show up and do something. Waiting for some more. Some in the story who aren’t worried at all. And Jesus promising that through him, God will be glorified, and when he acts, it’s so we might trust more deeply.