Tomb

The gospel reading (John 11:1-6, 17-44, in italics) is broken into four parts; each is followed by a portion of the meditation.

Scripture and Meditation              John 11:1-6; 17-44

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Jesus had friends. Best friends. People he wanted to be with, if at all possible. The siblings Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus were his friends. When he was traveling near Jerusalem he often went to Bethany, where he shared meals with them. Remember that famous meal from another gospel—the one that had Martha frazzled in the kitchen, and Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening as he spoke? Jesus shared meals with them. He stayed with them. He loved them. But now, one of them was ill. And—the logical thing was to go, right away, wouldn’t you think? But Jesus, especially Jesus as we meet him in John’s gospel, has other purposes that are even higher than being with the people he loved. Jesus was intent on showing the glory and the power of God.

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of their neighbors had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Devastation: When Jesus arrives, his beloved friend Lazarus is already dead and buried.

Confrontation: When Jesus arrives, his beloved friend Martha leaves her home and goes out to meet him. She doesn’t just meet him; she challenges him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Hopeful Expectation: “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Martha knows Jesus. She even knows this: the power of God is with him.

Bold Invitation: Jesus says, “Your brother will rise again.” Jesus dares Martha to believe that death is not the last word. He says: “I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe this?” 

Proclamation: In the most complete faith statement in the gospel, Martha answers with a resounding YES. “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The neighbors who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the neighbors who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So their neighbors said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Have you noticed the difference between the sisters, Martha and Mary? They have a different energy. Martha goes out first, and throws down the gauntlet. She challenges Jesus to account for himself. Afterwards, Mary goes out too. But again—just as she did at that meal—Mary places herself at Jesus’ feet. She’s willing to learn something—even here, even now. She says the exact same words as her sister. But this time, when he hears the words, Jesus doesn't take it as challenge to explain himself. Instead Mary draws him into the depths of her pain, their shared pain. He asks to see the tomb. He breaks down in tears.

Affirming faith in God, in Jesus as the life-bringer, doesn’t mean we don’t feel grief. It doesn’t mean we don’t feel pain. It doesn’t mean we don’t feel fear, or anguish, or anxiety. There is room in our faith for all the complexity of our human nature, and the realities of our situation. God doesn’t brush any of it aside.

Instead, God weeps with us. 

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.

Jesus says, Take away the stone.

Martha, ever the pragmatist, says, “Lord… there will be a stench.” Even after her stunning statement of faith, Martha is brought back to the stark reality of her brother’s death.

They roll away the stone from the mouth of the tomb. Brushing away his tears, Jesus proclaims his thanks that God has already answered his unspoken prayer.

He cries in a loud voice: and Lazarus comes out. He is wrapped in bands of cloth. In Jesus’ world, you are swaddled as a baby, and you are swaddled in death. And so Jesus orders the bystanders: Unbind him, and let him go.

Unbind him, from whatever is holding him back.
Unbind him from the constraints that keep him from being free.
Unbind him from whatever stands in the way of life.

Jesus goes to Bethany, to show the power and glory of God in the face of death.

At Lazarus’ tomb, he shows us what God’s glory and power look like.

They look like a person coming to the aid of their friends.
They look like a friend, weeping with those who are bowed down with sorrow.
They look like the bold insistence that death does not have the last word.
They look like act of unbinding, setting us free from whatever stands in the way of life.

Thanks be to God. Amen.