Scripture Reading John 11:1-45
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.
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
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 the Jews 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.”
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 Jews 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 Jews 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 the Jews 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?”
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.”
Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.
Sermon
Do you believe in miracles?
If you Google that phrase, one of the top hits is ‘hockey,’ as in the 1980 United States Olympic men’s hockey team, which, against all odds, defeated the Russian team in a game so thrilling that even I still remember where I was when it happened. (I grew up in a hockey family. For the most part, it didn’t stick.)
For us, though, on a Sunday morning as Lent draws to a close a little over a week from now, the question isn’t whether our team can beat the odds. The question is, how do we receive the signs that the gospel of John has been showing us in these last couple of weeks—especially today’s?
Union Presbyterian Church tends to have a lot of scientists in the pews—engineers, primarily. Not to mention schoolteachers. People who understand the laws of nature, the laws of physics and mechanics and what it means, for example, when a person has been dead for four days. (It means, they’re dead.) And the gospels—all of them—present what John calls signs, what the other gospels call miracles, all to show us the impact Jesus of Nazareth had on the communities his life and ministry touched.
For all of us, especially as Easter looms on the near horizon, the question of miracles goes to the heart of the gospel story. Assuming we accept the notion that there’s a God, a higher power, one who is more than a primal force that kicked off the Big Bang, the question becomes, how does that God interact with humanity, if at all? Does that God choose to make herself known to the likes of us, and if so, how, under what circumstances? And, finally, what is the relationship of that God to the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth?
Do you believe in miracles?
The first half of the gospel according to John has been building to this moment, to these words that are said by the players in this scene, and to this final sign of who Jesus is, and what Jesus’ relationship to God is. But this story reveals more than that. We begin with a message, one that is sent to Jesus.
“Lord, the one you love is ill.”
What a strange note for Jesus to receive. I remember the first time I studied this text closely, how this note stood out to me. I remember thinking, Doesn’t Jesus love everyone? And of course, the answer the gospels give us is a profound “yes.” But the answer is also, Jesus has good friends. This story reveals that Jesus has people to whom he is closer than he is to others. This one, the family of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
Jesus and his disciples, having recently left Judea, receive this implied invitation to return. More like a request. An urgent request. This is the kind of note you send when you want someone to rush to the bedside of the one who is ill, most likely, to say their final goodbyes.
As you can see, Jesus does not do that. Nor does he rush to Lazarus’ bedside in an attempt to save him from dying. He has another plan. God has another plan. This final sign will reveal the fullness of Jesus’ identity to those who witness it.
So, the story tells us, even though Jesus loved this family, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Only then did he say to his disciples, it’s time. Let’s go. They push back a bit on this idea. The reason Jesus left Judea was that some people had attempted to stone him while he was there. The text says, “the Jews,” but it’s so important for us to remember that this gospel, recorded for posterity almost 70 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, this gospel reflects that later time when those Jews who followed Jesus and those who did not were locked in conflict. This gospel bequeaths to us some of the bitterness of that later conflict, and, unfortunately, it has been the source of the anti-semitism that plagues some parts of the Christian world to this day.
After Jesus explains that Lazarus is dead, his disciple Thomas declares, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Thomas means, Jesus. Let us also go, that, if Jesus is killed, we will die with him.
When they arrive in Bethany, the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Martha goes out to greet Jesus, leaving her sister at home with the other mourners. She greets him with words that sound like a reproach. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But then she adds more words, and these show her complete confidence in Jesus. “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Even now, she says.
Martha and Jesus proceed to have the back-and-forth that you heard earlier. In it, you find evidence that some Jews did indeed believe that there would be a general resurrection at the end of all time, when all would rise and be judged.
Jesus: Your brother will rise again.
Martha: I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
Jesus: 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?
Martha: Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.
Two incredibly important things have just happened. First, Jesus has once again identified himself using an “I AM” statement. So far in this gospel, Jesus has already said:
I AM the bread of life.
I AM the light of the world.
I AM the gate for the sheep.
I AM the Good Shepherd.
And now he says, “I AM the resurrection and the life.” Jesus isn’t just saying that he will raise Lazarus from the dead. He isn’t just saying that he himself will be raised from the dead. Instead, he is making a claim that God’s power over life and death resides in him, and that, living or dead, those who believe in him have a share in that power.
Believe it or not, that’s not the most important thing that’s said here. It’s big. But what Martha says is bigger. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, when the nameless Samaritan woman at the well said, “When the Messiah comes, he will reveal all things to us?” That woman opened the door for what this woman, Martha, finally declares. Martha says, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” This is the first time anyone in this gospel describes Jesus fully and truly, what scholars call “the Christological proclamation.” And once again, it is a woman.
Martha returns to her home and tells her sister, Mary, that Jesus wishes to see her. Mary leaves the house and goes to Jesus, followed by all the people who had been with her in the house—mourners, a strong custom in Judaism that continues to this day. They assume she is going to the tomb, to weep there. Instead, she falls to her knees in front of Jesus. She says almost the exact same thing her sister said.
After this, witnessing Mary weeping and all the people weeping with her, the narrator tells us, Jesus is “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” In the original language, his emotions are stronger. In fact, Jesus is angry.
Why would Jesus be angry at just this moment? There are many possibilities, but the one that makes the most sense to me is that Jesus sees the pain this family is in. Yes, he wants the power of God to be seen, he wants God to receive the glory. But death is devastating. When we love people and they die, it tears us apart inside. We can’t understand it. We fight back against it. Another thing this passage reveals to us is that Jesus has a fuller range of emotions than those we have seen up until this point in the gospel. And, just like any other person who experiences loss, Jesus experiences grief… even though he knows he is about to reverse this loss and restore this brother to his family.
Jesus asks where the tomb is, and the sisters lead him there. Jesus begins to weep. Then he says, “Take away the stone.”
Martha has already expressed her confidence in Jesus. Still. It’s been four days. There was a Jewish custom that the spirits of the dead hovered around their bodies for three days, on the chance they might be able to re-enter them. But today is day four, and the King James Translation of what Martha says next is, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.”
Jesus turns to her and says, “Didn’t I say that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” The stone is rolled away. And after a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the miracle even as it unfolds, Jesus cries, “Lazarus, come out!” And out he comes. At this time and in this place, people went to their rest adorned much as they were welcomed into the world: bound with strips of cloth. Think of the typical depiction of a mummy. Out comes Lazarus, bound with these strips of cloth, as he was bound as a newborn baby. And Jesus says, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Unbind him from the clothes of the grave.
Unbind him from the shackles of death.
Unbind him from the belief that God does not intervene in human life and nature as God has created and ordained it.
Unbind him from all the assumptions placed on him as a man in this time and place.
Unbind him from the things that restrain him.
I think the last thing that is revealed to us in this story is that the work of Jesus, and by extension, the work of his disciples, is to unbind the people of God from the things that restrain them. In the resurrection story we will read in a couple of weeks, we will see that Jesus gives his disciples—and by extension, us—the command to forgive. In fact, it seems that the work of the nascent church is forgiveness, period. We are in the business of forgiveness, the work of unbinding people from the things that weigh them down, the regrets they harbor, the sorrows that cling to them. Unbind them, Jesus says, and let them go.
There is more to this story. So much more. So many surprises. But for today, these are the revelations we find in in this beautiful and haunting passage.
We find that Jesus has as full a range of emotions as we have—which, since he is fully human, should not surprise us too much.
We find that Jesus has friendships—deep friendships with people whose joys and sorrows fully engage him.
We find that, in the gospel of John, a woman is given the privilege of proclaiming the heart of this gospel: that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the One coming into the world.
And we find that, in Jesus, we see the power of God over death and life.
In other words, this passage reveals the very traditional, very orthodox claim that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.
And, of course, this passages reveals for us that Jesus—and we—have what a friend of mind calls “an unbinding obligation.” To help to unbind people from the things that are keeping them from fullness of life.
Do you believe in miracles?
You don’t have to answer that question for me, but you probably should answer it for yourself. You scientists and deep thinkers. You whose logic is exquisite. You who have questions—so many questions. Don’t think for a moment that you are not precious in God’s sight, whatever your answer to this question may be. But for you, for yourself, it’s a good question to ponder. Do you believe in miracles?
Thanks be to God. Amen.