"The Lazarus Incident"

 

John 11:1-44

March 22, 2021

 

Jesus knew that if he went back to Judaea to help Lazarus, he was walking into his own death.  John says that he had gone to Jerusalem shortly after he had given sight to a man born blind and that some of the authorities in the temple were trying to figure him out. 

“How long will you keep us in suspense?  If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” [John 10:24]

He told them to look at the signs visible in his life and decide for themselves, so some of them took him as making himself equal to God, a blasphemy punishable by death.  Some of them picked up stones to stone him with and others sent for the temple guard to arrest him, but he escaped and skipped town.

“He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier,” [John 10:40]

which was kind of a signal of defiance to Herod and his supporters: “You chopped off John’s head, but you didn’t destroy his message, because it came from God.  You can try to destroy me, now, and watch what happens.”

            So when the word came from Mary and Martha, from Bethany (which was just outside Jerusalem),

‘Lord, he whom you love is ill,’ [John 11:3]

Jesus was being called to more than a casual visit, even with a healing thrown in.  The unspoken question was whether Jesus was for real. 

            The gospel of John, just before it tells us about all of this, repeats some of Jesus’ teaching, including his words,

“I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  The hired hand runs away because the hired hand does not care for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd.”  [John 10:11-14a]

Here the question was put right in front of him: “Do you mean that?”  And the answer was, “Yes.”

 He took his time, maybe so that the confrontation between the powers of life and death would be all the clearer, maybe for some other reason.  But when he headed for Bethany, he knew the danger and the likely outcome of the trip for everyone involved, not just for Lazarus.

“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.’”  [John 11:14-16]

            When he arrived, there was all of the give-and-take with Martha and Mary.  There was the blame:

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” [John 11:21]

There was the sort of passive-aggressive demand:

“But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” [John 11:22]

There were the consolations of faith where:

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’”  [John 11:23]

There was Martha’s recognition that she may have asked too much as

“Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’” [John 11:24]

            But then Jesus went off-script.  There was not going to be a need to wait until the last day.  The glory and power of God were right there in front of her in the person of somebody so familiar that she had asked him to make her sister help her wash the dishes. 

 “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.’” [John 11:25-26]

Right then and there, Jesus had already shown up for her and for Mary and (they would soon see) for Lazarus at what would be the risk of his life.  Soon they would see – along with everyone else gathered there – that Jesus had shown up at what would be the cost of his own life.  As John retells the amazing events of Lazarus return, he can’t help throwing in details that make us think about Jesus’ own burial and resurrection.  Jesus meets Mary, crying outside a tomb with a stone that has to be rolled away to let her brother emerge, and somebody (who must have been pretty brave and with a stomach strong enough to stand the stench of a rotting corpse) removes the burial wrappings, like the ones that were found folded up in the tomb from which Jesus would rise not long afterward.

            The most amazing thing, though, would be expressed later in a letter sent a few years later to some of Jesus’ followers living in Rome.  This miracle of raising Lazarus had led Jesus into a place where his life was threatened, and he went out of love for Lazarus and his sisters.  But when it came time that the people who had wanted him killed got hold of him, that his love for the wolf would be no less than his love for his sheep. 

“Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  [Romans 5:7-8]

Those words were written by someone who at one point took part in the arrest of many of Jesus’ followers and who stood by, approving the stoning of at least one other. 

Jesus gives life, and renews life, and gives his life for our own.  Ask Nicodemus, who had grown weary and was questioning everything.  Ask the Samaritan woman at the well, whose history left her without dignity or respect.  Ask a man born blind who was given sight and then had to figure out how to relate to his new situation.  Ask Lazarus, who was a literal corpse.  By Jesus’ grace, we’ll all have a chance to do that – and they may have some questions for us, too, and the answer will be something that Jesus has done.