The prelude

John 11:1-44

I have always wondered what Lazarus felt like after this event. Storytellers through the years tackled this problem with varying ideas. Some write that Lazarus lived like a man afire--so full of life and joy--a real harbinger of the Resurrection; while others take a more sedate view, opining that poor Lazarus never really got over being dead and wandered about lost in his new life. The Gospel remains mute on the topic, leaving the miracle as a story in and of itself without further elaboration. But I have wondered. What would it be like to be dead--really, actually dead--and then awaken? What was Lazarus like?

A part of me thinks that Lazarus may well have spent the rest of his days angry. His resurrection was not final. He was raised to die again. This miracle was no taking of Elijah into heaven, nor Enoch’s walk with God right out of the world. No, Lazarus stumbled out of the tomb, knowing he would be carried back in someday. What a letdown! What a rook!

Still, there are those who claim to have crossed the border into death and have come back with a new fire, a new vision, and a new hope for life. Last year, neurosurgeon became a bestselling author with his account of his own “death” and glimpse into heaven. All his hopes and dreams were fulfilled by his experience.

But I wonder...

We will never personally know what it is like to die until we do. We will not know for sure if these witnesses are reliable, or if they indicate that the brain does weird things when the body begins to shut down. 

Moreover, to fix on our own death experience and what it will be like is to miss the point of John’s story.

Jesus tells us what the point is as soon as Mary and Martha let him know that Lazarus is gravely ill--the revelation and manifestation of the glory of God.

Now, in John’s gospel, the glory of God is pointed and narrow in its meaning--Jesus’ exaltation is not Easter--in John’s gospel, Easter is more of an epilogue--but is Good Friday. Here, Jesus is raised, literally and figuratively, on the cross, a sign for all the world to see. It is his death that redeems the world, for Christ becomes the atoning sacrifice for all the world. It is atonement that is real point. It is reconciliation that matters most--our being reconciled to God, and the possibility of reconciliation between human beings, for whom enmity and hatred seem as natural as breathing. Jesus pays the price for our inability to love. In John’s theology there is always a twofold proclamation--Jesus died FOR us; Jesus died BECAUSE OF us. 

Such theology is nearly incomprehensible in our time. Our time is marked by victimhood. We are not responsible for suffering; we are only sufferers, wrongly afflicted. Guilt is not something we accept. “It isn’t my fault” could well be our collective epitaph. 

John challenges us. If there is suffering, we are all a part of it. If someone is oppressed, we are all part of it because we help to make the world as it is. For instance, I want my computer. I want it to be affordable--actually, I want it to be cheap. So, I look for the price I want with all the toys I want. To give me that product, the company has someone in a far away country I will never visit build it, paying them $36 a month to do so, but I do not see them, nor think about them. I just want a cheap computer; the company gives me what I want; and the poor stay poor. It’s not my fault. Yes, it is, preaches John. What you want leads to that; because you are the way you are, they are the way they are. All things are intertwined; all people are interconnected. Jesus died to make it all well, paying our guilt to free us to open our eyes to one another and meet one another in love.

Lazarus is a sign of the power of that love.

Nowhere else do we see such an emotional portrait of Jesus. He is moved to tears repeatedly. He hurts for Mary and Martha. He hurts in the loss of his friend--his grief his real. Jesus loves them all. So, he makes Lazarus live. Love is powerful. God’s love is omnicompetent--it can handle everything and anything. 

And that is the point of this story.

With the cross, God handles everything. Lazarus lives. So can we.

Thanks be to God.