The Raising of Lazarus

John 11: 1-45

What did the people of Jesus day think of Him, this itinerant Rabi who wandered from town to town and city to city accompanied by His followers, performing miracles, and signs, and preaching His message of love and forgiveness. Over and over He affirms that He and the Father are one, and encourages His fellow Jews, and later on even those not of the Jewish faith, to repent, to forgive others, to fully and completely love each other and God.

We know that the Pharisees and Sadducees found Him annoying, and, slowly, the Jewish leaders began to see Him as a threat. But what was it that tipped the scales? For three years He was able to go about His ministry, but then, something changed, and the Jewish leaders decided He must die. What happened? Interestingly, the Gospels offer us two different answers.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that Jesus went too far by exercising His authority in turning over the tables of the money lenders in the temple courtyard. At that moment, He interfered with commerce in the temple, and for the Jewish authorities, that is when He went from annoyance to liability. This, we are told, is why the Jewish leaders wanted to be rid of Him – permanently.  But in John’s Gospel, right after telling us about the wedding in Cana, John tell us how Jesus cleansed the temple – entirely – of money changers and those who sold animals for sacrifice. It’s an opening story, not a closing one, and in John’s Gospel it is not the reason for Jesus' arrest and execution. John offers us a deeper and more profound reason.

All during Lent we have heard John’s wonderful stories, each one telling us of Jesus in a different teaching situation. We have heard about Jesus teaching Nicodemus, teaching the woman at the well, teaching through healing the blind man. You may have noticed that in every story there is no mention of miracles, because there are no miracles in John’s Gospel. Each teaching situation ends with a sign which certifies the teaching. These signs take up the first half of John’s Gospel, and today’s sign, in the story of the raising of Lazarus, is the seventh and final sign.

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha… so the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”

Though He receives the message, Jesus delays leaving and heading off to see the sisters and Lazarus.  He even goes so far as to say, “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.” 

Can you imagine the anxiety of Mary and Martha when Jesus doesn’t show up right away? They are His longtime friends. They support Him in any way they can, and have witnessed Him perform wonders beyond description. Now, their brother Lazarus, beloved friend of Jesus, is ill – and yet, Jesus is delaying His departure to come to their aid.

In the first century in Palestine, illness was extremely serious – there were no antibiotics, and illness, more often than not, lead to death. The sisters knew this, and they also knew that Jesus had it within Him to heal Lazarus. Think how they must have felt when He did not arrive quickly. You can imagine their growing anxiety, and their fear that their brother may die, which, heartbreakingly, he does. They must have been devastated.  Mary and Martha are living in a pre-Resurrection world. For them death is death – the absolute end of all things.

The scenes in the story are so easy to picture, but as always, the unexpected is easy to miss.

Finally, two days later, Jesus decides it is time to go to Judea, but the disciples are not convinced this is a wise idea, because of the danger Jesus faces there.  And so we are surprised  to learn that Thomas, the one who throughout the history of the Church is to be called “doubting,” is the one disciple that, after all the others have acknowledge that to return anywhere near Jerusalem was to risk being stoned to death, suddenly proclaims, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” How unexpected that the doubting one turns out to be the courageous and believing one. 

In the end, the disciples do head back to Jerusalem with Jesus, and When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, while Mary stayed at home.

We’ve met this small family group before, and you may remember Martha, the practical sister, the one who sets and clears tables while Mary sits at the Master’s feet, the one who complains to Jesus only to be told Mary has chosen the better part. Martha is definitely an extrovert, so we are not surprised to learn in today’s Gospel that she does not hesitate to express to Jesus her irritation and disappointment. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  And we know she‘s right.

But 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 I am 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 has spiritual depths, and she speaks with clear and unquestioning faith.  Yet, it is totally unexpected that she is the one, the first one in John's Gospel, to proclaim, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” It was Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet, but it is Martha who is the first to proclaim Jesus’ divinity.  One never knows what depths of faith may dwell within.

As we know, the story ends with a sign. When Jesus comes to the tomb He cries out 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.”

What do we learn from this story and sign? St. Augustine, in his writings, emphasized that Lazarus' resurrection was a foreshadowing of the ultimate resurrection of all believers at the end of time. He saw in Lazarus' return to life a glimpse of the future hope Christians hold in the resurrection of the dead. He wrote (in Sermon 356), “The raising of Lazarus is an image of our own resurrection. Just as Lazarus was called forth from the tomb by the voice of Christ, so too will the dead in Christ rise to eternal life through His voice at the end of time.” That interpretation is one we probably did not miss.

St. John Chrysostom, looking at it from another perspective, focused on the personal transformation implied in Lazarus’ story. He saw Lazarus as an archetype for all who are spiritually dead, whose hearts are hardened by sin and whose lives are bound by the graveclothes of worldly attachments. Might that at times be us? Lazarus' awakening from death, for Chrysostom, symbolized the Christian journey of repentance and conversion—when we hear Christ’s call, we are to cast off our burial cloths and step into the light of new life. The resurrection of Lazarus is, in this sense, not only a future promise but a present reality for every believer who encounters Christ in faith.

These are clear explanations, but on the deepest level, woven through all of Lazarus’ story is one basic theme - that of love. When this last of the stories was told, something unexpected had happened in the Johannine community, something upsetting and unsettling. In this Gospel, the writings of John himself extend only through chapter 20. What we heard today came from chapter 21, and is the work of a redactor. It addresses the crises that has befallen the Johannine community – the death of the Beloved Disciple.

It had been generally believed by the Johannine community that Jesus would return, as He has promised, before John died. Think how upset all the community must have been when this was clearly not the case. Like Mary and Martha, they must have been distraught. And so, the redactor has taken an old story and elaborated on it.  When sending for Jesus, the sisters say, “Lord, he whom you love is ill”, and we can make the connection to the disciple whom Jesus loved.   When Jesus finally reaches the tomb of this dear friend, He weeps. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”. This is a great gift, the Love of God, it is the greatest gift, a gift so powerful, that death cannot hold Lazarus, or the Beloved Disciple, or us, forever.

 Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” – [and] the dead man came out.

“Coming out” has a strong meaning for some of us in our world today, but to all of us it is a call to come out of lives based on materialism, technology, prejudice, and worldly pleasure. Come out, and surprise others and perhaps yourself with your deep faith in our Lord. Come out of your comfort zone, and through your love, minister to others for Him,

In the synoptic Gospels Jesus was arrested and executed because He interfered with commerce in the temple.  In John’s Gospel, Jesus is arrested and executed because through His deep love, He showed the Jews then, and us now, that He is God.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, Your love never fails and Your mercy is unceasing. Give us courage to surrender our stubborn pride, fear and doubts to Your surpassing love, wisdom and knowledge. Make us strong in faith, persevering in hope and constant in love.  Surround our lives with Your grace and help us to rejoice for all that You have given us.  Help us to be open and responsive to Your Holy Spirit, and give us the patience to endure.  All this we ask for Your love and mercy’s sake. Amen.