John11:1-45
Familiar and vivid readings today in both the Old Testament and the Gospel. And both of them about breath and life renewed in the midst of death. The Gospel story is usually called the raising of Lazarus. There is a lot in it. Pieces that bear proclaiming. Other pieces that beg explaining. And lots of different people with interesting relationships with Jesus.
John’s Gospel is full of “signs,” events that are meant to be signs pointing to God’s power, signs of God’s power within Jesus. This story is one of those signs, meant to display God’s power. And what a sign it is! Jesus acts to bring Lazarus back to life after he has lain four days dead in a tomb. We are meant to see God’s power in this act.
Yet another approach to this story is to look at what Jesus does not do, what actions he does not perform. Jesus does not roll away the stone. Jesus does not unbind or free Lazarus.
One commentator has written (David Lose):
While we call this scene “the raising of Lazarus,” it’s striking to realize that the actual sign Jesus performs takes up just two verses of the forty-five of this story. Maybe that’s because, as is typical of John’s Gospel, what matters most isn’t the sign, but rather Jesus’ interpretation of it and our response to it. Lazarus will die again, but the community empowered to unbind and set loose will endure. Indeed, it has endured, persisting through the centuries in works of courage and mercy.
Jesus does not move away the stone or remove the wrappings of death. He commands others to do that. Jesus renews life in Lazarus. And he certainly could have acted to move the stone and remove the burial wrappings on Lazarus’ body. (He does those things at his own resurrection.) But he doesn’t remove the stone or unbind. He gives life and breath, but others liberate that life.
This story is about the power and responsibility of the people who gather round and follow Christ. While it is certainly appropriate to call this story the raising of Lazarus, we might also call it the empowerment of Christians. Or the commissioning of Christians. The people who follow Jesus have the power and the responsibility to act with works of courage and mercy.
We have the power and the responsibility in our lives and in our world to roll away the stone, to open up the tombs, and to unbind those bound in the shrouds of death.
So that the renewed life which God brings can be lived! Many have pointed out that this story isn’t about life after death. It isn’t about the promise of heaven or eternal life. It’s about life renewed, life resumed in a way that is inspired and blessed by God.
It is two weeks to Easter. Part of our journey during these two weeks, maybe the most important part of our journey in the weeks ahead is to discern specifically which stones we are responsible for moving; who we are responsible for liberating. So that the renewal of life at Easter life can flourish.
What works of courage and mercy are we commissioned to perform this Lent and Easter?
Some may be within us; some may be within out neighbors, other people around us.
What binds your soul in death? How are you enslaved to the flesh, as Paul says in today’s Epistle? To set your mind on the flesh is death. By the flesh, he means the world. How do the demands of the world kill your spirit? Or what anger, pride resentment entombs your soul? Do you have the courage to roll away that stone so that Easter life may be renewed in you?
There are many people in the world around us whose lives are quite literally being darkened by death because of poverty, violence, prejudice, lack of access to education, lack of access to health care, loneliness, despair. We are responsible for acts of mercy that will unbind them from the shrouds of death and set them free.
We have the power and the responsibility to act with courage and mercy. Which stones can we roll away? Who can we free from the bounds of death?
In two weeks we will celebrate an empty tomb, Jesus’ triumph of life over death. What tombs among us need emptying?
