Above is a video of my homily today on Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. (If a video doesn't appear above, click here!)
Here's the gospel on which I preached, followed by the text of my homily.
Now a man was ill,
Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the
one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her
hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to Jesus saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When
Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death: it is for the
glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved
Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he
remained in the place where he was for two days. Then, after this, he said to
his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea. Our friend Lazarus is asleep - but I am
going to awaken him.” But the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he’s asleep,
he’ll be saved.” But Jesus was talking
about his Lazarus’ death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So
then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for your sake
that I wasn’t there, so that you may believe. Let’s go to him.”
When
Jesus finally
arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four
days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And
many people had
come out to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When
Martha
heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him; but Mary sat at
home.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord,
if you had been here -- my brother would not have died. But even now I know
that whatever you ask of God -- God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your
brother will rise.” Martha replied, “I know he will rise, Lord - in the
resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me,
even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will
never die. Do you believe this?” She said, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you
are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
When Martha had said
this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying, “The teacher is here and is
asking for you.” As soon as Mary heard this, she rose quickly and went out to
him, for Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha
had met him. Now, when those who were with her in the house, comforting her, saw
Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going
to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where
Jesus was and saw him, she fell 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
people who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled,
and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus
wept. So the people said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Couldn’t
he who opened the eyes of that blind man have done something so that Lazarus
wouldn’t have died?”
Jesus, perturbed again,
came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take
away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said, “Lord, by now there will
be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell
you that if you believe - you will see
the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and
said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but
because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent
me.” And having said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The
dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was
wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of those who
had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.
My homily...
What
a great story!
A fine cast of
interesting characters, and a lot more detail than the gospel usually gives us.
• We learn of Jesus' special friendship with Lazarus and Martha, and Mary, his
sisters. • We learn that Jesus delayed in going to visit them, even though he
had received word that his friend was really sick. • We're told that Martha and
Mary were deeply disappointed that Jesus hadn't come earlier to cure their
brother and prevent his dying. • We see the curiosity and the wonder of the
folks who had come to comfort the grieving sisters.
And in this gospel, we're
even told how Jesus FELT:
“He became perturbed and deeply troubled.”
I think a better translation of the original Greek in
John's Gospel would go this way:
“He was deeply moved. He shuddered in his spirit…”
And this story contains the shortest verse in the New
Testament - but a compelling one: two words, John chapter 11, verse 35.
“Jesus wept.”
If John's gospel had been a tabloid, I can imagine the front-page
headline:
Jesus raids tomb!
An intimate behind-the-scenes look
at Jesus, his friends,
and his feelings.
Well, fortunately, John didn't write a tabloid. And Jesus
didn't “raid” the tomb of Lazarus. But he did take charge of the situation - a situation that appears to be
Impossible… Irreversible… Unsolvable.
A closed case. Lazarus head is dead - and it's been four days.
But still, Jesus instructs the bystanders to take away the
stone that sealed the grave. And the gospel reports Martha's very practical
response:
“Lord, my brother was buried four days ago.
If you open the
tomb, there will be a stench.”
A stench.
In some old classical paintings of the raising of Lazarus,
artists often depicted the people in the crowd literally holding their noses or
covering their faces with veils and cloths, lest they become nauseous and sick. Like St. John writing in his gospel, these artists wanted
to make sure that we knew that Lazarus is really dead. Jesus isn't just waking
up somebody who's taking a nap. He's not rousing somebody out of a coma.
He's messing with death. And it smells bad.
This is Jesus: Jesus, who had already given sight to the
blind… hearing to the deaf… speech to the mute… strong, agile limbs to the lame…and
clean skin to the leprous.
But this - this is something altogether different.
Here, Jesus has power to give life to the dead.
He has power over what stinks in our lives - and in the
world.
He has power over what makes us sick to our stomachs.
He has power over the stench that rises from death,
inflicted by violence, terror, and the horror of war.
Jesus has power over the foul smell
of abuse, prejudice,
hatred, and injustice.
He has power over whatever entombs us when we're buried
in
our fears and anxieties…
in our loneliness and grief…
in hopelessness or despair…
in our selfishness and greed…
in our lust and our anger…
in our jealousy and
pride.
He has power over whatever may seem to us to be Impossible… Irreversible… Unsolvable.
This morning, we are thousands of miles away from Bethany -
more than 2,000 years away from this scene in the gospel - but the Lord is as
close to us here in St. Zepherin's Church as he was to Martha, Mary, and
Lazarus in the time of their grief and loss.
Jesus has power.
He has power in our lives.
Power to forgive the unforgivable,
to save what's been lost,
to mend what's been shattered into pieces,
to heal what's been deeply wounded,
to comfort those whose grief is unconsolable,
to reconcile what's torn asunder,
to resolve what defies solution,
to restore what seems beyond redemption,
to bring light that cuts through utter darkness.
to bring hope to those who have lost all hope of hope,
to bring peace that surpasses all our understanding.
He has power to bring life again to what death has claimed.
Jesus said to Martha,
“I am the resurrection and the life.
If you believe in me, even if you die, you will live.
And all who live and believe in me will never die.
Do you believe this, Martha?”
And she answered,
"Yes, Lord. I believe."
Now Jesus asks us, you and I, this morning:
Do WE believe?
Do YOU believe?
Do I believe in the power of Jesus?
Do I acknowledge the power of Jesus
to be greater than any
of my power?
Do I pray for the power of Jesus in my life?
Do I hope for the power of Jesus in my life?
Do I expect the power of Jesus in my life?
Do I wait for the power of Jesus when he seems to delay?
Do I welcome the power of Jesus
when he comforts and
challenges me,
as much as I welcome it
when he comforts and consoles me?
Do I trust the power of Jesus:
to do what seems impossible,
to turn around what seems irreversible,
to be the answer
to what seems unresolvable in my life?
Lent is a time for us to open ourselves to the power of the
love Jesus has for each of us - and to the power of the love of Jesus for this
world of ours.
As Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were Jesus’ close friends
centuries ago - so are we as beloved now. As Jesus wept for Lazarus - he weeps
for you and he weeps for me - today.
Not long after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he laid
down his life for us. He “shuddered in his spirit” and gave himself on the
cross - so that we might have life and have it to the full.
Like Lazarus, Jesus was entombed, buried for us so that we
might be raised up. Jesus was tightly bound in burial bands so that we might be
set free from all that binds us, all that ties our hands, all that keeps us
down, all that robs us of our hope for peace.
The power of Jesus' love for us on the Cross and the life
he won for us in his death - ARE - the power of the love and life we will share
at this table this morning in his Body and Blood, in the Bread and Cup of the
Eucharist.
The one who has power over death invites us to share in the
sacrifice, to share in this meal, the gift and the presence of his life and
love among us. Even this morning.
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