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Back to Life!
John 11
March 9, 2008
Betty Berghaus
Most of you know that my husband died of cancer at the age of 40. That was almost 18 years ago. He battled Hodgkins on and off for about 7 years. The last 8 or 9 months were the hardest, as he lived with what we knew was an inoperable tumor. We could, at times through this experience, sing with the Psalmist: “Out of the depths, I cry to You, O Lord.” But when he died, and often thereafter, a song kept going through my head. I sang it often in the months and years afterwards. It was written in 1967 by a man named Ray Repp, for one of his best friends who was killed in Vietnam. The chorus goes like this:
“I am the resurrection, (clap X) and the life (clap XXXX). Those who believe in me will never die. I am the resurrection (clap X) and the life (clap XXXX). Those who believe in me will live a new life.”
My husband Steve was a pastor. Ralph Bright, Presbyterian pastor and chaplain at Durham Regional Hospital, who ministered to us throughout Steve’s illness, said that the memorial service, which Steve designed, preached Steve’s final sermon to us. Steve struggled with his illness and his faith throughout those 7 years, but his faith just continued to grow and grow throughout that time. This story in John 11 was key to his theology, as it is to the theology of the whole Gospel for us all.
This story is an engaging one, well-narrated. It keeps us interested, even though it is, like many of the stories in John, rather long. We may not understand all of its points. It does not follow the usual pattern of miracle stories in the Gospel of John, where the miracles usually open the story, while in this one, the miracle comes at the conclusion. And it does not, as most of the other miracle stories do, launch into a monologue by Jesus. But notice that most of the story does not deal as much with the miracle of Lazarus’ raising as it does with the conversations Jesus had, with the disciples, with Martha, and with Mary and the mourning Jews. It is in these conversations that the writer makes the crucial points of the story. Inexplicably, Jesus delayed going to his dear friend Lazarus when hearing that he was ill. And his words to the disciples seem cryptic too. He said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of Man may be glorified through it.” Since I’ve brought my pastor husband Steve into this sermon, I will tell you that I have always remembered a sermon that he preached about one of the miracles in which he said that all of the miracles that Jesus did were but for one purpose – to show forth the glory of God. They were not so much for the healing of one man’s daughter or a man born blind, or a paralyzed man. They were meant to show the glory of God. And that is why, when tempted in the wilderness, Jesus could not take the devil’s suggestion to jump off the temple and be caught by angels. The devil did not realize that Jesus did not live to glorify himself but to glorify God.
Perhaps the most significant conversation of Jesus in John 11 comes with Martha. She ran out to meet Jesus, telling him that if he had come earlier, Lazarus would not have died. She had such faith in Jesus that she knew he could save her brother! These two had a conversation about resurrection. While some of the Jews of that time did not believe in a resurrection, many did believe in a general resurrection of the dead to come at the end of the world. That would be an event some time in the future. But Jesus’ reply made it present tense. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He continued to put it into the present and the future tense: “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live; and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” So he tells us that the resurrection and the life are both a present and a future reality. When Jesus asked Martha if she believed this, she gave a confession of faith, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
The next conversation was with Mary, whom Martha called to Jesus. The conversation with Martha gave us the true heart of the text. With Mary, Jesus again affirmed that what happened occurred in order to show forth the glory of God. This is the text that contains the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.” There are mixed camps of belief about Jesus’ weeping in this text. It is a text that I quote often to folks in despair, because it shows how deeply Jesus felt what we felt, that he wept. But some scholars think that he did not weep so much at the death of Lazarus, because he knew that death could be overcome. But perhaps, they say, he wept at the despair, or even at the disbelief, of Mary and the mourners. Even the mourning Jews misinterpreted Jesus’ weeping. And they criticized Jesus, questioning why he did not use his powers to prevent this death.
As Jesus began to perform the miracle, he asked for the stone to be rolled away. Very practical Martha stopped him, mid-miracle, because she worried about the stink of a body dead 4 days. The length of the time since death was significant, because then they thought that the soul lingered near the body for 3 days, in case it was revived, but left by the 4th day. So Lazarus was (as a bad Southern expression goes!) “good and dead!”
Then Jesus raised him. But first Jesus did something very formative. Before performing the miracle, Jesus stopped to pray. And his prayer was a prayer of thanks. The Greek word is eucharisteo, from which we get the word for the Eucharist, or Communion. So there was a sacramental element to this act. Jesus thanked God for already hearing him, and for doing this for the sake of the crowd. In the face of trouble, and in intercession, Jesus prayed in thanks to God.
Then he called out to Lazarus, and out he came, still wrapped in burial cloths. Compare this to Jesus’ resurrection, when he left the burial cloths behind, and was not fettered by them. Jesus had to tell the bystanders to free Lazarus. In the verses after the ones we read, we are told that many Jews believed because of this miracle. But some were troubled and went to the chief priests and Pharisees. For the Gospel of John, this act by Jesus of raising Lazarus precipitated the plot that led to Jesus’ death.
The crux of this story comes in verses 25-26, Jesus’ statement that he is the resurrection and the life. Again, it is in the present tense. It is our belief in this statement, our trust in God, that enables us to go on when our spouse dies, or when our child is deathly ill. It enables us to endure the darkest moments of our lives. When we believe in Jesus as the resurrection and the life, we can embrace life at its fullest. We will not be as afraid of death, our own or someone else’s. We will be hopeful even in the midst of trials and suffering. I am not suggesting that this is easy or glib, for it is not. But when, for instance, as a young widow, I could sing the song of Jesus’ resurrection over and over, sometimes in tears, and sometimes with joy, I began to move on to embrace the life that God continued to give to me and to my daughter. Our lives were deeply changed by the death of my husband and her father. But they were far from over. Our lives were in fact so much changed as to lead us to where we are today, me as a pastor, her as a member of the Peace Corps. We have each embraced this life after the death of Steve in ways that seek to bring a life-giving force to others.
So, embracing this very crucial concept, that Jesus brings life and resurrection, here and now, gives us life more abundantly. “Because Christ lives, we also live.” The greater implication of the resurrection message for us is not individual. It bring us to community, or as Bishop Rowan Williams calls it, we strive to live as “communities of resurrection.”
(My interpretation:) Communities of resurrection embrace forgiveness, offering it to themselves and to others. Communities of resurrection seek to prophesy God’s Word to the world, bringing sometimes an unpopular message that goes counter to the practices or beliefs of the society. Communities of resurrection do not promote or engage in acts of violence or oppression, as they follow the lead of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not even resist his own punishment or death. Communities of resurrection embody the incarnation of God’s love in what they do or say, with love as the guiding principle for decision-making and caregiving. Communities of resurrection seek reconciliation and pursue justice for all. Communities of resurrection celebrate the sacraments as a reminder of the unity with Christ and with one another as the whole Body of Christ. Communities of resurrection are busy places, because they embrace the Gospel and seek to live it out faithfully.
This congregation, probably especially under the leadership of Haywood Holderness, has been a community of resurrection. I pray and hope that we will faithfully continue to do live out the gospel in this way as we head into the future under different leadership. We can grieve what has passed, but we can continue into the future with hope, and remember, as we go forward, simply that Jesus brings life, new life. Gerard Sloyan reminds us, in speaking of today’s passage, that the purpose of this restoration of life for Lazarus was not to reunite one family in happiness, but to show the glory of God, so that many might believe. Today’s passage points us towards the coming passion of Christ, but also beyond the cross, to the ever-present hope of Easter. Gregory Jones, the dean of Duke Divinity School, suggests that we live always as people of Holy Saturday, “the day poised between the destruction and death of Good Friday and the forgiveness and reconciliation of Easter Sunday” (G. Jones, p.300). As we tread this Holy Saturday life, Jones says that, as community we can move, as the disciples did, “from learning to live with the memories of the past to coping with feelings of resentment and desires for vengeance, to loving our enemies, and to becoming proficient exemplars of holiness through practices of forgiveness and reconciliation” (Jones, p.301). Jesus as the life and resurrection gives us opportunities for new life here and now, as well as in the life to come. The apostle Paul sums this up in Romans (14:7-8). Notice that this passage too is in the plural; it is about community: “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Thanks be to God!
Join me in singing the resurrection song:
“I am the resurrection, (X) and the life (XXXX). Those who believe in me will never die. I am the resurrection (X) and the life (XXXX). Those who believe in me will live a new life.”
AMEN!