Of life and death: it all matters.

Lazarus had a house with two sisters in it. Martha and Mary had a whole village to look after. When Lazarus took sick and there was fear of death, they sent word to Jesus that he would know and care and come quickly. Jesus waited 2 more days. When the time finally came for them to go to Lazarus, the sick man was already dead. Jesus went to wake him from his sleep. Thomas and the rest of the 12 understood what this meant. They knew that they were getting close to Jerusalem, and to the confrontation with authority that could and would lead to the death of Jesus and possibly of some of them. That is why the disciples went: to be with Jesus so long as they could, even if it meant a grim fate.

It reminds me of something a parishioner once told me. He was passing by the church on a Sunday morning. The parking lot and the roads were filled with cars. This parishioner had a teenage son with him. The boy asked his father, “Who died now?”

The father replied, “Oh it’s not another funeral. No one has died. The Bishop is here. It’s confirmation.”

The story of the raising of Lazarus (John 11.1-45) is the point at which everything in the Gospel of John now turns so that we can see the plan of God for salvation to give people life versus the conspiracy of man to give death to just one man to maintain the status quo. The good news of God in Christ stresses the desire of God for people to have life, and have the kind of life that overflows to give life to other people. Against this, we see other plotting to take the lives of Jesus and of Lazarus, so that people will stay the same. They want to kill so that they can remain the same.

People in our North American culture are genuinely afraid of death. They will also willing deal out death to anyone who would significantly change their lives without considering whether it was better or worse to do so. We will do almost anything to avoid it, including being frozen after death until we can be cured and then resuscitated so that the rest of our natural lives can be lived out. Does that not seem strange to you? So then, let me ask you: do you know the difference between a grave and a ditch? There has been both a beginning and an end to the grave. We know walk with Jesus into the valley of the shadow of death. In the presence of Jesus, death and the grave are defeated foes. They no longer have a hold on us because we walk with Christ. He is the difference maker. I am not advocating that there won’t be trouble or that Christians don’t feel pain or cry. Of course we do. Jesus did. Jesus stood at the grave of his friend and only shed tears over what he saw.

Keep in mind, that those tears were not just for the loss of a friend. Jesus understood what death was for us. He was waiting the moment when he would face his own pain and death. He saw how we were reacting and trying to avoid pain and death and it made him cry. We can boldly proclaim to God, “If you had been here... this would have to happen.” Jesus understood the sense of helplessness and of hopelessness that we have in facing death and the grave. He is here. He is the Way, the Truth and most of all he is Life. What we need do is trust him all the way home.

Resurrection and new life, as we shall soon discover, are not nice and easy things like bunnies and new brightly covered hats. Resurrection and new birth are messy, painful things too. Resurrection is new life forged out of death. We must bear the scars. That is why one of the most profound things Jesus said in his ministry is this: “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” We are let go into life, into freedom and back into the community and the family we love that we might be with them forever in love, in service and in worship of God.

Jason+