March 6, 2022
John 11: 1-44
During a Lenten video series released couple of years ago,  theologian Dwight Petersen offered his thoughts on his then-impending death. 

Petersen was interviewed while he lay in the hospice where he stayed after he received his terminal diagnosis. 

Petersen told the interviewer that the message at the heart of the Gospel … and the message at the heart of today’s passage from John … is that death is not the end  … this world is not the end.

“That’s what gives me hope,” he said.

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Martha and Mary were hopeful at the beginning of this passage from John 11.

Their brother, Lazarus, is deathly ill. But they have sent for Jesus, whose presence … they’re sure … will stave off death. 

The message takes a day to reach him … and … when it reaches him, Jesus says that Lazarus’ illness will not lead to death and decides to stay on the other side of the Jordan River for another two days. The disciples try to persuade Jesus to forego the journey … Bethany is a bit too close to Jerusalem for their liking. They remind Jesus that the people want to stone him.

But Jesus loves Lazarus, so he makes the journey despite the disciples’ warnings.

Jesus arrives in Bethany four days after Lazarus had been placed in his tomb … beyond the time that the Jewish people believed the soul remained in a body.

Martha and Mary had little reason to hope that their brother would return to them. His life here … on earth … had come to its conclusion.

This becomes a story about grief.

When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Martha and Mary confront him about his delay and as they do so, they give voice to the pain and sadness of losing their brother.

Martha meets him as he reaches the village, while Mary remains home with others who had come to console the sisters. She comes to Jesus after he calls for her a bit later.

Martha tells Jesus:

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Mary says the same thing when she meets Jesus.

Like many of us in situations of great pain … suffering and loss, Martha and Mary are left to wonder why God didn’t answer their prayers … why was God absent in their suffering … where was God when Lazarus took ill … when they really needed him?

The sisters’ statement speaks to the hurt, the anger, the blame that can all be present in the grieving process.

“Where is God? … Why didn’t God answer my prayers? … Why did God let her suffer so?” … all these are questions that we can find ourselves asking when we are confronted by a loss.

Jesus’ response is to tell Martha: “I AM the resurrection and the life.” … and then he asks her if she believed this.

Her answer is “yes.”

“I believe you are the messiah. I believe you are the son of God,” she said.

In the middle of their grief … Jesus speaks the word of promise.

Hurt … anger … blame … and now … hope … and promise … all become part of the sisters’ grieving process.

Martha believes in the resurrection … that in the future … those who believe in Christ will be lifted up into a new life on the last day. 

But Jesus said: “I AM the resurrection.” 

What the sisters believed was coming at a future time was actually present … standing there outside a cave in near Bethany.

The resurrection to a new life is not some far off event … Jesus brought it into the present … it is in the now. Believers become a resurrection people.

Still, when Mary later comes to Jesus … she is weeping … after all, there is no single way to grieve. When Jesus sees her, he weeps too. He joins in her sorrow.

Outside Lazarus’ tomb … a place where the reality of death is known … where its very stench can be experienced and feared … Jesus doesn’t speak about faith … he doesn’t offer any explanation of why Lazarus died. He is simply present … knowing there is a proper time to speak and that this wasn’t it.

It was a time to weep.

Jesus loves Mary and Martha and joins them in their pain and suffering … weeping with them as the rest of the gathering watches … even though he knows that new life is around the corner. He allows them their time to mourn.

The resurrection of Lazarus is Jesus’s last sign in John’s gospel … like last week’s story of the blind man … and the story of man who had been sick for decades before that … this is a story of opportunity.

It is an opportunity to recognize that … even in the depth of pain and despair … the promise offered by Jesus … God’s gift of grief … remains present as the grieving process continues.  

It is there whenever we are present in another’s time of mourning … when we offer ourselves rather than offering platitudes or explanations … when we join in the sorrow rather than try to wipe it away. It is when, through simply being there … that love is offered and hope is nurtured.

Because … as today’s lesson from John makes clear … death does not have the final word … love does. AMEN