Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
John 11:1-45
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt 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 Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
My sermon from the Fifth Sunday in Lent (March 26, 2023) on John 11:1-45.
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Two verses. Two verses are all John used to narrate one of the most dramatic moments in his book. Jesus, while standing outside Lazarus’ tomb, commanded him to come out – and he did. We would expect such a miraculous event to be described with a bit more detail since this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day. Yet what John gave us was a few of Jesus’ words and this mental picture of Lazarus wrapped in cloth. If we were the ones describing this moment, we’d probably flesh it out so that even Lazarus’ footsteps coming out of the tomb could be heard. But John, who is very good at adding the details needed to heighten the emotional and theological importance of any scene, spent his energy writing about everything that came before and after this moment. When we listen to this story, it’s reasonable for us to imagine the good news being tied to what Lazarus experienced since we’ve often wanted our loved ones to experience the same thing too. And yet, for John, the miracle that feels like it should be everything is only a tiny portion to what the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – is all about.
Now during the season of Lent, I’ve invited us to try and summarize our experience of the gospel into 50 words or less. We’ve been talking about it for five weeks and it still feels like a big ask. The word “gospel,” aka good news, was originally tied to the proclamations made in the ancient world by emperors, kings, and queens. But it became associated with Jesus either during, or immediately, after his public ministry. Paul, who wrote several letters to a variety of early Christian communities scattered around the Mediterranean Sea, summarized this gospel in his first letter to the Christian community in the ancient Greek town of Corinth. He wrote: the gospel is that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [aka Peter], then to the twelve.” For Paul, Jesus’ story revealed God’s story while also showed how people are included in what God was up to. The good news wasn’t only about what Jesus did but also how he showed up to people who were busy living their lives. We see this same idea in John’s own summary of the gospel, way back in chapter 3, when he wrote: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Bishop Craig Satterlee, while reflecting on John 3:16, made his own draft of the gospel to be that: God became human in Jesus and gave himself to the world, to be with us in everything, even the most horrible death; to draw the world to life God intends; and, by God’s Spirit, to free and empower us to live God’s abundant life now, because God loves us. These 3 examples might not be exactly how we would describe the gospel yet they reveal how Jesus showing up in our lives is part of what this good news is all about.
And that idea, I think, is why John took 37 verses to bring us, and Jesus, to Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus, at the end of chapter 10, is many miles away on the other side of the Jordan river, preaching and teaching to those who came to see him. While there, he received a message from Martha and Mary that Lazarus was sick. And we get the sense that Jesus and this family knew each other very well. Their relationship was so close that Mary and Martha knew how to send a message to this wandering preacher who didn’t stay in any one place for very long. When Jesus heard their message, he did something that I still struggle to understand. He waited, choosing to stay where he was for two days. It’s possible he had things or people around him he needed to take care of. Yet his hesitation also seems to match our own experiences of God since our prayers aren’t always answered as quickly as we wished. By the time Jesus met up with Lazarus’ family, Martha’s words became the ones we’ve said many times over. She, in her grief and through faith, wonders where Jesus has been. She doesn’t try to hide her emotions; nor is she anything other than who she is. She is fully herself and, in response, Jesus accepts her. He doesn’t dismiss her grief; or belittle her faith or hide what he’s going to do. Instead, he listens and then invites Martha to notice what God has already been doing. In their short back-and-forth, we see that Martha, like many of us, imagines – or at least acts – as if the good news only pertains to the future after we live our life. The news we see and hold onto applies to that moment when we meet God at the edge of forever, assuming our goodness will be accepted and held true. If the gospel was only about what comes next, then Jesus’ words identifying himself as “the resurrection” makes sense. But then he chose to keep going, pointing out how he was meant for the living of our lives too. The gospel isn’t only about our past or our future. This good news speaks into this moment because God is already invested in our lives.
So what exactly does this living look like? Well, it sometimes resembles what we will be doing [at our 10:30 am worship] [in just a few minutes] when we proclaim that God isn’t done forming us into the community we’re meant to be. We will welcome and celebrate the change that is coming to us as God baptizes Avery – a child who is already known and loved. With a little water, a dab of oil, and the light of a burning candle, she will hear how the promises of God belong to her forever. The creator of the universe will listen to her; care for her; and will value her even when others don’t. She will never be alone and we will be given the responsibility to model what this commitment from God actually looks like. While she lives her life, we will cry together, mourn together, celebrate together, talk back to God together, and become who we’re meant to be. Through it all, we will be led by God, who, in Jesus, showed us what life can be. The gospel for John, I think, isn’t about all the amazing things Jesus could do. Rather, it was how Jesus, who could do the impossible, chose to live and love and be with the rest of us – forever.
Avery’s summary of the gospel, like ours, will be shaped and formed through the life she lives. It will ebb, flow, change, and grow with this Jesus who will be with her through all things. No one word or phrase or even a fifty word summary can truly contain the fullness of what this good news can be. Yet the promise given to Martha while she was busy living her life is the same promise Jesus gives to Avery – and to us. We are seen. We are known. We are meant to bring the good news of Jesus into every aspect of our lives. And I hope and pray that Avery will, throughout her life, experience a little bit of what the gospel has meant to my life: specifically that the God who holds everything together isn’t done with anyone.
Amen.