“Come out of the ark!” (Genesis 8:16)
I saw a movie awhile back, “The Nice Guys.” Anyone see it? It stuck with me, because it was so disturbing. The plot went like this.
A young girl is trying to assist in making a secret film that will uncover a criminal plot to allow an auto industry to sell an illegal converter that will damage and desecrate the environment. The girl is located by detectives, who were hired by her mother to find her missing daughter. While the detectives assume it’s a mere missing person case, they find out in the end that it is in fact the girl’s mother herself who is head of the automotive plot and who is trying to kill her daughter in order to protect herself and her product.
How far this mother has fallen! She was so distracted by her own greed, her own ambition, and her own quest for power and glory, perhaps her own misguided sense of “professional” values, that she lost touch with her love for her own daughter. She lost touch with the miracle of life she herself birthed.
Wow! we say.
This in a sense is what’s going on in the story of Lazarus. Lazarus is apparently some kind of well-known guy in Jerusalem. We can guess from scripture that he’s undoubtedly wealthy, probably funding Jesus’ ministry to a large degree, and yet has connections in Jerusalem. The priests know him. He lives only 2 miles away in Bethany. Like Jesus, he’s one of them, and yet he’s not.
To the authorities, Jesus and his friend Lazarus are rabble-rousers. Jesus’ theology is controversial, his ideas are provocative. He’s encouraging the people on the margins and the outsides. Plus he’s predicting God’s coming judgment on Jerusalem. He’s criticizing the priests and Pharisees and filling the people’s heads with ideas of restoration and abundance. He’s predicting the fall of the Temple, and allowing his disciples to flout Pharisaic rules. He’s anti-establishment and a critic of the status quo. He is rousing more and more people behind him, and crowds are following him everywhere. He’s trouble with a capital “T.” Lazarus is his patron and protector.
For a while, Jesus kept out of the way. But now he’s reappeared, and has claimed to raise Lazarus from the dead! The people believe him. They are falling for his rhetoric hook, line, and sinker. Soon, the Roman officials will be in town for the beginning of Passover, and crowds of people will be lining the streets. Many are already crowding in on Bethany to get a glimpse of Jesus and Lazarus.
Lazarus just won’t shut up! He’s inciting the crowds, attributing his “rising” to God, proclaiming Jesus as Messiah and King, gathering the people for God’s coming kingdom.
Surely, the Romans will see all this commotion and want to do something about it. If the Romans shut down the Temple, and there will go their livelihood. There will go the little bit of control they still have left.
It’s been a delicate tightrope walk for the Pharisees and priests. They have kept themselves in power, and in a good standard of living, by assuring the Romans that they would keep the people at bay and keep passions under control. As long as things remained calm, the Romans would let them alone. And they had. Until Jesus. And his sidekick, Lazarus….began filling the people’s heads with dangerous ideas.
You see, the Pharisees didn’t understand what Jesus was about. But then, who did? Even Jesus’ own disciples weren’t really sure what he was up to and what to make of him. They kept asking him questions, but his responses were murky, vague, and difficult to follow. “Soon you’ll understand,” is all that they really got.
We know today that Jesus’ idea of “change” was not about a revolt against Rome, was not a revolt against Judaism, was not a revolt of any kind that they could put their heads around. But it was a revolt . . . . against sin and death, against complacency and corruption.
Jesus’ answer was not to take over the Sanhedrin, nor level the physical Temple, nor try to conquer Rome, nor replace the priests and Pharisees. Jesus’ answer was to call for repentance, to offer himself as a sacrifice of hope, so that hearts could come home to God.
And perhaps this is the greatest miracle of all when we look at the story of Lazarus. Jesus doesn’t raise Lazarus in order to boast of his own power. He doesn’t raise Lazarus so he can have his dear friend back or even to return him to his grieving family. He doesn’t raise Lazarus, so that Lazarus can continue to fund his ministry nor to thrill the crowd.
The scripture tells us clearly why Jesus raised Lazarus. So everyone would see the “glory and wonder of God!” So everyone would trust again in the majesty and presence of God! So everyone would know that God was near, and that soon, God would act similarly on their behalf.
Soon Jesus’ own resurrection would change the face of faith, would turn hearts back to God, would challenge the character and content of all earthly conquests. And Lazarus would be God’s witness to what was coming.
And like Peter’s mother-in-law, who jumped up and began “serving,” like the blind man, who leaped up and began praising, Lazarus came out of the tomb and began proclaiming the glory of God! He also began proclaiming that Jesus was God’s Son and Servant.
For the Pharisees, it was the last straw. But not Pharisee nor Priest, not warnings nor decrees, not even tomb nor rock nor bindings, would keep Lazarus from proclaiming God’s miracle!
Lazarus WAS God’s miracle. He was not only spirit restored, but body restored –after four days in the tomb!
He was God’s restoration metaphor and miracle story –there in the flesh!
But what many saw as a miracle, the priests saw as a threat. What others saw as God’s providence, the priests saw as Jesus’ and Lazarus’ contempt for them and for Jerusalem.
Surely God was on their side. Right?
Lazarus rising wasn’t a miracle, they said. It was a hoax. And the perpetrators and culprits had to pay!
What they couldn’t understand is that when they saw Jesus as a threat, they also saw God as a threat. For this was God’s miracle!
But wait a minute….
God’s miracles ARE threats, aren’t they? Sure they are. God’s miracles are real, BIG threats to people who can’t recognize God or respect God’s kingdom.
God’s miracle of raising up is a threat to greed and power.
God’s miracle of unbinding is a threat to control and order.
God’s miracle of the unexpected is a threat to the status quo.
God’s miracle of revealing is a threat to secrecy and hiddenness.
God’s miracle of restoration is a threat to decline and decay.
God’s miracle of proclamation is a threat to sin and silencing.
God’s miracle of life and light is a threat to the shadowed valleys of death.
Jesus IS the Lord of Light come out of the shadows to face the final threat.
The chief priests and the Pharisees may have meant well. They may have thought they were keeping the peace, maintaining law and order, controlling the chaos of dissent, making sure that things stayed on an even keel between themselves and their meal ticket, Rome. But like the mother in our story that started this sermon, they became so distracted with appeasing Rome, that they overlooked the miracle of love that God offered and so much more. God’s miracle should have been worth so much more than any meal ticket.
They looked at Jesus and saw not a savior but a danger.
They looked at Lazarus and saw not a grateful friend but a foe to their future.
They heard Jesus talk of change, and saw not a divine kingdom, but a human revolution and dissolution of the established order.
They could not see past the physical, could not imagine a messiah who wasn’t like them….who was disinterested in party politics but cared deeply about the state of their souls. They could not see the miracle unfolding before them, because they looked only with their blinkered minds and not with their broken hearts.
Can we too get so busy with our stuff and our strategies, our preconceptions and our politics, that we can’t see what miracles God is setting in front of us? Are our “shoulds” preventing us from seeing God’s “coulds?” Can we get so distracted by our “rules of correctness” and our preferred protocols to keep the peace? Can we get so deterred by our ways to promote “rightness,” that we miss life’s miracles? That we miss the loveliness of love and life, the beauty of our neighbors and our friends?
Lent is a time when we must humbly confess that to follow Jesus, the status is never quo. Lent is a time when we look harder and deeper into our own hearts rather than looking down on the hearts of others. Lent is a time of self-reflection and contemplation when we ask ourselves the hard questions about our own motives, our own shortcomings, our own desires, and our own brokenness. Lent is a time of repentance in which we pay attention to the miracle of hope that Jesus offers to every one of us –not to change others, whether our friends, or our enemies, but to change us. For change starts with us. In our own hearts.
Will you ask Jesus to change your heart this morning? Will you ask Jesus to change you so that you might see the miracle of life that Jesus is offering you? Then perhaps you too might feel the joy that Lazarus felt that day! Perhaps you too may become an excited proclaimer of Jesus’ power, and God’s glory. For to God be the glory!
Let’s say that together.
“To God be the glory!”
Not to anything else, or anyone else. But to GOD be the glory!
Amen.
“Amen.”
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
The Death and Raising of Lazarus and the Plot to Kill Him (John 11 and 12)
Minor Text
God Restores the Women After all Wombs Have Been Closed Due to Sarah (Genesis 20:1-18)
Abraham Purchases a Cave at Machpelah for Sarah (Genesis 23)
Deborah, Rachel, and Isaac are Buried (Genesis 35)
I Have Set Before You the Choice of Life or Death (Deuteronomy 30)
David Mourns Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1-2:7)
The Restoration of Elijah (1 Kings 19:11-13 and Joshua 10)
A Dead Man Thrown Into the Cave of Deceased Elisha Comes to Life After Contact With Elisha’s Bones (2 Kings 13: 14-21)
The Death of Joshua and Eliezer (Joshua 24:29-33 and Judges 2)
Hezekiah is Saved by God with Help from Isaiah After Three Days From the Shadow of Death and Lives Another 15 (2 Kings 20:1-11 and Isaiah 38)
Psalm 16: You Will Not Abandon Me to the Realm of the Dead
Psalm 34 and 91: The Lord Delivers
Psalm 103: Praise to the Lord Who Heals!
God’s Metaphor of the Restoration of Israel and the Resurrection of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 36 and 37)
The Promise of Restoration (Jeremiah 30:17 and 33)
God’s Comfort to His People and the Servant of Light to the Nations (Isaiah 40 and 42)
Tobit’s Prayer of Thanksgiving for What God Has Done (13)
The Power and Mercy of God Who Loves Life (The Wisdom of Solomon 11:21-26)
On Mourning the Dead (Sirach 38:16-23)
The Death and Raising of Lazarus and the Plot to Kill Him
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)
So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.”
When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
“Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept. Then 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?”
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
“Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.
Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.
Image Exegesis: Lazarus Rising
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2)
“But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise-- let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy-- your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” (Isaiah 26:19)
We spend most of our time with this scriptural story talking about the amazing raising of Lazarus, but little time talking about Lazarus himself, the plot to kill him and why, and the apparent power of his evangelism.
But according to John, Lazarus may have been the first martyr, and one of the first evangelists on behalf of Jesus, as well as a significant financial supporter. We know he was a friend.
He was obviously funding Jesus’ ministry and assisting him with a place to stay whenever he frequented Jerusalem. We know he spent at least one significant Jewish holiday with Lazarus and his two sisters (Sukkot), and he dined with him often.
Who was Lazarus?
Was he related to Simon the Leper? What did he do for a living? What kind of place did he live in at Bethany? An Essene hospice? A wealthy home?
Why did his two “sisters” Martha and Mary, both single women, live with their brother, a single man? Were they Essenes themselves? Were the women widows? OR simply wealthy independents? Was Lazarus sick much of the time? OR just this one instance? What sickness did he have? Was it a form of leprosy? Or something else?
We don’t know much of this. We do know….his name was used in a significant parable story. And many scholars believe (Ben Witherington among others) that Lazarus may be the “disciple Jesus loved.”*
What was his circle of influence? It must have been significant for the chief priests to get so upset about him. What was his relationship to the Temple?
Lazarus (or Lazaros, the Greek name for Eleazar, or Lazar) was a faithful priest in the Hebrew scriptures (see 2 Maccabees 6:18-31). Was this Lazarus a priest too? Or just a wealthy benefactor of the Temple? Was he the one with the clout to let Peter in to the Sanhedrin? Was he a member of the Sanhedrin himself?
What do we know about Lazarus? Or Eleazar (God is my help)?
According to Epiphanios of Cyprus (367-403), Lazarus was 30 when he was called out from the tomb by Jesus. He notes that Lazarus then lived another 30 years after that. After Jesus was convicted and crucified, he took Mary (Jesus’ mother) with him and took refuge at Ktion in Cypress in 33 CE. He was ordained there by Paul and Barnabus and became the first Bishop of Kition. It’s said, also met John the Evangelist. He died in 63 CE. It’s also said that during the reign of Leo VI, his bones were then transferred to Constantinople in 890 CE. On his tomb were the words inscribed, “Lazarus the Friend of Christ.”
If this is true, then the “contract” on Lazarus’ head was never fulfilled. But the threat remained apparently during Jesus’ last weeks. Was Lazarus the disciple to whom Jesus entrusted his mother? Did Mary go to live with Lazarus and his sisters near Jerusalem for the rest of her life until fleeing with them to Cypress? These are the legends of the early church.
Surely Lazarus must have been one of the first to believe. Was he the one there with Peter at Jesus’ empty tomb? If so, he would have known from his own experience, exactly what had happened!
The tomb’s stone was similarly rolled away, and the grave clothes were there. You couldn’t get clearer.
Death was a serious matter. And therefore resurrection an even more serious matter.
Accounts of death of some of God’s primary followers and prophets are firmly recorded in scripture –Moses, Rachel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Aaron, Saul, Jonathan, Absalom, Eliezer, and others are recorded. Why? Because Jewish mourning, death, and burial rituals were very important.** Typically, a corpse was buried the same day, which was the honorable thing to do. It would be washed, fingernails trimmed, anointed with oils, and bound with a cloth, over which strips of linen cloth (tachrichin) would be wrapped and tied with ceremonial knots to ensure the cloth would stay in place. Over the face would be a face cloth, bound with a strip at the chin and forehead. After the flesh had decomposed, the dried bones were typically collected from the cave and put into a stone box (ossuary) in order to make space in the burial cave for future burials.
And throughout history, many Jews believed in a future resurrection –both of spirit and restoration of the body.*** Locked in a tomb and bound, death steals God’s glory/proclamation; however resurrection opens the eyes of death and frees the tongue in order for God to be further praised. Service to God was also passed along to the next upon death, so that God’s future among the people would be ensured.
Each death served as a passing of the “mantle” in service to YHWH. Every life was lived to the “glory of God!”
When Jesus raises Lazarus, it isn’t because he misses his friend, it isn’t because he pities Mary and Martha, it isn’t even because he’s indignant that death has claimed him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited until arriving. Jesus raises Lazarus, as he clearly tells us, purposefully to point to the glory of God! Jesus wants to show that God’s salvation life is near at hand. And that his own resurrection would be unchallenged.
Like Peter’s mother-in-law, who immediately rises to serve, like the blind man, who immediately praises God, Lazarus immediately begins proclaiming God’s power shown in the person of Jesus!
And this was a “truth” that the authorities could not bear to muster.
What stopped Lazarus from proclaiming God’s glory was out of his control: sickness and death. Lazarus was faithful. Nothing else stopped him. Not peer pressure. He didn’t care about that. Not fear or the authorities. He didn’t care about that. Only sickness and death could stop him from proclaiming Jesus and God’s glory…..and even then, his very death became the miracle that increased his proclamation! The cave couldn’t hold his praise. Not the bindings around him, nor the rock sealing him. Jesus unleashed all of these, and his mouth was full of glory.
But such miracles, like Lazarus’s praise, are provocative. They provoke now just awe or praise however but in some, provoke anger or fear or resistance, as we see in the story of the chief priests.
Jesus was stirring up the status quo. We learn from John’s scripture that the chief priests feared losing control to Rome. When the Romans would arrive for the Passover, as they always did to keep control over the crowds, what would happen…..people were flocking to Jesus and Lazarus, more and more each day. The priests did not appear to be able to control the people. What if the Romans feared revolt? What if they felt the need to crack down on Jerusalem? They would shut down the Temple for good, and that would be the end of their cushy jobs. Who was Jesus anyway? What were he and Lazarus planning? A revolt? They were rabble rousers for sure. Controversial. Loose cannons. Best if they were quieted. The bottom line: the priests were Sadduccees. They didn’t believe in resurrection. So, they were more focused on politics and keeping peace with Rome than on God’s miracle of life.
They thought it was a hoax at best, a plot more likely. And they didn’t trust either one of them.
Proclaiming for Lazarus was a risky business. His body was restored, but his life would never be the same again, after Jesus’ death.
The metaphors in this scripture are many: tomb (cave), rock, bindings, voice, resurrection, the “I am.” The tomb, cave, bindings, and rock all are inhibitors that prevent proclamation, along with death. However, resurrection and the “I am” of Jesus are that which frees, unbinds, unleashes the tongue, and releases Lazarus in order that God’s glory may be revealed! “That which has been concealed has now been revealed.” Out of the darkness and into the Light of the Way, Truth, and Life.
One of the most interesting phrases I find is that Caiaphas, as High Priest, made a prophecy that Jesus would gather all of God’s people and would die for the Jewish nation. However, instead of seeing that as a holy prophecy from God intended for the benefit of all people, Caiaphas seems to use it more as an excuse to kill him, in order to fulfill it. His thinking is base and lacking In spiritual depth, or he is simply corrupt to the degree that he would use God’s prophecy as an excuse for murder.
*Ben Witherington “What Have They Done With Jesus” and “The Historical Figure of the Beloved Disciple.” See John 11:3; 11:5; 18:15-17; John 19:27-29; John 20:3-8; John 21:23.
**David Mourns Absalom (2 Samuel 18:19-19:1-23; Death of Moses (Deuteronomy 31-34); Death of Abraham (Genesis 25:7-11); Death of Rachel and Isaac (Genesis 35); Jacob’s Last Words and Death and Joseph’s Death (Genesis 49 and 50); David Mourns Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1-2:7); the Death of Aaron (Numbers 20:22-29); the Death of Joshua and Eliezer, son of Aaron (Joshua 24:29-33), Death of Judith (16); Death and Mourning of Stephen (Acts 7:50-8:2); and many others.
***The Ingathering (Baruch 4:36-5:9); Resurrection (Daniel 12); Restoration (Amos 9:11-15; Isaiah 55; 2 Esdras); Resurrected Life (Ezekiel 36 and 37), among others.