Lent 5 (A)
John 11:1-45
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.”
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.
God Can Give You Power as Needed
Today we conclude our series of messages the gospel in glee, a series where we have looked at the surprising ways the gospel of Jesus Christ appears in what seems to be a very irreligious tv musical program. From the very beginning of the first season, even in the pilot episode of the series, the main story line is that there are some people in life who are “losers.” In glee these are the people in the showchoir, people who for a variety of reasons don’t measure up. These are people are not the cream of the crop. They are not at the top of the social ladder.
In fact, the glee club is at the bottom. They are the least in the high school caste system. There is one character, Finn, who plays football and is in the glee club. His teammates ride him, bully him, tease him, and shame him for his involvement in the uncool and unmacho singing group. Finn tries his best to put them off and reassure them that he is still one of them. The scene this morning shows Finn walking with a football friend trying to explain why he is in glee club. His friend leads him to the porta potties where other football players are gathered. They have locked the kid in the wheelchair in it and going roll it. They want Finn to have the first honor. Let’s watch the clip. (clip not available)
This is a defining moment for Finn, when he realizes who he is and what is important to him. He can accept the fact of not being “cool” or “in” or “on top.” When it’s all said and done, they are all losers. They all fail to measure up in some way.
If there is one thing the Bible makes clear it is that there is a sense where we too have failed to make the cut. If you look at your outline you’ll see a line from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.” (1 Corinthians 1:26)
By and large people who made up the Jesus movement were not the best and the brightest, not the high and mighty, not on their way to the top. They were regular folk like you and me. That’s the kind of people God reaches out to from the beginning of the Bible to the end. Remember Abraham? Genesis chapter 12. When God called him what was his situation? Hopeless. He was 75 years old at a time when people were lucky to reach age 40. He had one foot in the grave and only one place to go. He had nothing in front of him, a “has been.”
Fast forward to Jesus, when he hits the scene with his life changing message where does he go? He goes to the down-and-outers. To the peeps who have struck out. He doesn’t go the halls of power to recruit the people with the “right stuff.” He doesn’t go to the Temple to woo the high and mighty. He moves along the fringes, along the beach, looking for beach bums and fisher folk. He calls those who have been cast off and away, those who are deficient in someone’s eyes like the prostitutes and tax collectors, the lepers.
Yes when Jesus seeks out the losers of the earth. When you look closer at the characters in glee, you see that they are “losers” not simply because someone says they are. They are “losers” because they have experienced a loss. They have all lost something precious and valuable. Finn lost his dad in the first Iraq war. Artie lost the ability to walk in a car accident. Quinn lost her virginity. Kurt lost his mother when he was a boy. All these characters have endured significant losses.
Which brings us to today’s gospel reading. People have experienced a loss. Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, died. When Jesus finally gets around to getting to Bethany where Lazarus and his sisters lived, he finds what you would expect. Tears, mourning, anger. Martha meets him and says “Jesus if you had been hear my brother would not have died.” It is not hard to hear the disappointment in her voice. They continue down the path. There’s Mary, Lazarus’ other sister. And what does she say? The exact same thing: If only you had been here, Jesus.
Jesus sees Mary weeping. He sees Martha weeping. The crowd around him is weeping. The air is heavy with grief. Then, Jesus moves in, into the center – the middle of the scene. People around him doubled over from the death of a loved one. And it moves him. It matters to him. It touches him. He cries.
You must know that when Jesus sees his loved ones in pain, it gets to him. Your situation is not something he observes at a distance. He is not in the bleachers as a spectator to your life. He is right in the middle of it. Right in the middle of your marriage. Right in the middle of your search for a job. Right in the middle of you worry over your health. He’s in the middle of it all. And he is moved by what you have lost.
“Open it up.” he said. “Roll away the stone.” “Open up the grave.” You talk about getting into the situation. For some standing by, that was a bit much. For some who were gathered there, it was a little too far. “Lord, he has been there for four days. There will be a stench.” Yes, it is ugly. Unpleasant. Smelly. “Open it up” says Jesus.
And they do. Jesus reaches into the dark, smelly, hopeless situation and pulls Lazarus out. Draws him to him for a new day and a new life. For the man who had lost everything, Jesus calls him out.
When you think about it, we are all going to lose it. We’re all going to lose everything just like Lazarus. And Jesus is going to step into the middle of it. He’s going to be where it is unpleasant. He’s going to be where it is dark. He is going to be where your life stinks to high heaven. And he’s going to call you out. He takes all the ugliness of the situation to himself. He internalizes it. He takes all the guilt, the shame, hurt, and loneliness of the world into himself. And then he takes it to the cross where he puts it in its place – the grave.
And then he puts you in your place, at his side, for now and for eternity.
No comments:
Post a Comment