2020.03.29 Is Lazarus Raised From The Dead?

The biblical story in John's gospel about the raising of Lazarus, a man dead for over four days and by now stinking with rot in the tomb, according to the text, is what I might call the piece de resistance of gospel stories. Envision the headline!

But did it really happen? Who told you? The media always exaggerates? It’s a lie? Or is it gossip? Who would believe such a thing?  It is written. What for?

The family of Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, in Bethany who had consistently offered Jesus a place to rest and dine while he was on the road as a missionary for the gospel, was now in dire need of his presence. Jesus was summoned and he came. He dropped the urgent task at hand—persuading his people of the loving purposes of their God— simply to comfort his best friends. To many, that action alone would be as unbelievable as the story of the raising of Lazarus.

Did it really exactly happen this way?  We need an explanation. Well, it was of course a literary device meant to foreshadow the resurrection of Christ.  What is truth and what is fact? You decide.

I will tell you what it means to me and why it is true to me. Jesus, at the height of his career, abandons his call from God, his ministry, his vocation to risk—risk—his life and reputation for dear friends. That I believe. Jesus saw Mary and Martha in deep grief. They begged him to help. He saw their need, but not only was it their need it was his own need. He wept in deep grief too. This I believe.

What Jesus did first was weep with them. Then he asked to see the burial place, something we often ask up front. Where is he? Can I see him or her? The ashes, the grave, the coffin, the body—any remnant of the dead beloved? There might be a mistake? Take me to see? Those gathered were silenced, awed by Jesus’s display of grieving love. He was supposed to be Messiah. They wanted a  miracle. They got love instead—Jesus vulnerable with his own loss and his own love. O God, what a wrenching helpless feeling if you have ever experienced such grief and love intimately together.

Jesus did what we all do. He looked up and he prayed. (John adds a bit of theological fringe talk, even scolding Martha for questioning his teaching and to believe the glory of God. Didn’t I tell you it would be revealed?) But Jesus prays.  He asks God directly, even remembering first to thank God, something I rarely remember to do myself. His prayer is strong.

“Lazarus come out!” Jesus shouts at the now opened tomb. Everyone waits.

The “dead” Lazarus emerges from the tomb. He staggers out, all bound by the burial clothes. You would think Jesus would have held a prayer service of thanksgiving, rejoicing, making sure the greater glory of almighty God was properly honored. Even a simple thanks would be acceptable. But no, Jesus orders those standing there agog: “Unbind him, and let him go!”

And that, my friends, is the point.