Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45
The Rev. Drew Brislin
As I have been making my way through this Lenten season, I have had this question that has been continually popping up in my head. It is rooted in part in my Baptist roots, roots that often called me to proclaim Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour and declare that I am saved because Jesus died on the cross for me. Also, in part from our discussion in clergy forum as we have been reviewing Sam Wells book Hanging by a thread questions from the cross. This persistent question though is ‘Did Jesus have to die on the cross to save me from my sins?’ In academic circles this study is called soteriology or the study of salvation. Questions such as did God need someone to substitute for man to remove his sin, or did God somehow need someone to atone for the sin of the world. All these theories though can all seem to make God so small. How is it that a loving God, a God who made humans in His image for relationship with Him need and maybe not so much need, but want our love and attention?
I can’t really tell you what the date was only that it was my first year in Tuscaloosa as a student at Alabama. I was in my room studying when the phone was brought to me, and I discovered my father on the other end. I’m sure he tried to set it up in some way but it all seemed gargled to me at the time and all I can remember is that in not so many words he informed me that he and my mother had decided to get a divorce. Years later I would find myself siting at my mother’s side in the early morning hours administering morphine to induce a coma. The details of the evening and whispering into her ear. Mama it’s okay. You can go. Still a few more years later sitting at my father’s bedside in a hospital in Foley, AL a nurse would turn to me and simply utter the phrase, ‘He is gone.’ Whether our experience has been death of loved ones or death of circumstances, chances are we all have experienced death in some shape or fashion. Nora Gallagher in her 2003 book titled ‘Practicing Resurrection: A Memoir of Work, Doubt, Discernment and Moments of Grace,’ explores her life in the wake of her brother’s death as he lost his fight with cancer. This exploration of purpose and faith will eventually lead Gallagher to discernment as she explores a call to ordained ministry within the Episcopal Church. This call and subsequent discernment will lead her down multiple paths of inquiry as she engages questions that present themselves to the church. Gallagher will eventually be granted postulancy and invited to attend seminary, however, she will eventually decide that in the end ordained ministry was after all not where God was calling her to serve. The premise of the book is that throughout our lives we are presented with or confronted with life altering circumstances. We have decisions to make, and those decisions deeply impact what our lives will be like in the wake of those decisions. And with each decision we experience a proverbial death of sorts as we leave behind old lives, old thoughts, old traditions, old whatever because life shared in the light of the new path will be different. With each new decision with each life altering event, we are afforded the opportunity to ‘practice resurrection.’
Our Gospel reading this morning begins with Mary and Martha sending word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick and requesting that he come as soon as possible to heal their brother, yet Jesus does not leave immediately and only tells us that the illness will not lead to death. Often, we phrase this as Jesus refuses but he only delays. This sign is the last of the seven signs performed by Jesus in John’s Gospel as we begin a pivot that will transition us from what has traditionally become known as the Book of Signs (where Jesus performs his miracles) to the Book of Exaltation where his true nature and purpose are revealed. Martha and Mary believe their brother Lazarus to be dead and they question why Jesus waited so long as if to have some knowledge of where he was and that he could have arrived earlier. And if this were the case, we might have some questions for Jesus but what we don’t fully understand is what Jesus means when he says he will go to awake Lazarus. What we can surmise though is that Jesus is doing something more than just healing a sick man. In waiting four days, in calling Lazarus from sleep, possibly from death he is laying claim to a sign that is revelatory in that it points to him as the Son of God. Subsequently in his exchange with Martha, Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though the die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ Is Jesus promising immortality? Maybe, I don’t know. It does sound like though that Jesus is instead offering up to us that he is the true bread from heaven not the manna that Moses received and that in Jesus we will experience true life, which is different from deathlessness and imperishability. That while Moses did a lot of great things, what he is bringing to the table is something altogether different. Resurrection places us in time, that place in which we formerly moved and had our being into a new state of awareness brought about by the love and grace of God.
The movement from one reality to the next is never easy while in the middle of it. Whether discussing death, divorce, loss of employment, disability, or whatever life changing event it is that one goes or is going through, the loss of the former self is painful and debilitating. Our sense of location and purpose is removed from us. I can certainly attest to this in my life and the events that have occurred to me over the years. I can also attest to the love shown me from my wife, my family, my friends and oh so importantly my church. When confronted with opportunities to change we must be willing to accept those gifts which Jesus offers. For Mary and Martha, it was confirmation that Jesus was on par with God. For Lazarus it was life after death. For us it is the promise that even though we die we will live.
I don’t pretend to know the mind of God, simply that his love is wrapped in mystery and that it is meant to be enjoyed and not solved. Is this story of Lazarus telling us that Jesus had to die?… or is it simply saying that this is what happened? Regardless, what does seem to be revealed to us this morning though is that we are given opportunities to grow. We are given opportunities to practice resurrection. That resurrection is about acknowledging and allowing our old selves to die so that we can grow into the love of God that is and has been meant for us from the beginning. God offered us a beautiful gift in his son and humanity chose to destroy it. In his death he offered himself up as our True Paschal Lamb so that true death might Passover us so that we might experience life everlasting. What do we do with the gifts God offers us today?