By the time of today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus had attracted a following, but also had raised considerable suspicion. No longer would Jesus and the disciples be able to appear in synagogue without possible opposition in the crowd. Bethany was just on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The closer he came to the city, the greater the sense of danger. The illness and subsequent death of Lazarus visibly affected him. Thomas expressed the fear for all the other disciples. Perhaps the end of Jesus’ ministry was near, and by going to mourn their friend Lazarus and comfort Mary and Martha, they all were liable to be arrested too, thrown in prison and possibly never heard from again. The Gospel emphasizes that Jesus was greatly disturbed. Is that another way of saying that Jesus was distraught? There is a sense that Jesus was beside himself and no longer in control. Jesus led mourners to the cemetery. The tomb is unsealed. Jesus stood in front of it, bowed his head, prayed, and then exclaimed, Lazarus, come forth! Everyone waited. Then Lazarus stumbled out of the darkness, bound and hardly able to move. The strength rose in Jesus’ voice. “Unbind him and let him go.” You can almost hear the disciples let out a sigh while the gathering around the tomb murmured in amazement.
Over the past three weeks the Gospel lessons have told the story of a Samaritan woman who became charged with the Gospel, a man born blind who was healed from his blindness and discovered a new type of community, and Lazarus who was called forth from the tomb. The woman, who was a member of a minority group within a fiercely proud ethnic nation, found a calling to a reality she heretofore never knew existed. The man born blind threw away his dark glasses and tin cup, and proclaimed the healing grace of God’s presence. Lazarus, whom no one expected to see the light of day again, came forth and stood in the sunlight.
It looks as if things were totally out of control! A Samaritan woman became a bearer of the Good News about Jesus, a Jewish rabbi? A dependent beggar changed into an independent courageous witness to a profound new vision? A man buried for four days shed the bonds of death, and became alive again? These signs were and are profoundly disturbing to many in the world. It is not that God is out of control, but that God will not be controlled by us. That is why the writer of the Gospel is quick to point out that these signs did not convince a whole lot of people, as much as it raised more fear and resentment. The signs of God’s presence and the threat of God’s presence are part of the same coin.
If Jesus had just been a good teacher of ethics, he probably would have been safe. If the church just shows society that it cares about the same things the chamber of commerce cares about, there would be little animosity towards people of faith. But God’s presence just doesn’t prop up the prevailing powers of the world. God’s presence takes over, changes us, transforms us, unbinds us, and holds up the world to judgment.
The writer of John’s Gospel used the sign of Lazarus to affirm. that Jesus is the resurrection and life. Life no longer begins and ends with the world and the prevailing worldly powers. Jesus proclaims God’s presence is the life in our sphere of existence. That is why the stories of woman of Samaria, the Judean born blind, and Lazarus are not mere accounts about personal self-fulfillment, but are announcements of God’s love working among us now.
Prophets of our day are cautioning us that there is great danger in merely communicating the message that Christians above all else are interested in promoting “the best” our culture has to offer. God is the resurrection and the life, no other substitute will do. This is precisely what makes any society very nervous and usually quite jealous.
Each of us dies many deaths in our lives, some of these deaths are relatively minor and insignificant, others are not. Prevailing powers of the world have definitions and standards about these deaths and pressure us to conform and to be bound to them. Christians are those who refuse to play dead, who refuse to be bound by death. The woman at the well, the beggar born blind, and Lazarus didn’t just find a helping hand to help them cope with society, they found the active spirit of the living God. Would that we would too.
