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And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you." As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there." Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"
Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."
- John 11:28-44
In yesterday's reading, we were told that a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days 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, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and You are going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up." Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him." Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you." As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there." Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." We recall that Mary was sitting in mourning in the house, while Martha had gone out to meet Christ as He approached. My study bible points out that Mary approaches Christ with the identical words that Martha used (see above), "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." But while Jesus engaged Martha with words, here He engages Mary with deeds. Her brother Lazarus is raised from the dead.
Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?" Here we are given a great picture of the humanity of Jesus, and His great compassion, His empathy and love for His friends. My study bible says that John emphasizes that Jesus wept and groaned in spirit (further on in the following verses) to show that He had fully taken on human nature and was subject to grief as any man would be. It says that "weeping is the natural response to the tragedy of death. In the Eastern Church, one hymn at Compline on the Saturday before Holy Week says, "Shedding tears by Your own choice, You have given us proof of Your heartfelt love." Jesus wept is the shortest verse in the Bible, but so full of poignancy and powerful meaning for us.
Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." My study bible says that though Martha's faith had increased, she still understood neither Christ's will nor His power. The spices and oils used to anoint a dead body would only hold back the stench of decomposition for a short time. Emphatically the text is telling us that Lazarus has not only died, but his body is already breaking down, decomposing. Icons of this scene depict bystanders covering their noses.
Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." My study bible suggests here that Jesus is showing His divine will was one with the Father's, and that His human will was freely subject in every way to the Father's. He deliberately prays aloud for the sake of the people.
Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" My study bible notes that Christ calls Lazarus forth not in the name of the Father, but by His own authority. It says, "This shows the people that while Christ came from the Father, He fully possesses divine authority in Himself." We need to understand all this as part of the seventh and final sign in this Gospel, and as building up to Holy Week, with witnesses present from Jerusalem who come from among those influential in the leadership of the temple.
And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go." Traditionally, it's seen that Lazarus comes out bound in graveclothes as a sign that he will need them again; his resurrection continues an earthly life which will again end in death. By contrast, Jesus' graveclothes are left in the tomb (John 20:5-7). My study bible says, "Unlike Lazarus's, Christ's Resurrection transfigures human nature; He will never die again. This sign not only prepared the disciples to believe in Christ's Resurrection, but in the words of the hymn for the day, it also 'confirmed the universal resurrection,' proving Christ has the power to fulfill the promise given to Ezekiel that all the dead will one day rise (Ezekiel 37:1-13).
I think that Jesus' words, "Loose him, and let him go," apply to so many things in our lives, and can be applied in so many ways as true words of resurrection and the promise of life abundantly that He has made. While we understand this spectacular sign as that which caps off all of His ministry, and which is just so astounding that it will put the seal on His fate with the temple authorities at Jerusalem (who already seek to find an accusation for which they can put Him to death), we also see everything in this ministry -- including this astonishing seventh sign -- as those things that teach us about Christ and the qualities belonging to Him, and how His ministry works in the world. The picture of Lazarus walking out of his tomb, still wrapped in graveclothes, is not something to forget. It makes a vivid impression on the imagination. It lends itself to so many interpretations, and so many understandings. He has not just beaten death; this is a picture of a captive being set free, it's a picture of a beloved brother being returned alive to his sisters, and it's a picture of a man who was fully bound and is now released, unbound. Christ has taught that it is the truth He bears for us that makes us free, and this is the ultimate truth: that He is the resurrection and the life, as He has said to Martha in yesterday's reading. His input into our lives, our participation in Him, renders us freed from so many things, whatever it is that binds us and brings some form of death into our lives. This scene illuminates great truths about Christ for all of us, but it is His illumination that sets us free in our own lives, each in our own way, as we bring everything to Him, to His light. He has taught that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, but there are all kinds of "sins" we may be a slave to that limit us and take away our freedom. Addiction is one such limitation that is a slavery that we can think of. But there are also all kinds of other things in which we "miss the mark" (the meaning of the Greek word for sin) that may bind us to slavery and death in our lives. We may think we're not "good enough" for Christ, that our pains and problems and difficulties are just too unimportant for Him. This is a lie, a thing that binds, a form of sin ("missing the mark") and slavery that keeps us from His light, His illumination and His resurrectional life of abundance that He wants to share with us. It keeps us from fully participating in His life, and whatever it is that keeps us from Him is truly "missing the mark." It goes against what He teaches us about relationship to His sheep. We may stay away because we feel unworthy of His love, but this is another false front, another lie, another form of slavery. God's love is pure grace, and "worthiness" really has nothing to do with it. Grace doesn't require a payment because no payment could possibly equal the value of the grace. It's a free gift, an expression of God's love -- it's a strange form of self-centeredness and "missing the mark" that censors the potential of such a relationship of love and grace where God has done the offering and given us His Son for our salvation. Lazarus in those graveclothes symbolizes us walking out of darkness and into the light; one can just imagine the blinding light, the difficulty of seeing, the overwhelming astonishment that makes this scene nearly unbelievable to those present. It is said of Lazarus that later he himself became a hunted man, wanted by the authorities because he had been the subject of this great miracle by Jesus. He lived in Cyprus, we are told, and was ordained the first bishop there. In addition to whatever else is said of him, it's said that he never smiled in the years after his resurrection, except for once. He saw someone stealing a clay pot, and joked, "The clay steals the clay." Perhaps living with the weight of such a life experience and witnessing the death of Christ was the cause, we don't know. Perhaps it was the sense of missing His friend Who so loved him. But in the joke, "the clay steals the clay," we can understand the perspective of one who knows what death is -- even a living death without the light of Christ. Let us remember this picture of Lazarus walking from the grave still bound in the graveclothes; it applies to all of us. Our lives may not be "the same" after His light has touched them, but resurrection is like that. It is to be transfigured by His light, and to bear it into the world.
