Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?

 

 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 11:30–44 

 

Yesterday we read that when Jesus came to Bethany, to the house of Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, He found that Lazarus 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.  Then 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."   My study bible notes for us here that Mary approaches Jesus with the identical words used by Martha (see yesterday's reading, above).  While Jesus engaged Martha with words, here He engages Mary with works -- the raising of her brother Lazarus from death.

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?"  My study bible comments that John emphasizes that Jesus wept, and that He groaned in spirit.  "Jesus wept" is the shortest verse in the Bible, and it emphasizes that Christ had fully taken on human nature, and was as subject to grief as any other person.   It further adds that weeping is the natural response to the tragedy of death.  One Orthodox hymn for the commemoration of this event proclaims, "Shedding tears by Your own choice, You have given us proof of Your heartfelt love."  What we also see on display here is another aspect of Christ's compassion.   Knowing what He will do, He nevertheless is moved to tears by human suffering.

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?"  My study bible tells us that although Martha's faith had increased, she still understood neither Christ's will nor His power.  The spices and oils which were used to anoint a dead body would only hold the stench of decomposition away for a short time.  Many icons of the raising of Lazarus include bystanders who are covering their noses, which illustrates both the reality of Lazarus's corrupted flesh, and also the fact that many did not believe Christ could raise the dead.

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."   In order to show His divine will is one with the Father's and that Christ's human will is freely subject in all ways to the Father's, He prays aloud for the sake of the people.  Remember that many of those gathered here are from Jerusalem, possibly including members of the ruling Council.  The union with the Father has been Jesus' constant emphasis to the religious leaders all throughout John's Gospel.

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"   Citing 5:28-29, my study bible comments that Christ calls Lazarus forth, not in the name of the Father, but by Christ's own authority.  What it shows to the people is that while Christ came from the Father, He also fully possesses divine authority in Himself.  This will all no doubt be reported back to the leadership in Jerusalem.

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."    That Lazarus came out of the tomb bound in his graveclothes is understood by many patristic sources as an indication that he will need them again.  In other words, his resurrection continues an earthly life which will again end in natural death.  My study bible contrasts this with Christ's graveclothes, which, by contrast, would be left in the tomb (20:5-7).   Unlike Lazarus's, my study bible notes, Christ's Resurrection transfigures human nature.  He will never die again.

What is resurrection?  What does it mean to you, and what does it mean to me?  We, as human beings, can only look to resurrection as a sense in which death is, in some sense, meaningless and powerless.  But truly, resurrection is much more than that, at least when we understand it in the context of Jesus and His work in the world.  In the raising of Lazarus it is revealed to us truly that Christ has the power of life and death -- but possibly especially of life over death.  In the Resurrection Hymn of Easter, the Orthodox Church proclaims that Christ -- through His sacrifice on the Cross -- trampled down death by death.  Through His freely sacrificial death, Christ has destroyed the power of death for all of us.  But in the raising of Lazarus we find more in terms of the powerful symbolism of Christ's life-giving power for our own lives here in this world, and not just in the next.  Christ's display of healing power, even that which transcends and overcomes death, is one which affirms for us and for these witnesses from Jerusalem (who will spread the story to all, of course) that in Christ is life itself.  Over and over in John's Gospel, we have received images of light and life regarding Christ, that this very power of life in Christ is also the light by which we must seek to live.  It is the light by which we walk by day, so that we don't stumble in the darkness (see 11:9-10).  The power of the life Christ offers is one that can pick us up when we stumble.  It can lead us out of our own darkness, in the dark corners where we find ourselves stuck, out of the alleyways and byways we take because we don't know any better.  This is the life He brings to the world, and it is the power of life on display in the raising of Lazarus.  As with all things in the life of Christ, there is not simply one dimension within which we understand the power of God.  It applies in hidden and unknown and secret, yet-to-be-discovered ways for all of us, for each of us who cares to come to that light, and for each of us willing to give up a way that leads to death.  Even death we can understand also as having many dimensions:  our limited imaginations and understanding, our broken or misguided goals that don't really give us what we need or what we think they will, our desire to follow the world in ways that aren't really suitable, our own limitations of every sort.  It is Christ's light of life that comes to us to help us through all of that, to place us on a learning curve, so that we grow in our understanding and come closer to Christ in the process of doing so.   It is through Christ's power of life over death that we come to Him as we grow in faith, and walk on this journey that we can observe in the lives brought to us through the Gospels.  That is, in the lives of the disciples, in the growth of the faith of Mary and Martha, and still others like the Pharisee Nicodemus.  We also see the choice for darkness and death in the responses of many of the leaders, which will lead only to greater darkness -- and most certainly to death, especially when they hear of this extraordinary sign of the raising of Lazarus.  At this time, there are so many people beset with many hardships and viewing tragedies for both human beings and for nature as well.  Many of us are living under conditions we all find difficult.  But we should stop to think that for many of us there is a hidden and powerful message in the stress and difficulties, and that is the message of life in Christ.  We might view death all around us when we are visited with problems like a strange and frightening virus, with complex conditions set down for us we don't always understand.  We can see "death" in the difficulties we have coming together in traditional ways, in the fires that are burning huge portions of our forests, in the shutdown of business, work, and economies, and many other dimensions of what we're experiencing now.  But we should never forget the story of Lazarus especially at times like this.   Jesus said of Lazarus' death -- just like the blindness since birth of the man healed in chapter 9 -- "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it" (11:4).  While we do not have Jesus in the flesh walking among us, we have Christ present together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the uncountable angels which surround us, and the unknowable number of saints who pray with us.  We mustn't forget that in every experience of death (of any sort), we also may find an opportunity to beat the devil through our own prayer and supplication and faith.  We might find ways at this time where the glory of God shines through what appears to be nominally tragedy.  This is such a time that was made for faith, for realizing where God is hidden for us behind the scene, around a corner, in the secret room where we pray, in our hearts capable of discerning and knowing God's word for us.  This is a time where we are discovering that Zoom classes and bible studies are connecting us together across a country, even across an ocean.  This is a time when we have an internet that allows us to hear a good word when we can't get to our church.  It is a time when we have a choice to pull together and help one another or to dissolve helplessly into the spirit of blame and spite and division we see around ourselves.  At this time possibly as at no other time, we have a choice to reveal ourselves in the light of faith and to reject the darkness.  We have faith in resurrection, not in death.  Let us walk in the light with Christ, for His is the light of life indeed.  Christ wept with us.   Our Lord became one of us to be with us, and so that we might be always with Him.  Wherever we are, He has been there with us, and remains with us.  Our God is the God of life and of love, and in that understanding we are kept in His light.