Lazarus is dead. His sisters, Martha and Mary are heartsick that he has been taken from them. He has been put in his tomb, a cave with a stone rolled over the entrance. He has been there for four days. He will be in his tomb for an eternity of days as his energy for life is gone, There is no life-giving power that dares to call his life forth again – until Jesus does so, “Lazarus, come forth!”
Not even the ultimate sepulcher can impede the life force of Christ. As that is so, there is no other death cave that we should think permanent. Neither transient nor temporary diminishments are able to entomb us. It is only for a time that we might feel isolated or diminished because of our job loss, our divorce, the house taken by a bank foreclosure; isolated but never entombed. We are graced by loved ones, courageous people who come to our tomb, face the death we are experiencing, and persist in calling us forth into life again. We need others to help bring us back to life. It is in our togetherness that we know life. It is in our togetherness that we know creativity. We live and thrive together. As we face the pain and suffering and dying and continue to call forth family members and friends to life, so we can call forth a culture to life again. We can face the stresses, the impoverishments, the travel bans, the threats against health, the racism, the wars and all of the fixations for death, and, together, we can call a people back to life again.
Part of the truth and irony of this Sunday’s Gospel is that immediately after Jesus calls forth Lazarus from the tomb back to life again, his opponents begin strategizing Jesus’ death, “So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and … from that day on they planned to kill Jesus.” As change agents, we are realistic about facing the physical death that awaits us. We face it because we live as a challenge to those who wield physical death as their threat to keep us silent, to keep us from calling others forth into life. Believing we will live on, we can speak truth to privilege knowing we might be killed for doing so. It is knowing that truth about our demise that gives us the courage to stand up and speak. We are unafraid of even the ultimate sepulcher as we believe, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Prayer: Spirit of Life, give us the courage to stand up against threats of death and be about life.
Question: What is the tomb from which I need to be called forth into life again?
April 2, 2017 Gospel John 11:1-45 5th Sunday of Lent