Just before we start the sermon on Lazarus, do you know how many people were in the grave with him when the miracle happened? Well the answer is that there were three people were in the grave with him. How do I know? Because Jesus said “Lazarus come forth”
Ok, so I know that’s a cheap joke to get you laughing before I launch into the sermon, but actually there’s more to my cheap joke than you might think – and I’ll come back to that later.
I wonder how many sermons you’ve heard over the years debating whether or not the Lazarus story ever really happened? - I should imagine that you’ve heard loads of them – I’ve got quite a few of them in my ‘old sermon’ files on my computer at home … And yes, we all know that there’s many problems with the story from a purely historical point of view – and the biggest problem of all is that no one else in the New Testament ever mentions it! You’d think, wouldn’t you, that if Jesus really had raised Lazarus from the dead, smelly rotting all wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy - that Matthew, Mark or Luke or at least St. Paul – who has a great deal to say about rising from the dead – would mention it somewhere. But no, not a dicky bird – not a whiff - So is it really a true story, did Jesus ever really raise Lazarus from the dead? Or did St John just make it all up?
I think at this point – if we could magic St John into our cathedral to ask him face to face – St John would put his head into his hands and say - “You just don’t get it do you – you just don’t understand do you? You just don’t see what it’s all about”
He would say – can’t you see what I was I saying? three weeks ago you had a story of a man who couldn’t work out how to go back into his mother’s womb and be born again … But Jesus was talking about one thing – and poor old Nicodemus was trying to work out how to do something else.
Two weeks ago you had a story about a woman who wanted Jesus to give her nice fresh water so that she didn’t have to go back to the well day after day – when of course he was really offering something else, something much more powerful something that he called living water – eventually she got it!
And last week you had a man born blind –never before has a man who was born blind been able to see again – they said - but there’s seeing and seeing isn’t there – St John would say – either you’re blind to what’s going on or you can see it and it’s not about the quality of your retina!
And here, on this the very last Sunday before Palm Sunday - and it happens just before Palm Sunday in St John’s Gospel as well - here you have a dead man – all wrapped up in bands, stuck in a grave for four days – and miraculously brought back to life - But that’s impossible - all you 21st Century rational Nicodemuses shout out - how can a man who’s been dead for four days come back to life? It’s about as mad as going back into your mother’s womb and being born again, isn’t it.. Exactly shouts back St John, that’s the whole point! Normally it’s not possible – but you have to start looking at things in another way – it’s a sign!
Elizabeth spoke brilliantly last week about miracles being normal things which happen but in the wrong time … it is quite possible to make some blind people see again, it happens every day in hospitals around the world – a woman from my last parish who was born almost blind has just had a cornea transplant and is loving seeing colours and lights and shapes and people. As Elizabeth told us, the miracle is when Jesus by-passes the surgeon and just goes from A to C, without doing B - from illness to cure without the medical treatment!
And here a dead man rises again - and once again - most Christians, in fact most believers in God, believe that dead people live again – That’s exactly what Martha said – I know that he will rise again at the last day…. most religious people of most religions say their prayers, believe in God and believe that when we die we will live again somehow – but when Martha – one of Jesus’ closest friends says this – and when Mary – a women whom Jesus loves and who is really close to him says something similar – he wasn’t actually “deeply moved or disturbed in the spirit” Jesus snorts like a horse! Has Jesus been with them so long and still they do not get it? Even his best friends whom he loves don’t get it? And have we been reading this story all these years, have we been coming to church Sunday by Sunday, and still we don’t get it either … Jesus snorts: ἐνεβριμήσατο
Poor old St John sitting somewhere in an imaginary pew - is holding his head in his hands “Look at the signs” he is saying to us:
Lazarus had been in the grave for two days when Jesus first heard that he was ill. And then Jesus waits – his disciples wonder why he waits – why doesn’t he rush to be by the side of his friend and save him …. But Jesus doesn’t actually get to Bethany where Mary, Martha and Lazarus live until Lazarus has already been dead in the grave for four days. First Two days? Then Four days? And what’s in the middle – well three days … and what happened on the Third Day – with a capital T and a capital D? Easter happened on the third day - Jesus rose gloriously from the dead. For St John this is an Easter Story full of Easter signs…. Lazarus is ill and dies – theologically speaking – before the resurrection, before the Third Day – and Lazarus is raised - theologically speaking after the resurrection on the fourth day…. except of course that he isn’t - that’s the exciting bit ! In real time Lazarus is raised before the resurrection of Jesus … St John is being very clever…. very clever indeed.
“I am the resurrection and the life” says Jesus….. “I am” not “I’m going to be” resurrection life for Jesus, and of course therefore for us, is not what happens to us when we die – resurrection life breaks through into this side of the great divide – right now, here and now - this morning – we are raised to live with Jesus not only when we die, which will happen one day - but we are raised to live with Jesus right now ….. No wonder Jesus snorted when Martha didn’t get it.
Hasn’t Jesus just said in the previous chapter – chapter 10 verse 10 – I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly - eternal life for Jesus is real life, real sight, living water, new birth here and now in this very day to day Montreal life we are living - it’s not only what we will get one day if we’re good!
And so Lazarus comes forth …. and how many people were in the grave with him – well I was in the grave with him for one, and St. Paul was in the grave with Lazarus until Jesus called him out on the Damascus Road, and you were once in the grave with him – and millions of people all around us are still in the grave where Lazarus was – caught in a cold dark damp place and all bound up by cloths of the past, of fears, of pressures and expectations… Come out – cries Jesus with a loud voice – Come out - He said it then – and Jesus stands in front of each one of us this morning – as he stands in front of every person every day – and he speaks to our hearts and he snorts and he cries out “Come out”
Will you love the you you hide if I but call your name,
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same
will you use the faith you’ve found, to reshape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me…
“I am the resurrection and the life - Do you believe this?”
There are graves and binding cloths of fear, and more fear and even more fear…. fears of a sudden and dreadful diagnosis, fear of pain, fear of loss, fear that we’re going to die, fears of growing old and losing control of our surroundings, of our lives and even of our bodies - fears of being lonely, fears of being poor, fears of not being liked, or of being rejected, fears of becoming useless, fears of life going wrong …
And when Martha finally realises what Jesus is going to do – that he is the resurrection and the life – here and now, not just there and then – and that he is going to call Lazarus out into life – to be the Lazarus God made – then she is even more afraid than she was before … “But sir, there is a stench!” I bet there’s a stench … I bet there was a real horrible stinking stench - because there’s always a stench when we come out in trust, and hope and life to be – just as we are - before God – when we are vulnerable, weak, mortal, dependent on others to help us and guide us and take off our binding cloths – and yet no longer fearful but proud because we are alive …… there’s always a stench as other people refuse or reject us, or mock us or just ignore us … or worse …. at the end of the chapter the chief priests and the pharisees were so angry at the raising of Lazarus that they decided to kill Jesus and he could not longer walk about openly. In the next chapter they plan to put Lazarus to death as well.
Will you risk the hostile stare, should your life attract or scare?
will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?
Jesus calls us – each one of us – individually, uniquely, personally - out from death to life – from being bound to being free - to follow him – the resurrection and the life - but he will not force us and no one can do it for us -- We have to choose for ourselves … we have to hear his voice, and like Lazarus we have to come out of our tombs and we have to learn to live - if we are to use the faith we’ve found, to reshape the world around if we are .. to move and live and grow in him and he in us.
and never be the same!
Answering the call to come out from our dead graves and our false lives so that we can begin live abundantly - eternally - will always make people hold up their noses at us and point their fingers at us …. Answering the call of Jesus to come out and be a disciple – a newly born, refreshed, seeing and abundantly living disciple of Jesus is always hard – telling our family or friends that we are reading our bibles, or saying our prayers, or going to church…. other people will rarely understand!
So when you go home this afternoon look around your house - look at the pictures on your walls, look at the books on your bookshelves – look in your diary and see how you live and how you spend your time and how you spend your money…. and If your neighbour or your friend walked into your house and stood next to you is there enough evidence on your walls to show that you are a Christian disciple?
If, on your way home later this morning, you were arrested for being a Christian – as indeed you could be in some countries of the world – would there be enough evidence against you to secure a conviction? Are you guilty?
Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you use the faith you’ve found? will you never be the same again – as you leave this cathedral this morning? Now there’s a challenge!
