Lazarus Rising

3-26-23 Lazarus rising.

Good morning One River,

I want to start today by saying thank you to Phil and Lynne for their recitation last week of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. It was amazing to hear the text as the original church there would have. I love being able to see and hear new ways of presenting the gospel message to people. I suspect that’s a form none of us have experienced before. So again, thank you so much for doing that for us all!

Today we’re going to jump back onto the traditional Lenten path on our way to Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. Today we’re going to look at the resurrection of Lazarus and maybe see the similarities and differences from Jesus own resurrection.

There’s a lot of stuff going on during the scene of the rising of Lazarus. I often wonder how much of it we miss when reading through the text. Jesus has conversations with the Apostles, as well as Martha and Mary. At points in the narrative his behavior seems odd to the casual observer. So let’s see if we can dig around a little and see if we can get into some of this stuff.

I want to start with a passage in Ezekiel that is connected to the Lazarus story.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

I love this passage. This paints a truly miraculous picture of the Kingdom. God will raise the dead. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or if I’ve mentioned this before. But these readings are directional. The liturgical calendar is crafted in such a way that they all point us to the upcoming piece of the gospel message that we’ll be seeing next. In this case Easter. Here we are looking at scripture that’s around 5-700 years older than Jesus. Yet it begins to point us toward his resurrection. Today, we’re going to spend most of the time looking at Lazarus rising and that narrative. There’s a lot going on there. But first, I want to just tell you a little of the backstory. The Lazarus story comes from John 11. I’ll read that in a minute. But in chapter 10 we see Jesus in Jerusalem in the temple, or just outside it. Walking and talking with his followers. He gets into a confrontation with the Pharisees because he’s dropped one of the big, I AM statements on them. Directly claiming that he was the son of God. They yell at each other for a minute then decide the best way to fix this is to stone him. But Jesus slipped out of the crowd and escaped across the Jordan river.

I’m not sure how many of you have had the privilege to travel to the holy land, but if you get a chance I highly recommend it. Did you know it’s referred to as the 5th gospel? That’s a new thing I heard recently, at least new to me. But I can see how it’s very much true. Being there really gives you a sense of the bible in context. It gives you the understanding of the scripture in a new depth when you can see and feel the places that we read about every day.

Ok, enough vacation suggestions back to the story. We’re up to the story of Lazarus. John 11.

John 11:1-45

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer 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, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

That was a bit of a long one. But there’s really no way to share the story by breaking it up. Jesus was a pretty bright guy, and I think he could run and chew gum. There are actually a few depths to the story here. So, I’m going to go down one path, then look at the story in a larger context.

By now, if we’ve read through the book of John, we’re familiar with Mary and Martha. Lazarus, we have less on, but it’s clear here that Jesus knows them all very well. So much so, that when Jesus receives a message from the sisters it says, “Lord the one whom you love is sick.” This implies a much more intimate relationship than we may think of when we talk about Lazarus. He wasn’t as well-known as some of the twelve. But the text makes it pretty clear that he was one of Jesus followers.

Here's one of the weirder parts in scripture, until you unpack it. What does Jesus do when he finds out Lazarus isn’t doing well. He says, “This will not end in death.” This is an interesting thought, because if you do the math, Lazarus is likely dead when Jesus utters these words.

Jesus has left Jerusalem, he’s on the far side of the Jordan river. At best, this is between 25-30 miles. Roughly the area John the Baptist was baptizing people. It would have taken a messenger all day to travel that distance, but we learn later on that Lazarus was in the tomb 4 days. That’s the day of travel, two more days, and then one day for Jesus to travel to Bethany. Lazarus must have died almost immediately after the messenger left.

Jesus had to be taking time understanding and cultural significance into his head when he utter “this will not end in death. He wanted to make sure, that Lazarus was out for a full 4 days. Why? Well culturally, one could supposedly be revived after 3 days. You weren’t dead till you were in the grave for four days and dead.

I suspect that would have had to do with medical knowledge not what it is today and people not being able to tell conclusively if you were dead. So they gave them a bit of a buffer to sort of internally work it out. You have a better chance if you were rich like Lazarus and could afford a tomb, then if you were poor and just buried in the dirt. Luckily no one got embalmed so that wouldn’t kill you. They just sort of, put you in the grave and left you alone.

So, Laz is dead, Jesus says, “ok let’s go” and the disciples remind him? “You can’t go back to Jerusalem, they just tried to stone you there.”

Jesus says, “our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.” To which the disciples clearly don’t get the euphemism. And in one of the few clear words from Jesus in scripture, he says “He’s not asleep he’s dead.”

I think that, by itself is telling. Jesus is having a word with his disciples that death in the eyes of God is no more powerful than sleep. This is what he meant earlier when he said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

That is faith in God. Jesus knew he would raise Lazarus from the dead, four days dead. And he knew this would lead to his death warrant being signed. But still, he pursues his role.

The next part jumps up to Bethany and we’re reminded immediately that Bethany is less than two miles from Jerusalem. It’s a bedroom community. Which again goes to the ultimate outcome of this story.

The conversation the takes place between Jesus and Martha and Jesus and Mary is almost identical. Both women say, “If you were here lord, Laz wouldn’t be dead.”

But Martha’s conversation is a bit more involved. She has an excellent way of not really answering the question, or deflecting. Jesus tells her, that her brother will rise. She says, ya on the last day. This is what the Jews thought the Ezekiel passage from earlier meant.

Jesus gives her the “I AM the resurrection, do you believe this?” which she replies, yes lord…. well, I believe you’re the Son of God. – This is not what he asked.

How do we know this was a non-answer? Jump down a little. The ladies take Jesus to the tomb and He (Jesus) says, “take away the stone” open the tomb. To which she replies, LORD he’s been dead four days, he’ll stink.

Jesus replies “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So, he’s calling her out on it. We had this chat; Laz is going to be alright.

Now, a bit of a side note. I think we’ve all heard people say things like “you didn’t believe. Or you didn’t have enough faith.” Belief in this context is not a word that means fact based knowledge. It’s not belief like “I believe my car is white.” Ok that’s not a belief, it’s a fact, and I think we often get facts confused with faith. Faith is trust. I trust that God loves me. Why, because he says so, even though I’ve done nothing to deserve it. Belief is this case is trust, not prescription.

And I’ll let you in on another secret. God knows we don’t have perfect faith too. If he thought, we were capable of perfect faith he wouldn’t have sent Jesus to model it for us. So, for the most part, anyone telling you that you don’t have enough faith, doesn’t understand faith, or they’re trying to sell you something.

Jesus takes to prayer. He prays thanks for the miracle that hasn’t been preformed yet, but He knows will. He says that it’s for us, not for him. And yells “Lazarus come out!”… and out he comes. He commands someone to help him off with the grave clothes.

That’s the end of the section we read, but the next part opens and explains that this directly leads to the LORD’s death.

Every step of the way through this journey Jesus is holding our hands. He knows what’s coming. He knows what he’s going to do and what God’s going to do. And what the Jewish community is going to do.

Jesus is making declarations of life, even while Lazarus is in the grave. He explains to his disciples, even when they can’t get his subtlety. He explains to the sisters, even when they don’t believe. And even in his prayer to God he tells them, this is for you so that you might believe. Not for me, and not for Lazarus.

You know, it’s interesting that in the story about Jesus raising a guy from the dead, you know which character has no speaking lines? Lazarus, the guy that got raised. The story is one of God and Jesus loving abilities despite us, not because of us.

No one at that grave,” Had the faith of a mustard seed”, not one person. But God showed up anyway. No one, in their wildest dreams thought Jesus was going to walk Lazarus out of the grave. But there he went. Foot loose and fancy free.

If you want to know why you should have faith in Jesus, it’s simple. Because he doesn’t need it. He is God irrespective of your faith. He wants it, doesn’t need it. He preforms miracles for us, despite our lack of faith.

It goes back to the rule book. It’s not a simple “If, Then equation”. He’s God, he does what he wants. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have faith, or that we shouldn’t be devoted. But if you think you stymie God’s plans because of a lack of faith…. Then man, what a weak deity you must think he is that you’ve got that much power.

Not only did he do all this without the faith of his followers, he did it knowing conclusively that it would literally sign his death warrant.

Second part….

So the book of John ends: Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

How many of you have ever stopped and really thought about this? It makes sense. We know we don’t really have a complete retelling of every event in the life of Jesus. It makes me wonder, of course what we missed, but it also makes me pay more attention to the details in scripture.

Does anyone know what Lazarus’ Hebrew name was? It was Eleazar. Meaning “El has helped me/us”. This is what I meant when I said I think Jesus can run and chew gum at the same time. Everything I said above is true. But it’s also true that Lazarus was a stand in for Eleazar, the son of Moses who took over for Aaron in the priesthood after Aaron’s own sons messed up and were seen as unworthy. If you remember Eleazar was generally considered a good priest and was even partially responsible for installing Joshua after the death of Moses as the leader of the Hebrews.

That said, he wasn’t perfect. Leviticus records an incident when Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, for failing to eat a sin offering inside the Tabernacle in accordance with the regulations set out in the preceding chapters of Leviticus regarding the entitlement of the priests to a share of the offerings they made on behalf of the Israelite people.

Lazarus was a stand in for this Eleazar. By God allowing him to die and resurrecting him to new life. Jesus was in fact allowing the sinful nature of the priesthood to die with Lazarus and then restoring it to its place in the kingdom. Thus, allowing Jesus’ sacrifice to be perfect in a perfect priesthood.

Jesus always knew he came to be sacrificed on the altar of humanities sinful nature. But he needed to redeem that altar in order to make the gift ritually clean. Once God set the order of forgiveness as a blood sacrifice, the priesthood would need to be clean in order for it to be fulfilled.

Lazarus represented a cleaning of the priesthood. Interestingly, it’s this cleaning of the religious cast that trigger the signing of his death.

We are on our way to the Kingdom, and we’re watching Jesus set the stage with God as his help.

Our God is a great God, a God of Grace and forgiveness. I think it’s important to remember how little we actually have to do with the process. Yes, we need to make a choice to reorder our lives to follow the example set forth by Jesus. Yes, we need to submit to his will. But all the heavy lifting has again been done by the LORD, as we wait patiently for his resurrection day. This is a relationship built out of love and caring. It is not an if, then, mechanistic relationship where God can only work if you give him enough power. He’s God not you. Take the love He offers and respond in kind.

Let’s Pray.