“Unbind him, and let
him go.”
In
considering today’s Gospel we are without a doubt in miracle territory. Lazarus was well and truly dead. He had been in his tomb for not one or two or
three days—but four long days in a hot climate.
Martha is very clear about the condition of the body, “Lord, already
there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” It is reminiscent of the opening line of A
Christmas Carol:
Marley was
dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his
burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief
mourner. Scrooge signed it…Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Well Old Lazarus
was dead as a door nail. There was no
doubt whatever about that. And yet Jesus
does the surprizing audacious thing—he raises Lazarus from the dead. Indeed there are many surprizing things about
this event. First we have Jesus rather
nonchalantly waiting to answer the request from Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and
Martha, to come to Lazarus’ aid when he was ill. He delays going to see Lazarus. He seems to be saying, “I will delay until he
is dead so I can really show everyone that the power of God is in me and I can
perform the miracle and raise him”. The
next surprizing thing is that Jesus weeps.
He sees the distress that Lazarus’ death has caused Mary and Martha.
When he sees it he weeps. There are only
two times recorded in the Gospel that Jesus weeps.
This is one
of them. Did Jesus not expect that
Lazarus’ death would cause Mary and Martha distress? Jesus is able to know people so fully and
here he is seemingly callous about the distress he will cause by delaying his
return. That is until he is face-to-face
with Mary and Martha’s distress and he is moved and brought to tears. Finally the great surprize is the act of
raising Lazarus from the dead. Many
surprizes—indeed it all amounts to many surprizes wrapped in a puzzle inside a
mystery. All in all it is a miracle
indeed.
What are we then
to make of this miracle? Do we accept
it, as improbable as it is, on face value and add it to the list of miracles in
the bible? After all we are modern
enlightened twenty-first century people who are supposed to believe in science
and not in miracles. What do we do with
all the miracles recorded in the bible and especially all the ones that Jesus
is recorded performing. Then there is
the central mystery of the Gospels—Jesus triumph of death on Easter
Sunday. The miracle of Lazarus is
nothing compared that that. Do we have
to believe in the literalness of the miracles that are recorded in the
bible? Do we try and mythologize them
a la Rudolph Bultmann who tried to interpret biblical events
existentially? Do try to understand them
in an historical context. Do we accept
them as a matter of faith and say, well, if I don’t believe it all then I can’t
believe any of it and what then would I base my faith on?
How to
understand biblical miracles is a challenge for many modern Christians and it
is a challenge that I have struggled with for many years as part of my faith
journey. My approach at this point in my
journey is not to be concerned about the literal facts. Did Jesus actually change the water into wine
at the marriage at Cana? If so, why did
he apparently make enough for ten wedding parties?
If Jesus
drank wine why was there ever a prohibition movement? Was it red or white and was there ever any wine
like it before or since? Did Jesus really
walk on water coming out to the disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee? Did Peter actually also walk on water until
he lost his nerve of his faith? More
controversially, was Mary actually a virgin or was that a mistranslation of the
Hebrew word for young girl? What each of us believes and how we understand
these events is a matter of faith. I do
not want to try and convince you about the facts one way or the other and
whether or not they happened the way they are recorded.
What is
important for me is the truth that is contained in the event and not the truth
of the events. How are we to understand
the truth of the message that is contained in the scripture passage? In today’s account of Jesus raising Lazarus
what can that say to us here today?
The key for
me is the last statement of Jesus, “Unbind him, and let him go.” This is exactly what Jesus is saying to each
of us. We are to unbind ourselves from
the things which bind us hand and foot and prevent us from living the full life
that Jesus calls us to. There are many
things which bind us and prevent us from living the life that Jesus calls us to
live.
One way of
looking at the things that bind us to our present life is to think of it as sin—those
things which prevent us from living fully in Jesus Christ. We may look at other people and believe we
are better than them. We put all our
attitudes that we don’t want to recognize in ourselves on others. They are the problem and I do not have that problem. They are the
ones causing trouble in our church and not anything that I am doing. If only those
people would become Christians like
I am then the world would be more as God wants it to be and how Jesus calls
us to follow him.
If we are to
love our neighbours as ourselves we first have to love ourselves. If we are to do that we need to be able to
acknowledge the aspects of ourselves that we don’t like and don’t want to
acknowledge. If you think of someone who
really gets your goat—who really annoys you, what is it about that person that
causes you to react so strongly? Once
you have identified those characteristics look at yourself. Could it possibly be, in any way that those
things are parts of you that you don’t really want to recognize?
For me one
of the most powerful examples that Jesus showed us is the case of the woman
caught in adultery. Are any of us in a
position to throw the first stone? Are
any of us without sin? I know I am
not. Although I certainly at times have
an impulse to cast that stone and am willing to join in with the other stone
throwers. Of course when I feel this way
I can easily feel I am justified.
Jesus calls
us to love one another and love ourselves.
We need to start by truly loving all those unloved, disowned parts of
ourselves and bring them to Jesus in acts of forgiveness and
reconciliation. In that way we can start
to become the people that God intends us to be.
Amen.
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