Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you Holy One.
I’d like to invite us all to take a deep breath after those readings.
So that we can take in all that we’ve heard. As I’m sure may be the case for some of you I have a very personal connection to our readings for today. When I was in High School my grandfather died, and I was really struggling with my grief. I was very close to my grandmother who shared with me this passage from Ezekiel. At the time it was one of the coolest bible stories I had heard. I mean God breathing life into a bunch of skeletons, it was something that definitely ignited my imagination and gave me this fierce hope. It was very clear that God wasn’t giving up even if the people had lost hope or turned away from God, died, and became dried bones, here God is saying wait a minute, I am the Lord and I’m not done here. I have the last say and I say I will breathe my spirit into you, you shall live and know that I am the Lord.
I think it is this fierce promise of the living God that stuck with me. Now my grandma didn’t go into any of the deeper meanings of exile or the context of this Hebrew scripture. For her, it was about the promise of God’s presence when our hope or spirit is a little on the dusty side. God is there to breathe life into us. That was what she connected to in the text. As I read it again in our context today, I think it continues to have a lot to say. I think about our modern versions of dry bones things like environmental devastation which can challenge hope, especially for those experiencing devastating poverty, food, or housing insecurity and so many others. As our world and communities continue to change and challenge us and our faith. Our Faith and beliefs continue to be our guide.
As we look at our Gospel text for today, we encounter Lazarus who was ill and then died and we also meet his sisters Mary and Martha. I find it important to note the centering of Women in this text. Bethany was the village of Mary and Martha. So instead of saying Lazarus of Bethany or Jerusalem, he is identified by the village of his sisters. It is also important to note that Martha is the witness to Jesus’ “I am statement”. These statements have been Jesus’ statements about his divinity throughout John’s Gospel. In John 25 Jesus says, “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. Then his question to Martha. “Do you believe this?”
Martha replies, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
This exchange, is Martha’s statement of belief and is the key to John’s Christological narrative. So John’s narrative about the person, nature and role of Christ.
As the narrative moves us toward Lazarus’ tomb we see the encounter with Mary who also says to Jesus as Martha had earlier that if he had been there sooner their brother would not have died.
While it sounds different than Martha’s witness this also feels like belief in the healing powers of Jesus. And then as Jesus gets to the tomb and everyone is weeping, he also weeps for his friend. And we have this powerful image…Jesus wept.
At this moment we see Jesus’ humanity. He is “greatly disturbed and moved” stops, and weeps with those around him.
It is only after he takes this moment to stop and then continues to feel greatly disturbed that Jesus goes to the tomb, says a brief prayer of thanks, and calls Lazarus out of the tomb.
In what I can only imagine was quite the spectacle Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and Lazarus comes walking out still wrapped in the cloth he had been buried in. And those who witness this sign of Jesus’ divinity believed.
I sometimes wonder if it was the raising of Lazarus or Jesus weeping for his friend that made people believe. Or possibly the witnessing of both.
The text just says, many of the people “who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.” The text isn’t clear about what action it is referring to. They witnessed Jesus’ weeping for his friend and made comment about it as well as the raising of Lazarus. Might they have been responding to his humanity as well as his divinity? I know that is what draws me close to this text and what allowed me to reconnect with scripture. Maybe you have an example of something or someone who helped you connect or re-connect with church or your spirituality in some way or helped you see God or Jesus in new or different ways.
Maybe they helped to raise your spirit from a dry bones kind of place. I know my grandmother did that for me more than once over the years as have many other friends, mentors, and loved ones. I was re-introduced to this Gospel text by a good friend of mine in seminary they shared my curiosity about the bible as well as an interest in the ways the bible has been used to harm others. I’d never really been introduced to a vulnerable Jesus before. One who was so grief-stricken by the loss of his friend that he had to stop and weep. But that Jesus might be worth getting to know a little better. As my friend started to help me unpack some of the ways I had learned about scripture and as I began to learn new tools in Seminary, I found the Jesus of this text the one whom people came to believe and it sparked my curiosity to keep learning.
That journey, that curious journey starts somewhere for everyone, and I wonder where it may have started for you. Our Gospel text for today marks a turning point as we begin our movement towards Palm Sunday and Holy Week.
So, as we continue that movement, I invite you to reflect on your faith journey and those who have been a part of it. Our texts today, call us to know God with fierce hope who breathes life into us, and to walk in the footsteps of the divine Christ who also wept at the tomb of his friend.
As we all go about our lives this week my prayer for us is that we find the space for reflection, action, and prayer as we continue our Lenten journey. Amen
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