the fifth sunday in lent: lazarus

the calling of lazarus from the tomb, the unbinding of the dead man, is absolutely central to the gospel according to john, and to much of how followers of christ understood his accomplishment as the messiah.

the lectionary reading, john 11:1-44 or 45, tells the story, and it is a wonderful story. but to see how important this story is we must look also at all of chapter 11 and at least the first eight verses of chapter 12.

so, first, the story: jesus, on "the far side of the jordan [from jerusalem] . . . in the district where john had been baptizing" (john 10:40) receives a message that his friend, "the man he loves," is sick. at this point i can do no better than to quote john, the language of this passage is so packed:

"on receiving the message, jesus said, 'this sickness will not end in death, but it is for god's glory so that through it the son of god may be glorified.'

jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus, yet when he heard that he was ill he stayed where he was for two more days
before saying to the disciples, 'let us go back to judaea.'
The disciples said, 'rabbi, it is not long since the jews were trying to stone you; are you going back there again?'

jesus replied:
'are there not twelve hours in the day?
no one who walks in the daytime stumbles,
having the light of this world to see by;
anyone who walks around at night stumbles,
having no light as a guide.'

he said that and then added, 'our friend lazarus is at rest; I am going to wake him.' the disciples said to him, 'lord, if he is at rest he will be saved.' jesus was speaking of the death of lazarus, but they thought that by 'rest' he meant 'sleep'; so jesus put it plainly, 'lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. but let us go to him.' then thomas-known as the twin-said to the other disciples, 'let us also go to die with him.'" (njb)

jesus, although he clearly loves this little bethanite family, does not act primarily from his own emotions, but for god's glory. nor it is an abstract glorification of god or the son of god that is his motive. jesus acts as he does "because now you will believe." (v.15) even as the father gives his son to death for the salvation of the world, so the son gives his friend to death for his followers' belief in that salvation. eternal life does not come from the avoidance of death, but by passing through death. so thomas corrctly says, "let us also go to die with him."

"i am the resurrection.
if anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die." (vv.25-26)

jesus asks martha, "do you believe this?" "yes, lord, she said, "i believe that you are the christ, the son of god, the one who was to come into the world."(vv.26-27) when he asks that the stone be rolled away, martha says, "by now he will smell; this is the fourth day."(vv.39-40) jesus replies, "have i not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of god?"(v.40) then the act itself: to lazarus jesus cries, "in a loud voice, 'lazarus, here! come!"(v.43) the dead man comes out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth around his face. jesus said to them, 'unbind him, let him go free.'"(vv.43-44)

reading these words i cannot help but think of the binding of isaac. (genesis 22:1-18) we often read that story, with "a ram caught by its horns in a bush" (v.13) and leap the 2000 years from abraham in the twenty-second chapter of genesis to the nineteenth chapter of john's gospel, with the ultimate provision by the holy one of a sacrifice, doing so by belittling the 2000 years of history of abraham's children, who are sacrificed in the literal sense of the word: they are chosen to be a holy people, bound by torah to a way of life which often seems hardly to bless them at all, but which ultimately will bring salvation "for the nation [of israel]--and not for the nation only, but to gather together into unity the scattered people of god." (john 11:52)

the unbinding of lazarus, more dead even than abraham and sarah who were "as good as dead" (hebrews 11:12) both fulfilled the confidence abraham had "that god had the power even to raise the dead (hebrews 11:19) and transferred the role of blessing all nations (genesis 22:18)from the "descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore" (genesis 21:17)to the one of abraham's sons who is "of the same order as melchizedek" (hebrews 7:11) and as the author of the letter to the hebrews so clearly understands, ". . . any change in the priesthood must mean a change in the law as well." (hebrews 11:12)

the unbinding of lazarus sets more than one dead man free.

it also sets in motion the sentence jesus had alluded to in the third chapter of john ("no one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe in him is condemned already"[v. 18]) and which he announces as a present event in the twelth chapter ("now is sentence being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be overthrown."[v.31])

following the unbinding of lazarus the jews who see the event are clearly divided: "many . . . believed in him, but some went to tell the pharisees what jesus had done." (john 11:45-46) the chief priests and the pharisees decide jesus must be put to death.

but six days before the passover, mary of bethany, having seen the glory of god in jesus' unbinding of her brother, will anoint jesus, marking him finally, just before his death, as the literal messiah, the christ, the anointed one of israel. (john 12:1-4)