Today’s gospel reading, which I have expanded to include most of yesterday’s story of Mary and Lazarus depicts two of three members of a family from Bethany. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus might just be belief personified at least according to John.
Before what we heard this afternoon, Martha hears that Jesus is near and does not wait in her household, but seeks out Jesus in the streets. The subsequent conversation enlightens the characteristics of a believer in the face of life and death. Martha greets Jesus simultaneously challenging him and illuminating her belief in him, “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.” She longs to be reconnected with her brother, but thinks this will happen through the Resurrection on the last day. When Jesus makes a profound confession, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” Martha is able to make a personal response looking Jesus in the eye and saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” Martha takes one form of a believer, and when we confidently go out to meet our Lord we like Martha personify belief in Christ.
Mary is called by her sister to go and find Jesus. She does not hesitate to respond to this calling, as she gets up quickly and goes to him. The interaction that Mary and Jesus have depicts another way of believing. She uses the same words as her sister’s to greet Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Instead of following up with confident words of belief, she weeps. Mary’s response is not a display of disbelief, rather it is a glimpse of the inner pain that accompanies death and loss. Jesus does not tell her that Lazarus is in a better place, nor does he attempt to take away her pain with a cliché phrase of false comfort, nor does he make a theological statement, instead Christ joins in the weeping. Mary walks with Jesus to her brothers tomb to continue in her grief process, not knowing what will happen next. Mary, displays another form of a believer and when we weep in grief, frustration, or anger we again personify belief, and Christ weeps with us.
Lazarus does not seek out Jesus in the same way as his sisters, rather Jesus seeks him out. This interaction displays another shape of believing. In this story we may focus upon Lazarus’ natural death, yet it is also about his emotional/spiritual disconnection from his friend Jesus at the time of death. Jesus calls out Lazarus from the darkness of his tomb, and any doubt in Jesus as the Messiah is overcome when Lazarus shakes off all disconnection and death to respond to this call. Jesus calls the community to unbind him. Lazarus is a believer like his sisters, and I believe even in our disconnection and spiritual death we too personify belief.
Many believed through Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead, but the Pharisees, the religious elite of the day, worried that Jesus would cause a revolt that would bring the Roman Empire’s wrath upon them. The Chief priests and Pharisees did not want to shake the status quo, as life was comfortable to them. More Roman troops would diminish the power that they had, so Caiaphas, speaking as the high priest, offered to his fellow temple leaders a solution. Instead of letting the believers of this upstart “Messiah” gain too much momentum and fervor, let us have this one man killed instead of our whole nation. What Caiaphas did not realize in this statement that he was prophesying in the name of the Almighty God. The death of Christ would call all the disparate Children of God together as One Body to believe in the Son that God sent to earth. What does it mean to believe?
To believe is to run out to meet our God. To believe is to weep when we are grief stricken and to know that Jesus weeps with us. To believe is even to be spiritually dead and to allow for Christ to raise us and for our community to unbind us. To believe is to see that even through the fear of losing the status quo and the systematic sin that took Christ to the Cross God’s Will is accomplished. These signs are written so that you may come to believe in Christ Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment