Biblical Text

You can read John 11.1-37 here.

Sermon Video

You can watch the sermon video here.

Sermon Transcript

[Note: The actual sermon will differ somewhat from what I had typed.]

The 19th century Spanish philosopher and litterateur, Jorge Santayana gave us the well-known quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We may have heard a corrupted version, “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.” Recent events in South India have borne out the truth of this declaration.

The past few weeks have revealed a lot about urban planning in India – if we can even honestly use the word ‘planning’ in relation to it. If we step back and look at events, the rains, heavy though they were, were not entirely unbelievable, unexpected or unprecedented for these parts of the world. However, Chennai, which actually has a reasonably good drainage system, suffers today simply because the authorities did not work pro-actively to desilt the drains.

Indian urban development has been plagued by reactionary, short term fixes and patchwork pragmatism, that results in the destruction of the environment, loss of infrastructure, livelihood, health and ultimately life itself.

In today’s scripture passage we see, in Jesus, a person who, because he remembers the past, is able not only not to repeat it, but also to lift condemned people out of it.

I have always wanted to expound from this passage, but have never before been given the opportunity. However, one of my early church memories is related to this passage.

One Sunday, many years ago, someone had preached from this passage and made the claim that, when the sisters tell Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” they were accusing Jesus of murder. It so happens that my dad took offence at this interpretation and challenged the speaker to defend it. We will see, shortly, that the words of the sisters are very, very far from an accusation.

So let us look at our passage. First, in the context of John’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus is the sign that finally proves to be the last straw for the Jewish authorities. This is unlike the Synoptic Gospels. None of the Synoptic Gospels recount the episode dealing with Lazarus. Instead, it is Jesus’ actions in the temple, which John places at the beginning of his narrative, that is the last straw in the Synoptic Gospels. So, for John, there is something about this event that really was too much for the Jewish authorities.

The passage begins innocuously, with a simple declaration that a man called Lazarus was sick. A reader, who has seen Jesus change water into wine, heal a paralyzed man, feed more than five thousand people with a boy’s lunch, walk on water, and give sight to a blind man, will probably be thinking, “Ok. Another healing miracle.” And John allows us to entertain that idea for a while. Not until v. 14, or perhaps v. 11 if you are really astute, does he tell us that Lazarus has died.

Even the way in which John introduces the main characters is strange. And we shall see why shortly. Lazarus is first said to be from the village of Mary and Martha and only later that he is their sister. In fact, Mary is given prominence with regard to the foot washing episode, even though that episode is in chapter 12 of the Gospel. John is relying on word of mouth recognition of these characters. The first century reader would have very likely heard about the foot washing and Mary’s name associated with it. So Lazarus is mentioned in relation to Mary.

Jesus’ response after receiving news of Lazarus’ illness is perplexing to say the least. John tells us, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” A really strange response to someone you love. If someone you loved were ill, would you not go to visit them and do whatever you could to heal them? Why then does Jesus not go?

Jesus tells his disciples plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.” If this were supposed to be an explanation of his actions, it would have been even more perplexing to his disciples than his decision to not go to Bethany right away. How was his not going to Bethany and how was Lazarus’ death going to foster belief in his disciples?

By now the reader would be fully captured by these mysteries. John is a masterful storyteller and we have seen that many times before. From the innocuous beginning declaration of Lazarus’ illness to the point where Jesus finally meets Martha, a whole 20 verses elapse. These are verses filled with tension because the reader knows that Jesus can heal people who are sick. But Lazarus is now dead. What is going to happen? Surely this is a line beyond which even Jesus cannot tread!

When Jesus meets Martha, she tells him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” It is a profound declaration of faith in Jesus’ ability. She is saying that, if Jesus had been there at Bethany when Lazarus was ill, Jesus would have been able to restore health to Lazarus.

Martha is unaware that Jesus intentionally delayed coming to Bethany. All she knows is that Jesus did not arrive before her brother breathed his last. And she believes that, had Jesus arrived before her brother had breathed his last, her brother would still be breathing.

And the reader will be sharing in this belief too because of all the signs that John has recounted before this.

Martha goes on to say, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” What did she believe that Jesus could ask from God in this situation?

When Jesus says, “Your brother will rise again” her response indicates that she believes Lazarus will be raised at the end of days, certainly not right then.

Many Jews then believed what is written in Daniel 12, that everyone will be raised in the resurrection, some to eternal life and others to eternal damnation. But some also believed that those who are living could pray for those who were dead. Perhaps Martha was encouraging Jesus to ask God to include Lazarus among those who were given eternal life. Why would Martha be thinking of this? What prayer for the benefit of Lazarus did Martha think or hope Jesus could make?

Lazarus is a Latinized Aramaic name ‘el-azar’ that means ‘God is my help.’ However, in Hebrew ‘zarat’ means leprosy and so ‘la-zarat’ would mean ‘the leprous one’ and John, who likes word play, perhaps is making a play on words with Lazarus’ name. Perhaps this is why Lazarus is introduced in such a roundabout way.

This also explains why Martha would ask Jesus to pray for Lazarus. He had died as a result of a disease that made him unclean, which meant that he would not have been able to perform any rituals in the temple, especially rituals involving forgiveness and absolution of sins. He had quite literally, from a Jewish perspective, died in his sins. So Martha tells Jesus that she believes he can still pray for Lazarus and Lazarus would be raised to eternal life.

In response, Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life.” I am old enough to have regrets. And there are a few of them. But I also have a few things I am happy and even proud of. One such thing is the names Alice and I chose for our daughters. Prayerna, of course, means ‘inspiration’ in Hindi, but we spell it differently. And Anastasia is the feminine form of the Greek word ‘anastasis’, which means ‘resurrection’. Both the names have given me occasion to explain why we chose them.

Just a couple of weeks back a colleague asked me about their names and I was able to have a conversation about what resurrection is and how it is different from reincarnation.

When Jesus makes this claim, he asks Martha if she believed it. In response she makes the only faith declaration that she can: “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” She just cannot bring herself to accept what Jesus was saying and understandably so. After all, ‘Messiah’ and ‘Son of God’ did not have the same connotations for first century Jews that they do today for Christians. No Jew we know of believed that the Messiah or the Son of God would overturn the tyranny of death.

Soon after, Mary arrives at the scene and repeats verbatim Martha’s initial declaration, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Once again, not an accusation, but a statement of faith in Jesus’ ability.

A short while later we hear a similar declaration from some on lookers. Like the reader, they have been privy to Jesus’ miracles. And the reader, like them, is also at this point asking the same question, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

They ask this because they see Jesus crying and think that it is because Jesus loved Lazarus. It is true that Jesus loved Lazarus. The text tells us this no fewer than three times from the mouths of three different sets of witnesses – the sisters, the author and the on lookers.

But this is not the main reason Jesus cried. No! Rather, he cried because he remembered. John’s Gospel is the only one of the four canonical Gospels that indicates that Jesus was conscious of his existence before his birth. And here, at Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus remembers. He remembers the day when death took control of creation. He remembers the day when the tyranny of death began. He remembers how it was before that horrible day.

And because he remembers he is able to not repeat the errors of all – even of those who, in this very passage, express a remarkable confidence in his ability. For he knows that it is not enough to prevent death but only delay it till it strikes another day. No! That would be a reactionary quick fix, patchwork pragmatism, but not a long term solution.

The long term solution is what he wanted his disciples, and Mary and Martha and the on lookers and the reader to be introduced to.

When he says, “I am the resurrection and the life” he is telling us all the correct order in which things must happen. All the declarations of faith in the passage, and perhaps the unsaid declaration of the reader, do not see the correct order, clinging to Jesus as one who would delay death.

But Jesus will not save us, like he did not save Lazarus, from death. Because, resurrection cannot happen unless death has happened first.

The Christian faith is the only one that takes seriously the question of death, the horror of death. Allow me to quote from sources specific to certain religions. Islam views death to be a natural threshold to the next stage of existence. Hinduism believes that death is not a great calamity but a natural process in the existence of a being. To the Buddhist death is a natural process that underscores the impermanence of life. In Sikhism, death is defined as the end of the time spent by a soul in one species. Even in Judaism death is considered to be a natural process.

Among the major religions of the world, only the Christian faith considers death to be something that is aberrant, something not originally in God’s plan, something that should not be explained away or simply accepted, but something that had to be dealt with decisively.

And so, rather than giving us a patch up job or some quick fix remedy that would only mean that death would raise its head another day, Jesus tells us that, in order to truly experience life – that eternal life for which all of us hope – we must first experience death and then resurrection. For Jesus does not save us from death, but through it. That is the long term solution that he has waiting for us.