Read John 11:32-44
Stuck in the Middle
Today is All Saints’ Day. It’s a day set aside in the church year for us to remember the saints who have gone before us. Now when we say saints we don’t mean just the people that the catholic church recognizes as extraordinary Christians. We don’t mean just the Martin Luther King Jr.s or the Mother Theresas of our time. When we talk about saints, we mean all those who believe in Christ. All Christians are considered saints.
On All Saints’ Day, we remember those Christians who have died in the last year. We celebrate the way God was at work in their lives and the way they gave their lives to the work of Christ. We give thanks for their lives and look forward to the day when we will all feast together at the heavenly banquet. All Saints’ day is one of those bitter-sweet days in the life of the church. There is joy as we remember their lives and the impact they had on us. There’s also joy in knowing that we will one day see them again. But there is also sorrow as we grieve their death and know that it will be sometime before we are with them again.
We believe that God began creation and that God will bring creation to completion. When that happens, we will be reunited with all of God’s people. It will be a day of praise and thanksgiving as all Christians around the world and throughout history join together in worshiping God. But the culmination of creation is not yet here. For the time being we are stuck somewhere in the middle between the beginning of creation and the culmination of creation.
Today’s scripture reading is one of those in-between moments. It’s a time where some cry and some criticize and some hope. It’s a moment where we see how God is at work in the time between death and new life. Mary and Martha are in that in between time. The time between when a loved one dies and is given new live. Even Jesus himself is in one of those in-between moments. This story is right in the middle of the gospel of John and Jesus is in-between this life and the death that awaits him in Jerusalem.
As we read this story, we catch a glimpse of how God is at work in the in-between times. And as we catch a glimpse of how God is at work, we see how we are to live during this in-between time.
One of the first striking things about this story that Jesus does is weep. Jesus knows that he can and will raise Lazarus from the dead. But he still weeps. He sees how deeply grieved Mary, Martha, and the others are over the death of Lazarus. His reaction to their grief is to grieve with them. He doesn’t give them a theological discourse on how Lazarus is with God, or how he’s in a better place. He doesn’t try to comfort them by promising them that they will see him again someday. All those things are true, but Jesus knows that this is not the time for those words. Instead he enters into their pain and tears. He’s willing to live in that in-between moment and to demonstrate that he cares about them by feeling their pain, their grief, and even crying with them.
In this in-between time, there will by weeping and mourning. In this in-between time, there will still be pain and death. There’re still cancer and suicide bombers. There’re still divorce and abuse, there’s still unemployment and foreclosures. There’re still addictions and hunger. In this in-between time, there’re still many reasons for crying and mourning. There is much that we grieve, no matter how strong our faith is or how certain we are that God will redeem everything in the end. Our pain in this in-between time is real. Jesus’ tears in this passage, not only give us permission to cry in this in between time, but also serve as a reminder that God is present with us, even when we are hurting and grieving.
But Jesus does more than just weep with Mary and Martha. Jesus sets about bringing Lazarus back to life. Have you ever stopped to wonder why Jesus asked them to roll the stone away from the tomb? The obvious answer is so that Lazarus could get out after Jesus brings him back to life. But let’s think about this for a minute. Jesus is bringing back to life, a person who has been dead for four days. We’re not talking about when someone dies on an operating table and a few seconds or minutes later the doctors are able to resuscitate them. Lazarus has been dead for four days. His body is already starting to rot and decay, tissue is deteriorating and there is the unmistakable stench of a dead body. Jesus is bringing that person back to life, to a state where the decaying body will once again hold life and operate in a normal healthy way. If Jesus can bring Lazarus back from the dead, if Jesus can make rotting, decaying tissue function and support life, then surely he could just roll the stone away with the wave of a hand, or somehow transport Lazarus’ body to the other side of the stone. If not even death can thwart the power of God, then I know that a simple stone can’t stand in the way of Jesus.
And yet Jesus asks those who are gathered there to roll the stone away. Not only that but he even after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, he asks those who are watching to remove the grave clothes.
It would seem that even during this in between time, we have work to be doing. Jesus does the hard part. It’s Jesus that brings people back from the dead, it’s Jesus that transforms death to life, it’s Jesus that is able to bring healing and wholeness and life to the living dead. Jesus does all that, not us. We don’t raise people to new life in Christ. God does that. But Jesus still gives us a role to play in his transforming work.
That’s the way God chooses to work. God often chooses to involve us, to give us a role to play in achieving God’s purposes. God doesn’t have to, but God chooses to work that way. God chooses to use human agents to bring about God’s purposes. God doesn’t need our help, but chooses to allow us to participate in God’s work in the world. Even though God does the hard part, we are invited to participate in God’s work.
Jesus told the disciples and us to follow him. We’re told to love as he loves, to put others first, to serve rather than be served, and if need be to lay down our lives for others. Jesus doesn’t need our help. God doesn’t need us to roll away the stone. I think sometimes we get it into our heads that we are doing God a favor when we do those things. But really it’s the other way around. God is doing us a favor.
God gives us the privilege of being a part of God’s work in the world. It’s not something to be taken lightly. That’s why we take seriously the membership vows to participate in the ministries of the church. The church is God’s way of inviting us to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. God has chosen to use the church to redeem and transform the world. It’s through the church, not just worshiping on Sunday mornings but by committing ourselves to living in community with one another that we are given the opportunity to love one another, forgive one another, encourage one another, learn from one another, hold one another accountable, and serve one another. It’s through the church that we are given the opportunity to live out the work Jesus gives us in this in-between time.
Jesus invites us during this in-between time to be a part of his transforming work in the world. You’re invited to roll the stone away from the tomb by joining Kairos to visit the prisoner, or taking a meal to someone who is sick. You’re invited to take off someone’s grave cloths by listening to them when they doesn’t have anyone else to talk to or encouraging someone recovering from an addiction. You’re invited to be a part of God’s work transforming the world.
One day God’s kingdom will be present on earth as it is in heaven. Like Revelation tells us, one day God will bring to completion what God started in creation. One day there will be no more death or mourning, no more crying or pain. God will wipe away every tear and will realize our hope in Jesus Christ. One day we will see again those saints who have gone before us, who now rest from their labors. Until then, know that Jesus grieve when we grieve. One day we will feast with all the saints at Christ’s heavenly banquet. One day. Until then, we have a lot of work to do.
Amen.
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