Lazarus

This past Sunday, April 2, was the 5^th Sunday of Lent. The Scripture reading was Ezekiel 27:1-10 and John 11: selected verses. The Sermon Title was “Breath and Bones.” The opening hymn was “As Comes the Breath of Spring”.

Sunday’s texts  remind people that with the wind and rain of Spring, a valley comes to life, trees blossom and people’s faith in the continuity of life is renewed.  The Hebrew text is the elder of the two texts.  Ezekiel’s prophetic vision of the Valley of Dry Bones precedes the Gospel text by six centuries. It fathers the Lazarus story and last century’s Negro Spiritual “Dem Bones” which reminds people to hear the Word of the Lord.

Ezekiel prophesied that one day the divided and scattered nation of Israel would one day be reconnected and unified. This was not as easy as “Dem Bones” suggests. The Hebrew people of Judah and Ephraim and Samaria were divided among themselves and Judah and Ephraim mistrusted and held bitter resentment toward “the other” and the Greek and Roman culture that had conquered, enslaved them and sent their leaders into exile. (See Mathew Henry’s Commentary on Ezekiel 37).

The minister on Sunday suggested that all that was needed to resuscitate a valley of dry bones and get them moving together again as one was the breath of God. Then he suggested that the people themselves should huff and puff and make a mighty wind.

Sitting in the pew, I thought. “If the people start huffing and puffing without listening to the Word of the Lord they’ll create a dust storm and the skull will get buried. How then will the skull and the bones of his body ever be found and connected together?”

Sitting down at my desk this week, I asked myself. “Is Lazarus the divided and broken body of Israel?” Is “he the skull that artists depict with Mary Magdalene?” And if he is the skull, is he then the Jewish Messiah? As this thought entered my head,  the passage from John 3:28-29 popped in. In that passage, John says. “I’m not the Christos, the Greek Messiah, but have been sent ahead of him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom.”

Digging deeper into the story of Lazarus buried in the sacred texts of John’s Gospel, one can see how the joy of seeing the Greek Messiah, the Christos, may have blinded people and killed the idea of a Hebrew Messiah. When Jesus claiming to be the Light of the World opens the blind man’s eyes, Mary and Martha become aware of this. They send for the Christos, because they realize their brother Lazarus is the Hebrew Messiah—the Bridegroom—who has has sickened and died. Mary is in tears.

Upon the Christos’ arrival, Martha met him outside and said, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her. “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered. “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her. “I am the resurrection and the life. He wo believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Yes Lord.” She told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

In the Lazarus story, the Messianic Bridegroom, who proceeds the Greek Messiah is dead. By telling readers Lazarus has been dead for 4 days, readers familiar with seeing dead bodies hastily buried in war torn places can easily imagine what a corpse would look like after 4 days. It would have turned black and as Martha says, “Lord by this time he stinketh.”

Martha’s Lord is not worried. He has told his disciples that Lazarus is merely sleeping. He says that this sickness that has come over Lazarus will not end in death.

He admits that Lazarus is dead and says to his close disciples. “And for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go there. And to the rest of the disciples he the Twin adds, “Let us also go that we may die with him.”

Is this a story about faith? Has Lazarus the Father of the Jewish family lost his breath? Is this how he died? Has the Patriarchal Word of God bound his head and body up in scrolls made of linen cloths so tightly that he can no longer breathe, let alone sing and dance?

In Patriarchal culture, the men are the head of the family and the women are the necks. This sounds very sexist today. Patriarchal tradition may try to convince people it is not, saying it is the neck that holds, cradles and turns the head.

But, in the story of Lazarus, it is Mary who goes with the Christos to the place where Lazarus has been buried and it is Jesus Mary, not the Christos who weeps!  It is this Jesus who loves Lazarus. She is the Bride who has the Bridegroom. Make no mistake! She has a head with eyes that see and weep.

Patriarchal language and the dictates of grammar make it nearly impossible to see the Bride as Jesus the Woman who loved Lazarus. In addition, the mud she made with the spit of her own mouth that opened the eyes of the blind man has caused a stink. For the Jews gathered there say, “See how [Jesus] loved him!”  Could not [the Jesus person] who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

As Martha has foretold. Lazarus is a stinker. He is dead. His body is stiff and he is no longer responsive. He can no longer breathe or talk, let alone sing and dance and show his sexual desire for his eternal beloved bride.

The people gathered to witness the raising of Lazarus are stinking mad. They remember the mud. The mud has sullied Lazarus’ bride in their eyes. Surely there was no need to tell people about her carnal affair with the Christos? Surely it must be this truth that has angered and embarrassed Lazarus and caused him and his love for her to wither and die. Moreover, the gathered people have lost faith in her. They think had she remained true to the faith of the Law of Moses, she would not have sinned.

So, Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they [Mary, Martha and the Christos] took away the stone.” They revealed their faith in Lazarus as the living eternal stone and Messianic High Priest who “hears the Word of God” (Hebrew 4:14-16). Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Today, Christians are scattered all over the world and many of them are angry at all the injustices they see in the world. They believe Jesus calls them out as Jesus called Lazarus out and sends them out into the world as they mistakenly believe God sent Jesus out to “change” the world and to condemn the world for its racism, sexism, hedonism, and its idolatrous and tyrannical politics.

The Minister on Sunday din not openly challenge that belief. Rather he concluded the sermon by reminding the congregation that people die and just like Lazarus they get buried. Some get resuscitated only to die with the rest of their generation.

So as people were wondering where their hope lay? The Minister pointed to the cherry blossoms and said. “Go and see the cherry blossoms and enjoy the beauty of the tree.” Quite frankly the Minister’s vision of cherry blossoms left me a bit puzzled. I thought to myself. “how can a blossoming tree arouse people’s hearts and minds?”

The Minister then closed with the words of Paul, saying how nothing can separate us from the Love of God who is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 31-39).

Today as these words reclaim my heart and mind I remember. The Cross is a beautiful tree that blossoms. The Cross gives Martha and people of faith Jesus The Nazarene The King of the Jews. The Cross is a beautiful fruit bearing tree that blossoms and gives the Jews and Gentiles who love her and show their faith in her eternal life.