„When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and
\nsaw him, she fell at his feet and said, \u201cLord, if you had been
\nhere, my brother would not have died.\u201d When Jesus saw her weeping
\nand the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply
\nmoved in spirit and troubled. \u201cWhere
\nhave you laid him?\u201d he asked. \u201cCome and see, Lord,\u201d they
\nreplied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, \u201cSee how he loved him!\u201d But
\nsome of them said, \u201cCould not he who opened the eyes of the blind
\nman have kept this man from dying?\u201d Jesus, once more, deeply moved,
\ncame to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. \u201cTake
\naway the stone,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, Lord,\u201d said Martha,
\nthe sister of the dead man, \u201cby this time there is a bad odor,
\nfor he has been there four days.\u201d Then Jesus said, \u201cDid I
\nnot tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?\u201d So
\nthey took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, \u201cFather,
\nI thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but
\nI said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may
\nbelieve that you sent me.\u201d When he had said this, Jesus called
\nin a loud voice, \u201cLazarus, come out!\u201d The dead man came out,
\nhis hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his
\nface. Jesus said to them, \u201cTake off the grave clothes and let him
\ngo.\u201d“ (NIV)<\/p>\n
A COMING-OUT PARTY NOT TO BE MISSED<\/strong><\/p>\n All of us like a story with a surprise in it. Current best sellers Today\u2019s Gospel lesson for All Saints Sunday has surprising and Surprises we may have forgotten in a best-selling story <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting first of all because here we see John portraying Furthermore, Jesus\u2019 indignance is interesting because of what There are a good many people, you and me included, who should not be This week an Egyptian Christian friend of mine told me the painful Three weeks ago a little ten-year old girl, my niece\u2019s daughter, In a village in the occupied territories of Israel there is a young This is the story John is telling in narrating the Lazarus story. In Death comes out on All Saints Sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a great text for All Saints Sunday because it seeks to create What we are really doing is celebrating that the power of death is done One of the dramas written by the great American playwright, Eugene The fear in-between! Wow. How defeated it sounds! This is a coming-out
\nare full of them. Mystic River, <\/u>now also playing as a film in
\ntheatres, is the story about three boys who grew up together in the Italian
\nneighborhood
\nof Boston. After they are married and have children, one man\u2019s
\ndaughter gets murdered and he\u2019s convinced that his childhood chum,
\nDave, killed her. So he kills Dave — only to discover (and we discover
\nit with him) that he killed the wrong man! In The DaVinci Code<\/u>,
\na brother and sister who were separated in youth finally rediscover one
\nanother,
\nas they also learn, shockingly, that they are the last-living blood descendents,
\nget this, of Mary Magdalene and Jesus of Nazareth! Millions of people
\nhave bought these books\u2014and are enthralled by the surprises, not
\nto mention the incredible things they are sometimes being asked to accept.<\/p>\n
\nshocking elements in it as well, but I wonder if we haven\u2019t allowed
\nthis story to become somewhat prosaic, stale. John, a master story teller,
\nwants his readers to grasp the context in which Jesus of Nazareth is
\nliving, teaching and challenging. As he leads the reader toward Jesus\u2019 denouement<\/u> (the resolution of his life\u2019s mission, the crucifixion, which John
\nlikes to call Jesus\u2019 \u201cglorification\u201d), the author relates
\ntwo events which take our breath away. First of all, we learn that one
\nof Jesus\u2019 best friends has died and, after four days, Jesus goes
\nto be with the family. As he arrives, a typical hysterical middle-Eastern
\ncommotion is taking place, the traditional seven days of \u201cbig-time\u201d mourning.
\nAs he experiences this, John gives the famous line about Jesus\u2019 weeping
\n(\u201cshortest sentence in the Bible,\u201d we have been told), and
\nthose gathered think it\u2019s because Jesus loved Lazarus so much.
\nGiven what we know about Jesus\u2019 relationship with Mary, Martha
\nand Lazarus, his love for them was no doubt real. But the language and
\nthe sentence order suggest that Jesus cries because he\u2019s so upset–
\nthe word means \u201cindignant (embrimasthai<\/u>)\u201d– at the hopelessness
\nwith which everyone is treating the situation. Isn\u2019t that interesting?<\/p>\n
\nan empathetic or distraught Jesus to his readers. His whole story is
\ndeveloped to show that knowing Jesus is knowing the mind of God (\u201cHe
\nwho has seen me has seen the Father\u201d 14:9). Although his unique
\ncommunity of supporters may have understood this Hebraic sentiment, Greek-speaking
\nreaders could have been shocked to hear that God can show compassion
\nor anger or pain. For the Greek mind, God was passionless, apathetic,
\nkind of cool!<\/p>\n
\nhappens next. One might assume that Jesus would now go to see the family
\nin Bethany or spend time commiserating with friends. No one, least of
\nall Jesus\u2019 disciples who are concerned that he took so long to \u201cget
\nup and go,\u201d can expect what\u2019s on Jesus mind. Arriving in
\nBethany, he says to the dead man in the tomb, \u201cCome out.\u201d Jesus
\nwho is tired of all the despair says, \u201cLazarus, come out!\u201d Jesus
\nwho is on his way to look death in the face himself says, \u201cDeath,
\ncome out!\u201d Who could have imagined such a crazy thing! Is this
\na surprise for a best-selling story or what! This is a \u201ccoming-out\u201d party
\nnot to be missed!<\/p>\n
\nmissing this party. Let me tell you about some of them, and then consider
\nwith me why this is a great text for All Saints Sunday.<\/p>\n
\nstory about his Armenian mother and her sister who escaped by foot from
\nEastern Turkey during the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks
\nin 1918. His mother was an infant and her sister who carried her was
\neleven. They left at night because their parents and two brothers had
\nbeen butchered along with all the men in the village in one of the least
\nrecognized crimes against humanity in this century. And this story haunts
\nthem to this day; it imprisons them psychologically and spiritually.
\nEach day they die a little under their burden. And Jesus says to them, \u201cCome
\nout.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ndied suddenly of an Arterio-Vascular Malformed Mass (AVM). She had had
\nthis congestion of veins and arteries in the brain since birth, but no
\none knew it, much less had ever heard of the malady. Everyone cried and
\nis still crying. Savannah was deprived of her youth, her parents of a
\ndaughter, her friends of a playmate. It was all too unexpected, too unpredictable,
\ntoo much like\u2026 \u201cdeath,\u201d which, of course, it was. And
\nto the parents and relatives and friends, Jesus says \u201cCome out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPalestinian girl who is troubled because members of her family were killed
\nin an Israeli raid. Her future is shattered, her hopes and dreams destroyed.
\nHer feeling is more than despair; it is more like hate. Death has no
\nmeaning for her anymore as it envelops her with plans for suicide and
\nrevenge. To her, Jesus says \u201cCome out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nhis day, the Saducees, a political party which had made its peace with
\nthe Roman occupiers, did not believe in the resurrection. For them, death
\nwas the end of the matter. But Johns tells us that Jesus claimed to be
\nthe \u201cresurrection and the life\u201d and those who believe in
\nhim will live and never die. (11:25). This is why he is so upset at all
\nthe hopelessness, the wailing without end.<\/p>\n
\na coming-out party for death in all its forms. On this day, we traditionally
\nremember the deaths and the lives of those who have gone before us. All
\nSaints (Nov. 1) has been a celebration of martyred Christians since the
\n3rd century, and All Souls (Nov. 2) followed it for the last 1000 years
\nas a remembrance of all the faithful departed. In the Lutheran Church
\nhere in the United States, we have combined both celebrations and we
\nremember, sometimes with appreciation and emulation, and, yes, with tears,
\nnot only martyrs but all in this great priesthood of all believers who
\nare living, as we love to say, in the Church Triumphant. We may call
\nout their names and be moved to have their presence named among us once
\nagain here today, but there is more to this coming-out party than naming
\nnames and calling to remembrance.<\/p>\n
\nfor them\u2014and for us. The power of death which lingers, which beckons,
\nwhich overwhelms, is done for the people of God. We need to hear, on
\na day like All Saints, that those who live in the Lord cannot be \u201cdone
\nin\u201d by death. We need to know that Jesus still weeps for us if
\nwe allow grief, despair, or disappointment to hold its sway in the midst
\nof life. We need to hear him say to the death at work in us also, \u201cCome
\nout!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nO\u2019Neill, may not be that well known to us and, therefore, somewhat
\nof a surprise in view of what we are exploring here together. He wrote
\na play called Lazarus Laughed in which everything we\u2019ve already
\nmentioned took place. However, after Jesus said \u201cCome out\u201d to
\nLazarus, after Lazarus had returned to his family and friends, he couldn\u2019t
\nstop laughing. It was annoying to people. Perhaps you have known types
\nlike this who have this disturbing kind of laugh which seems to pop up
\nin odd places– when you meet and before anyone has said anything– when
\nthere is a lull in the conversation\u2014when a story is told that makes
\nno sense. Lazarus laughed!<\/u> And because people began to wonder if he knew
\nsomething which they didn\u2019t, he finally ended up in the play explaining
\nhis situation to the Emperor Caligula who probably said something like \u201cwhat\u2019s
\ngoing on, Laz?!\u201d \u201cDeath is dead, Caligula, death is dead!\u201d Lazarus
\nresponds. There is only the present and the future\u2014 and death is
\nthe \u201cfear in-between.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nparty not to be missed. Aren\u2019t you glad you came today? This is
\na day to remember all those, known and un-known, who have died in Christ.
\nMore than that, it is a day to celebrate that the future is forever open
\nto God\u2019s people because death\u2019s power is done. Yes, we cry
\nat loss, but not as those who have no hope. (1 Thess. 4:13). Yes, it
\ncan happen, that the details in a day can be more than depressing, like
\ndeath itself. But Christians can\u2019t wait for the surprise in the
\nstory, the moment when the sun rises over the hilltop. It\u2019s that
\nmoment when death is called-out from each of us, and we know we can live
\nagain. It\u2019s that moment when the Good News of God\u2019s love
\nin Jesus lays claim to our mind and spirit. It\u2019s a moment like
\nnow!<\/p>\n