Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Lent – Passion Sunday, 26th March 2023: principal reading John 11, 1-45

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee from east to west to be met by Jairus and a small group. Jairus reports that his daughter is ill. They set off but by the time they arrive at the village the little girl is reported to be dead. On arrival Jesus says she is not dead but sleeping. Interesting. ‘Talitha cum’ is uttered (little girl get up) and she gets up and walks about. It is a resurrection from death. (Mark 5, 21-43).

In a village called Nain, Jesus sees a funeral procession. A widow has lost her only son. Jesus touches the bier on which the dead man is lying, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ The young man is raised to life; it is a resurrection from death. (Luke 7, 11-17).

So there are at least two resurrections recorded in the gospels other than that of Lazarus. Resurrections are not restricted just to one person, yet the treatment of the raising of Lazarus is distinctly different as reported in John’s gospel. It is the subject of today’s very long gospel reading.

Bethany is not so far from Jerusalem, as the crow flies. Yet because of the ugly wall of division built by the Israelis, to get from Jerusalem to the village of Lazarus there is now a long detour, and a security check point to pass, so the distance becomes longer.

It is in Bethany that the pilgrim or tourist will be taken to the tomb where the dead body of Lazarus had been placed by his sisters, Martha and Mary. This is a family known to Jesus, and there is more than a passing familiarity, for when Jesus is told that Lazarus has died, he weeps. It is the shortest sentence in the bible – Jesus wept (εδάκρυσεν ό Ιησους).

Jesus had not gone immediately to Bethany – he delays, saying that his friend Lazarus is only asleep, and that he will go to awaken him. Mistaking his metaphor for reality, he has to put it bluntly to them. He is dead.

His delay is an opportunity for some regret and reproach from Martha and Mary. Jesus had healed so many sick people after all, and had he been there sooner he could have healed Lazarus of his sickness. All of this is too literal for what is about to happen. All the conversations only delay the climax of the episode. Standing before the tomb, with the door opened and the stench noticeable, Jesus speak with an economy of words, as he has done in the other resurrections already mentioned. ‘Lazarus, come out!’.

Imagine the scene around the doorway of the tomb – Martha and Mary standing there, friends, family, villagers, the disciples of Jesus, all waiting to see what happens. Gasps of breath; eyes wide open in disbelief; mouths dropped open with amazement. Lazarus walks out of his burial chamber. ‘Unbind him, and let him go’.

Despite other resurrections of dead people recorded in the gospels, it is this resurrection that gets the greatest treatment by a gospel writer. There is something highly significant about Lazarus and his family – almost like a cycle of stories that surround this man. In the church where I was previously there was a series of stained glass windows showing scenes from the Lazarus cycle.

In the Orthodox tradition the Saturday before their Palm Sunday is called Lazarus Saturday and the story of his resurrection is repeated year after year as something of a prototype of what was to happen just a week later on Easter Sunday, THE Resurrection day.

‘Lord, you came to Lazarus’s grave and called him by name, to assure your disciples of your resurrection from the dead. Hell then was robbed: it gave up him who had been dead four days, as he cried out to you: ‘Lord whom we bless, glory to you.’ (Compline, Orthodox L,HW and Easter, Wybrew, SPCK p84).

Yet there is a very clear difference between these resurrections performed by Jesus, and his own. Jairus’s daughter may have been raised from the dead, but later she would die – illness, old age, accident. The son of the widow at Nain would die at some point, and even the dramatic and well documented Lazarus will one day again die.

Although the resurrection of Lazarus may point towards Christ’s resurrection – a foretaste or a pre-curser – it is the death and resurrection of Christ that is unique for his resurrection is to eternal life, a risen life that we will celebrate yet again in two week’s time, remembering of course that the risen Christ is with us always, in baptism, in eucharist, in life and in death.

A bit later this morning St. Paul’s will have its Annual Meeting. The Agenda is, as always, of interest but rather mundane. It is the Annual Meeting of an Organisation, and it has to be done to fulfil the requirements of the institutional church. However, we should not forget that we are the Body of Christ, the risen Body of Christ, not an institution, but the physical presence of our living Lord, called proclaim in life and word the good news to all who have ears to hear. Like Christ says to Lazarus, ‘Unbind him, let him go!’ he says also to all of his church. Be unbound, be freed up in the gospel life. As we move into reflecting again on the Passion of our Lord we prepare ourselves to go into the community as Easter people.