April 10, 2011 - Lent 5A

Jesus Comes With Power to Destroy Death
John 11:1-45
Lent 5A – April 10, 2011

This past week in confirmation class, one of our kids asked me a question. And that question was: “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?”

If you could ask God one question, what would it be?

Well, he had actually asked me that the week before, and I told him I needed some time to think about it – and then promptly forgot all about it, so my answer was a little off the cuff, but basically, on the spur of that moment, the question that came to mind was, “Why does so much bad stuff happen?”

Now you may or may not remember that I brought that up a few weeks ago – and I taught you a new theological word to use at cocktail parties. But if you've forgotten it, the word for that kind of question is “theodicy”. It's the question of why a good, loving, all-powerful God allows bad things to happen in the world – things like earthquakes and disease and poverty and war and abuse of all kinds.

And I told the kids, & would have explained it better if I'd had more time, that I know there is no real good answer to that question. There are answers, but none that totally satisfy; none that quite answer the question we'd like it to be answered. And so we face the reality that parents of newborns have to suffer the anguish of their babies undergoing open-heart surgery just days and months after they enter the world, and that lots of parents don't have the resources to feed their children what they need to survive, let alone grow to their full potential, and millions of people continue to be without food, water, or electricity due to that earthquake and its aftereffects in Japan, and that cruel dictators in many places in the world cling to power with ferocious methods that defy the imagination. These and a multitude of other situations big and small in scale & numbers of people affected take place every day, and we wonder: “Why, Lord?” Why, when we know and trust and believe that you could do something about all of these situations, do you wait? Why don't you come right away to help us? Because if you had been here, none of this would have happened! We wouldn't be suffering the way that we do.

Mary and Martha knew these questions, knew them up close and personal, the way they knew Jesus up close and personal. We don't know all that much about Mary and Martha and Lazarus – don't know how they met Jesus, don't know what it was about them that makes John describe this family of sisters and one brother as people Jesus loved. But the Fourth Gospel makes sure that we know that Jesus did, in fact, love them. And still, even though Jesus loves them, “after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was” (vs. 6).
Jesus stayed, knowing that Lazarus was sick. Jesus stayed, even though the sisters had sent him a message. Jesus stayed, although he knew very well what their message didn't come out and say – please come, come now, come quickly. And yet, Jesus stayed.

And Lazarus died.

When Jesus gets there, it's too late. Lazarus is dead and gone, sealed up in a cave with a stone rolled against its entrance. And the sisters, both Martha and Mary come to Jesus and say, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.” If you had showed up just a little sooner, Jesus, you could have saved him. You could have prevented this whole awful mess from happening. And underlying that – both the pain of their loss, and the hint of accusation. Why didn't you come Jesus? Why did you let this happen?

It's normal and natural for us to want Jesus to swoop into our lives like some kind of superhero and save the day just in the nick of time, to want him to keep us & the ones we love out of harm's way, to keep trouble from ever touching our lives. The world doesn't work that way – but that doesn't mean that he has abandoned us. It doesn't mean that he has forgotten us. When the dark times come, it doesn't mean that Jesus has left us to fend for ourselves. Just like in this gospel story, it may sometimes feel that he comes too late, that he comes when the situation has gone beyond the point of no return – but he does come. We hurt when we feel like Jesus is dragging his feet, taking his sweet old time, because we cannot see the whole scope of it. We can't see in advance what will come out of it – we can only see moment by moment. But I'm reminded of a gospel song that goes, “He may not come when you want him, but he's always right on time.”

“He may not come when you want him, but he's always right on time.”

That's what Martha and Mary and the whole crowd with them discover. Jesus may not have come exactly when they wanted him, but he does come. And in God's timing, Jesus shows up right on time. He finds them weeping, and he weeps too. Jesus weeps with us. He enters into their anguish & into our anguish and feels it as his own. And just when all hope seems gone, Jesus acts, as only he can. He comes with power - for he is the resurrection and the life – not just in some future, everlasting day, but right here and right now, in this present moment, Jesus is the bringer of new life. He is the One who has the power to bring light out of darkness because he is Light. He is the One who has the power to bring hope out despair, because he is Hope. He is the One who has the power to bring life, even out of death, because he is Life! Even when it seems that the only thing left to look forward to is the promise of what lies beyond the grave, even when our circumstances seem beyond the possibility of recovery, even then, especially then, though we cannot see or even imagine how, Jesus is at work. It is precisely in those dead & gone situations that Jesus' power shines most clearly – for Jesus has power even over death itself.

It's only a little bit ironic that Jesus says that Lazarus' illness does not lead to death – because not only does Lazarus die (only to be brought back to life), but it is this incident, this death-defying act, that leads the Jewish leaders to make up their minds to find a way to get rid of Jesus once and for all. It is the giving of life that will cost Jesus his own life. But because he died and rose again, we know that Jesus has ultimate power of life and death. There is nothing in heaven or on earth more powerful than he – and he comes to the tombs of our lives, calling us by name, calling us to leave behind the bonds of death and step into his new life. Thanks be to God.

Amen.