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After I read today's Gospel, I wondered what sort of sales pitch I might adopt if this was a good book. Well, four words sprang immediately to mind - words which, for me, take us to the heart of the story.
The Raising of
Lazarus is a tale of intrigue,
insight, passion and friendship.
First, right at the beginning, there is Intrigue. When Jesus is told
that his friend Lazarus is ill he doesn't immediately rush off to see
him. In fact, he delays for two days. He seems to explain
this by suggesting that Lazarus is not in any danger of dying - so they
needn't hurry. Yet two days later he knows that Lazarus had fallen asleep - something the
disciples took at face value until he explained that he meant Lazarus
had died. He then decides that it is all right to risk his life
by going back to Judea where the Jewish authorities had recently tried
to arrest him. Clearly, as the disciples recognised, returning to
Judea would be dangerous.Our Lord's actions are intriguing because they appear to be both indecisive - will he or won't he respond to the news sent by Lazarus's sisters - and callous - not seeming to care - and then there is this sudden change of heart or plan. And it all feels to be deliberately calculated. The intrigue deepens when you realise that this is precisely the case. The death of Lazarus will be used to demonstrate God's glory. He is going to bring Lazarus back from the dead - the greatest miracle he has ever performed and the most significant. For this to be so, he has to be absolutely certain that Lazarus really is dead and that there can be no mistake about this. Two days delay followed by a two day journey is enough for this to be so.
The greatness and significance of this miracle is to be found in the conversation Jesus has with Martha when he gets to Bethany. In this exchange of words we are given Insight into what is really happening here. Martha's If you had been here, my brother would not have died, can be taken as a plain statement of fact or a reproach that he had delayed coming - though if, as she says, Lazarus has been dead for four days, even had Jesus set out at once he would have been too late. Jesus responds that Lazarus will rise again. And this prompts Martha to share her belief in the resurrection on the last day - a deeply theological insight which makes it possible for Jesus to declare his most important statement about himself.
In John's Gospel there are seven sayings that begin with the words I am - and each is a divine claim to be God, because God revealed himself to Moses as the great I am. When Jesus says the I am sayings he is saying - I am God and as God I will act in this way. Of the seven sayings this is the most important because Jesus is claiming to have power over death and the giver of eternal life by being the Resurrection and the Life.
He tells Martha, and us, that if we believe that to be the truth we will never die. Martha is then asked directly - Do you believe this? and her response is a great confession of faith. When she says: I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world, she is making one of the most profound faith statements in the entire Bible. This is a real insight into who Jesus is and the power he has over life and death. This is also the theological prelude to what is going to happen next when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and, even more significantly, when He himself will be raised from the dead after his own entombment.
What I find intriguing is that this discussion was with Martha, the one who was usually too busy to sit at Jesus's feet and is often portrayed as unnecessarily preoccupied and fussy one whilst dear Mary is the contemplative one. Yet it is Martha who saw Jesus as God - which perhaps goes to prove that people who are caught up with the ministry of cooking, cleaning and washing the dishes might well find, as St Teresa insists, that God does indeed walk among the pots and pans and that contemplation and being in God's presence can just as easily happen in the kitchen as in the quiet garden of a retreat centre.
The third and final part of the story is full of Passion. Mary arrives and there is a sudden change in Jesus. He is no longer talking theology, he is sharing anguish and the pain of bereavement. When Mary says the same words to Jesus that her sister had said, if you had been here my brother would not have died, he didn't discuss resurrection, he became deeply moved and he began to weep. So much so that the bystanders said: see, how he loved him!
There is a deep passion and compassion in Jesus at this moment. We are no longer in the realms of theory or a display of God's supernatural power, but in that thoroughly human area where one friend shares the grief of another. Here we are reminded that one of the central truths of that Incarnation is that God really did become like we are and that as one sharing our humanity, he shares our human struggles, sadness and grief. That God is moved to tears is a profoundly amazing thing to grasp. He is showing us in this passage, as elsewhere, that he is passionate about us and is with us in our dark moments as well as our joys.
When tragedy strikes the lives of people it is often asked where God is. When, many years ago now, the coal mountain buried the school full of children in Aberfan, killing them all, it was asked where God was, the answer could only be that he was there in the children under the coal, suffering and dying with them. He was there in the grief and sadness of Martha and Mary and he is there in our grieving , suffering and sadness. His Passion for us is his Compassion - sharing with us in times of perplexity.
This is recognised and accepted by some of those who followed him, perhaps more than others. Which is why they - the women and St John, were there at the foot of the Cross and why they were concerned about a decent burial and why they didn't leave him when he needed their compassion in the midst of their Passion. Which is also why they recognised the meaning of the open tomb on Easter morning. This was Lazarus writ large. This was true Resurrection. But it needs hearts and eyes of faith to recognise the stupendous truth of it.
It also needs something else and it is present throughout the story of the Raising of Lazarus. I mentioned it as the fourth ingredient of this story - that of Friendship. Jesus loved Lazarus and called him not only his personal friend but also, to the disciples, our friend. Martha, Mary, Lazarus were an important part of his circle of friends and Bethany, more than any other place in the Gospel, is the place where any friendship is celebrated; where Jesus can be himself and where he can draw close to those who were specially dear to him.
If we look closely at the ministry of Jesus the most important ingredient in bringing people to his Father's Kingdom is friendship. Indeed, we can easily say that the model of ministry Jesus adopted more than any other is that of Ministry through Friendship. The Gospel draws together people of diverse backgrounds, personalities and temperaments and shapes them into a body or company of friends. And whenever Jesus deals with comparative strangers, either through forgiving or healing he is restoring them to friendship with God. When he is teaching, he is holding before people the immensity of the love of God, which invites friendship with God as a loving response.
In our thinking about Jesus we call him our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Lord, our Master, our Messiah or Christ, but he is also our Friend and our Brother. At the end of today's Eucharist we shall say a prayer which is based on that of St Richard of Chichester in which we call Jesus our Friend and brother. If we look closely at the Gospel, at how Jesus worked there is a lot about turning disciples into friends, or extending God's healing, forgiving, loving friendship to the lost, the bewildered, the unloved. In the stories, such as the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son and in encounters with people like Matthew the tax collector, it is the friendship being shown which truly opens the heart to God.
In his last words to the disciples, recorded by St John, we are told that Jesus no longer calls his disciples servants but friends and there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. If we can spend a little time with the thought that Jesus ministers best through Friendship it can have a lot to say about our own relationship with him. If, at the same time, we recognise that this is the most important relationship which Jesus fosters between us and God and with each other, it may help us to see the Church as a group of people called into a special friendship who are equipped an called to share that friendship with a world in great need.
A Church which is built on divine and holy friendship is a church which sees all as precious in God's sight. It is a Church which does not score points or fight doctrinal battles as if there is only one insight into God's truth. Such a church does not belittle the efforts of others nor does it gossip maliciously or falsely. Such a church simply values everyone and longs to see the best in others. It is a church that is unafraid to walk with Jesus wherever he may lead and it is a church which is prepared to take risks because friends know what it means to go the extra mile and to stand in the most desolate places pouring in love where love is lacking, at whatever cost.
A Church which understands the depth of God's friendship for us is also a Church that will readily respond to the calling of the Lord to follow him, whether it be to Calvary or to the Mount of Transfiguration. Such a Church will see the Holy Week Journey as a response not just of faith but of friendship. We do not go to the foot of the Cross because we want to claim Jesus as our Saviour and Redeemer. We do not go to the Cross because Christ's sacrifice frees us from our sin. We do no wait with the Church in Gethsemane or by the sealed tomb because we feel we have a duty to be there. We do not witness along the High Street because it makes us feel good and self-righteous. We do all this and more because Jesus is our friend and he ministers to us through that friendship. With him we can be our true self and we can dare to love with his love - which for us begins with living him and then all else.
Are we such a Church? Are we in love and friendship with God? How we answer that will say a great deal about us.