Come out!
All Saints’ Sunday
November 7, 2021 (8 AM)
Fr. Tim Nunez
Each of us answers a specific question about our faith: How important is this? We answer it internally as we make some sense about who we are, what our lives mean and even how much we decide to think about that at all. We answer it externally in the ways that it affects the ways we talk and the ways we act in the world. Each Gospel passage challenges us some way, usually pushing us to be better people. We learn to give and forgive, to see the potential in others, to endure temptation and so on.
Today’s Gospel pushes us hard on faith in Jesus.
We’ve jumped into the story a bit late this morning. Jesus had heard his friend Lazarus was badly ill. Instead of rushing to his aid, Jesus waits until Lazarus is dead and buried. Lazarus is 4 days’ dead when Jesus arrives on the scene.
As he approaches, Jesus is met in turn by Martha (busy Martha), then Mary (who chose the better part) then the other mourners. Each of them wants to know why Jesus didn’t come. He asks Martha if she believes Lazarus will rise from the dead. She answers yes, at the resurrection on the Last Day. Jesus replies “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25)
And so we learn something about unanswered prayer. Jesus shows us that we are to have faith first in what Christ will do in the Resurrection ahead of all other hopes and desires we have in faith. That is important to remember. Jesus didn’t grant a special favor for his friends.
Now, instead of saying it again to Mary and the mourners, he will do his Father’s will and demonstrate his power over death.
Before Jesus ever gets to the tomb, we get an extraordinary view of Jesus’ heart for his people, which John gives us in great detail. Jesus touches their grief, their sorrow and takes that on just as he will take on our sin at the cross. Jesus wept. This is more than sympathy or empathy. Jesus is truly with them in their grief and he is truly with us in our grief. If we drew only that out of this passage today, that is enough to know, isn’t it?
Then he comes to the tomb. It is a cave with a stone in front of it. That is clearly foreshadowing Christ’s own tomb. And we will do well to look at that stone and think about what would – would – consign us to death except for Jesus, and what impairs our life today except for Jesus. Age. Worry. Anxiety. Resentment. Depression. Fear. Money. Sin. Physical health. Each of us should give some serious thought to what constitutes our stone, devote whatever they are to prayer and embrace Christ’s command, “Take away the stone.” If we drew only that out of this passage today, that is enough to know, isn’t it?
And we hear Martha, “But it’s going to stink!” Practical Martha. She speaks our practical fear. We are so afraid that if we identify those issues and devote them to prayer, well, they are so embarrassing. If we confess our sins to another human being, we are afraid it will stink.
“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” You see if and when we truly bring all that we are to Our Lord and lay our burdens at his feet, we think it’s going to stink but in truth it becomes beautiful. We lay aside that weight that was dragging us to and through hell, and it becomes the glory of God. If we drew only that out of this passage today, that is enough to know, isn’t it?
“So they took away the stone.”
When Jesus prays in front of the open tomb he teaches us about praying out loud. He’s not doing it for God’s benefit, he’s speaking for the crowd and for us. There is a real blessing in vocalizing prayer. It’s not that God cannot hear our thoughts. Of course he can. But when we vocalize our prayer, even if we are alone, it comes alive. It becomes real sound waves. Sound dissipates but it doesn’t really go away. And if others hear it, it becomes a part of their reality.
Then comes the command. “Lazarus, come out!” It’s done. The dead man is raised, just to this life at that point, but to a new life. Now listen carefully. Put your name there. The stone is gone. Jesus is calling you out of the tomb. There’s just one problem. Lazarus is hobbled, bound by wrappings. What does Jesus say?
“Unbind him and let him go!”
Forgiveness. Grace. Absolution. Reconciliation. Jesus doesn’t want us to suffer the weights of this life forever. He wants us to die to them and be raised to him. Unbound. Free forever. With all the saints, who from their labors rest.
AMEN