Lent 5-A, March 9, 2008According to Jewish custom there is no embalming the dead. Immediately after death occurs, and before sunset, the body is anointed with oil and spices, wrapped in a linen cloth and placed into a tomb. In today’s Gospel by the time Jesus arrives at the gravesite, Lazarus has been dead for four days. He orders the stone covering the tomb to be rolled back. But Martha, the practical sister, immediately intervenes and warns Jesus the body probably stinks to high heaven and he should do no such thing. That is what I find so interesting about this story. For in retrospect I think Martha truly does not know what she is saying. In fact, she is saying more than she realizes.
Although she loves her brother, she wants Jesus to leave well enough alone. Like Mary, she believes somehow they will be reunited with Lazarus in the resurrection of the dead. If Jesus goes through with what he has in mind, not only will there be a real stink when the stone is rolled back, he actions will raise an even bigger stink. In fact, he raises such a stink that he is eventually crucified.
Robert Capon in his marvelous book The Man Who Met God in a Bar basically concludes that the resurrection of Lazarus was the miracle that was the straw the broke the back of those who wanted to kill Jesus. There were good explanations of how Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus and the widow of Nain’s son from the dead. Maybe they were only in a coma. But raising a dead-as-a-door-nail person, one who had been in the grave four days and whose body had already begun to deteriorate, that, says Capon, could not be ignored.
Nothing has changed, has it? My suspicion is that in each of our lives there have been times when we have raised a stink. We asked the wrong question, opened the wrong door, helped the wrong person – at least in the opinion of other people. We thought we were doing the right thing when we did what we did. We never realized our actions or words would raise such a stink. But they did. And as with the raising of Lazarus, after that everything changed.
When we say or do what we believe we should, we often raise a stink. But that goes hand in hand with being faithful, fulfilling our baptismal promises, living out Matthew 25. As Martha with Jesus, so others with us: when they tell us that if we insist on doing what we want to do, we will raise a stink, what they are saying to us is, "Don’t do it." Perhaps Martha knows more than for which we give her credit. Perhaps, as Robert Capon would conclude, she knows that if Jesus raises her brother, he will raise such a stink that nothing will ever be the same. He does. And it isn’t.
Nevertheless, even if, as Capon surmises, that this was the deed that insured Jesus's death on the cross, the question still arises: why raise Lazarus from the dead? Jesus still would have been killed sooner or later. He was causing too much trouble with the authorities. Besides, Matthew, Mark and Luke don't recount this incident at all. As far as they were concerned, the Pharisees and Saducees already had enough ammunition to justify putting Jesus to death.
Even more, if eternal life comes only in death and if Lazarus was already living that life having been dead four days, why bring him back to this life? Why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead? To tell you the truth, I don't know. I cannot give a good theological reason for Lazarus's resurrection, but I can give a few good semi- or quasi-theological reasons.
The first is that resurrection can always take place in this life. No matter how dead we are inside, no matter how spiritually or emotionally dead, resurrection is always a possibility. Always. It seems to me that what this miracle is saying to you and to me is that we can always be brought back to life.
No relationship with another is so dead that it cannot be resurrected. It may not be restored to what it once was, but it can always be resurrected. No matter how defeated we may be or feel we are, we are not dead. We can be resurrected. No matter how dry the bones, as the reading from Ezekiel paints the picture, flesh can always be added and resurrection can take place. To paraphrase that old spiritual, "dem bones can rise again." Can rise. No matter how dead a church, a community, a person, resurrection is always a possibility – if we want it.
You see, when we raise a stink, we inevitably raise the dead. We cause resurrection to happen. We cause new life to happen. New life does not happen if we want to leave well enough alone, if we are afraid to roll back the stone that keeps "well enough alone" buried inside. New life does not happen if we are afraid that others will be upset by the truth, by loving actions, by justice and mercy, by upsetting someone. New life does not happen if we are afraid to make a stink, or if we are worried how bad it will smell.
The second truth that the resurrection of Lazarus makes known is that resurrection does not take place alone. It cannot happen simply by our wanting it to happen. We need help. Maybe I am reading into what took place; but before Jesus called Lazarus forth from the tomb, the stone sealing the tomb, the stone closing in death, had to be rolled back. It had to be rolled back by those who wanted Lazarus to be resurrected. If Lazarus's friends had not agreed to be part of his resurrection, if they had refused to roll back the stone, Lazarus would not have been raised up. If Martha and Mary had said to Jesus, "Lord, leave him alone. We know he is with God right now and we will join him in death," Jesus would not have raised Lazarus from the dead. I am convinced of that.
And after he was raised up and had come out of the tomb, the people first had to be his hands before Lazarus could use his own hands. They had to untie him and set him free. The next step was up to Lazarus.
Resurrection in this life, giving flesh to dead and dry bones, is never easy. Many times it never happens because there is a missing ingredient. Sometimes there is no desire for resurrection. Sometimes there is no willingness to do what needs to be done to make resurrection. Sometimes it is simply not God's will.
But we discover whether or not resurrection is God's will only after we have decided that what we want is resurrection, only after we have decided that we are willing to do our part, and only after we find someone else to help us. We cannot go it alone. We cannot rise from the dead on our own but we can be raised up by others with God’s help.
There are always parts of our lives that need resurrection. Those are the parts that stink, literally and figuratively. There are always people around us who need to be raised from some sort of personal death. There are always opportunities for us to help in someone's resurrection – even our own. The stench of death is all around us and even in us. Each day, somehow in some way, an opportunity for resurrection is presented to us. Each day some part of our lives that stinks needs resurrection. If the resurrection of Lazarus teaches us anything, it is both that resurrection is always possible and that it can never happen alone.
The Gospel is a reminder that Jesus was never afraid to make a stink if he had to, if what he did made a difference. Today’s Gospel reminds us that we must not be afraid to make a difference. We must not be afraid to raise a stink if we know we have to. Remember this: God will make resurrection if we first make a stink, if we are willing to deal with that which stinks. What that resurrection, what that new life will look like may not be what we wanted or thought or intended when we raised that stink. That’s all right. Making resurrection is God’s responsibility. Ours is to make a stink or face up to the stink so that resurrection, new life, can happen.
