Today is the Feast of Martha and her brother and sister Mary and Lazarus
I had an opportunity to be Lazarus… no really (take a look at this story on the site to see the picture and read the story)…
Who was this man? He was a good friend of Jesus but what might have attracted Jesus to Lazarus? We don’t really know. Here are some speculations – and we’d love to hear yours…
I think it’s highly likely that Lazarus didn’t go on the road tour with Jesus and the apostles. Nor do I think it’s likely that he was even one of the 72 sent out by Jesus in the Great Commission to proclaim the Kingdom of God… Maybe he was simply a good friend of Jesus – the human Jesus with a personality – Jesus with a need to have human connection – Jesus with the human need to find delight in the company of others…
What then might have been the personality and disposition of Lazarus?
We can imagine Jesus’ special love for John (the apostle he gives to His Mother and whom He asks His Mother to take as a son – and the only apostle that did not die the death of a martyr). I imagine Lazarus must have had great sensitivities, light hearted, and quick and easy to laugh and find joy in things but with a serious intense love for God. I think this love could have been expressed through a highly sensitive disposition – perhaps like Jesus, maybe Lazarus had a gift for tuning into to others – and a capacity to embody and experience their feelings…
Could it be that Jesus found in Lazarus a soul that had an ability to receive Jesus’ humanity; a man with sorrows, fatigues, joys, disappointments, compassion, anguish, hope, love and dreams? Maybe Lazarus and Jesus shared a wordless connection. Perhaps they had no need for long drawn out conversations. I like imagining Jesus simply reveling in the gift of Lazarus’ friendship.
Name Lazarus in Hebrew is ELEAZAR meaning God helps. Jesus’ Father in heaven made no random mistake in bringing Lazarus into the human life of His Son.
Let’s dive into the story Lazarus…
John in the front of Chapter 12 tells this story that has always gripped my sacred imagination:
Jesus Anointed at Bethany
12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Mary’s anointing gift is such a tender, sacredly sensuous, self-giving gesture. Here is the same Mary who was at the feet of our Lord in the first dinner account when Martha is busy in the kitchen. Mary is filled with such love for our Lord for bringing her brother Lazarus back to life. She’ll stop at nothing to show Jesus her gratitude. Mary and her family have heard, tasted and seen the power of Jesus as the Christ – the Son of God – the Resurrection of Life. Its six days before Passover and the slaughtering of the True Paschal Lamb of God, who will restore life to Jews and all people.
We enter with our imaginations and see a special friend of Jesus restored to life. Jesus brings relational wholeness to their family. This seems like a prayer we need in these times. We see the Lord at ease – enjoying a good meal with dear friends. We see Abba lavishing His Son with Love and Holy Oil through Mary. This is His obedient Son in whom He is well pleased. This must have been a lovely dinner party scrumptious in its heavenly delights – rich with its intimations of peace animating life in the joys of Love flowing from the fullness of relational dynamism in motion.
Can we hear Jesus calling us out of our tombs? I’m going to meditate on this tonight; hearing Him call me. There we are walking like mummies – wrapped in all of our failings and sins but heeding His call. Who can resist His Beautiful Voice?
With Lazarus, Jesus gives us a sneak preview of what He will do on Resurrection day. First, He gives us a preview of His resurrection, and then he offers us a tangible sign of the fulfillment of God’s promise to us.
Jesus gets word of Lazarus’ death but He has to trust the Spirit to guide Him:
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Jesus is human. We can be sure that His first instinct was to want to run to his friend and save him.
John’s gospels make us pause and encounter the divinity of Jesus. Here’s a chance for God to screen a movie trailer of the Power of His Kingdom. His Love will cut through the red tape of material life.
Might Jesus with his human emotions also need to silence the temptations of doubts? Might He have thought, “Father, if I wait here for two days my friend will die. Father, I know all things are possible through the Power of your Love but, do we need to wait? Is this the time to make a point? Father are you going to use this event to show people there is no death – only eternal Life?”
Jesus, as a man, has learned how to subject Himself to His Divine Will, and Trust the Truth and Power of Love to conquer all things. Jesus trusts His Father’s timing. Might two days have felt like a long time in human terms? We can relate right now… like these days of the pandemic – that can feel so long – keeping us from the things and people we love and cherish. The disciples probably assumed Jesus was practicing good, “social distancing.” Go anywhere near Jerusalem and people were going to kill him. So when Jesus says, “Let’s go back to Judea,” they think he’s nuts.
Jesus draws upon the symbols of Light and darkness to characterize how we stumble through life. Where is our focus? What do we hold onto? What do we believe? And just in case in our density we (because our behavior is mirrored in the disciples) don’t catch what the Master is saying He makes it clear:
“Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
Let us go to him.”
Here’s the voice of Doubting Thomas the ever ready warrior – feisty – defiant – convinced of himself (gee, I know someone who can be like that more than he should be – “finger pointing at myself”)
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go to die with him.
Thomas is ready to put his life on the line. He rallies the troops.
Martha is the one who runs out to meet Jesus. She’s not squirrelled away in the kitchen anymore. She’s gotten her priorities right. She longs for the consolation of Jesus.
We’re like Martha right now. We’re running with all our hearts begging Jesus to offer us consolations and all the people we see suffering and hurting. Can we speak to Jesus with Martha’s confidence and faith?
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Martha has the end game in mind. She’s come to believe in the resurrection on the last day (this is the promise we hear echoed in Ezekiel 37:12 “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”)
Jesus is ready to finish His journey to the cross. He makes His True Identity abundantly clear, “I AM the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Oh Lord have Mercy on us… here’s the full Truth… this is our hope that has been spoken as the Word of God and written upon the hearts of our spirits. If we have any doubts about entering into this mystery as some cerebral exercise, Jesus leaves nothing to chance or our broken ways. Jesus brandishes us with a tattoo on the hearts of our spirits by making Himself one with each and every one of us. His Spirit dwells within us. This is why if we believe in Him we cannot die. He makes a dwelling place in us!!! Really???!!!
Oh Holy God, Immortal God, Mighty God we praise you for forever. Spirit of God we adore you – Jesus we love you… thank you Father for the gift of Life.
Let our voices ring out with Gracious abandonment like Martha:
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
Jesus remains where he was when he spoke to Martha. Mary, who has been mourning, is summoned by Jesus and she goes to greet Him. Her faith is immediate. She knows her brother would have never died if Jesus had been there. Then there is this mystery in the account (at least a mystery to me):
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
It warrants a word study that I don’t have the time to do right now but might look at later. What’s the original word for, “perturbed” and “troubled” in Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew? Is Jesus mad in some way?
Projecting into the sensibilities of John’s depiction of Jesus, I get a feeling of holy impatience… “Hey folks, what does it take for you to see I am the Son of God? How can you be so blind? Where is the sacred imagination my Father planted in your souls? Has this world completely extinguished it?” Perhaps Jesus is speaking from His righteous anger that is railing against the evil snuffers suffocating the flames of His burning Light.
Then we are swept into compassionate, mysterious pathos with these words:
And Jesus wept.
John is sure to make us imagine Jesus as human. This is not some nice description. Jesus’s anger softens. He’s pulled by an intermixing of human feelings and divine sadness. This is a deep sadness. It is at once humble and rooted in His special friendship with Lazarus. It’s also divine. Jesus is crying in response to the power of death in our lives. Does He taste how in His perfect sacrifice of Love there will be some futility? He already knows in human terms that not everyone will choose Him? How can this be… not everyone will want the Life He offers?
Lord have pity on us. Forgive us Lord for we know not what we say or do. Destroy our stubborn adherence to blind doubts of the surging Power of Life offered in your Perfect Selfless expression of eternal Love. Forgive us for we know not yet what we do not yet fully taste and see. Have mercy on your people.
Jesus gets to deal with insults… “Hey if you could have helped a blind guy where were you when it was time to help your friend?” Here the use of the word, “perturbed,” I think is clear:
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
John demonstrates how some of us will attribute Love to Jesus and others will assign false labels on Him; our free will, gone rogue.
Lazarus is in a cave. Jesus was born in cave. Jesus is laid to rest in a cave. We live in our noxious caves. We’re entombed by many things. Listen… listen for Jesus. He is calling us out of our tombs… roll away the stone and listen for His voice… rise and run to the One who Loves you Perfectly now and forever.
Jesus wants people to hear His conversation with His Father. Is there anything we can’t bring to our Father?
How is the story of Lazarus speaking to you today? Consider sharing your thoughts, feelings, and insights with us in the comment section below…
