“Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus asks his beloved friend Mary, as they mourn the death of her brother Lazarus (read the whole story, John 11:1-45).
Jesus calling Lazarus forth from the tomb is easily the most dramatic and powerful sign Jesus gives for who he is and what he does. It’s not just a sign of his divine power but a living, breathing sign of God’s own eternal life given to us all the time, even through the most intense suffering and loss we can imagine. Jesus could not have shared this Good News of God’s love so meaningfully if he had merely prevented Lazarus from dying. He intentionally went to the very heart of human suffering and loss to bring healing and life. Some people will respond to this with faith; others will plan to have Jesus executed.
Lazarus’ story speaks to us in our own personal experiences of illness, loss, suffering, grief, and death; in our knowing we are frail and limited; and our being trapped in sinful or unloving ways of living. It also calls to mind our selfish human nature and how that “illness” plays out in our culture’s love of money and power, materialism, racism, classism – all the “ism’s” violence, injustice, and poverty. Any of these things might lead us to say, “This is making me spiritually dead,” or “This world is so far gone now it is hopeless.”
And yet Jesus says, “This illness does not lead to death… Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Jesus does not magically save his beloved friend from sickness or death. He weeps along with Lazarus’ family, sharing their pain and grief, confirming that suffering and grief, as well as sharing love and comfort, are very much part of God’s plan. Faith does not “save” us from hardship and sorrow. When we believe in Jesus, God’s own eternal life – with peace, love, and joy – are present in us also, now! Our faith lets us receive and be aware of God’s divine life in us, lifting us up even amidst limitation and suffering. This a huge “God with us” comfort! And this divine life continues even when these earthly bodies die.
This is the Good News of Lazarus’ story. Our bodies will someday die but the “illness” of being human no longer leads to death. The true spiritual selves of everyone who lives and believes in Jesus will live!
Why? To quote St. Paul: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35, 37-39).
We live because God loves us.
Whoever and wherever you are on your faith journey, know that God loves you. All are welcome at Trinity every Sunday at 10am for worship, Holy Communion, and fellowship. You will find a warm congregation, uplifting liturgy, and the Good News of God’s radical love shared in word and sacrament.
