Unbinding New Life: John 11:32-44 - All Saints Sunday

³²When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus began to weep. ³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

  ³⁸Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (NRSV)

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When I was a hospital chaplain intern, I was called to the room of a 75-year-old woman named Edith at about eleven in the evening.

Her bed and her food table were covered with piles of stationery from the hospital gift shop.

Edith explained that she had cancer all through her body, and there was nothing the doctors could do to stop it. She had but a few days to live. Even though she was in incredible pain, she refused to live out her final days feeling sorry for herself. She said, “As long as I have the strength, I’m going to write letters to everyone who’s made a difference in my life.”

I returned the next morning to check on her—only to find out that she had passed a few hours prior. But I’ll never forget her, and how she was still so full of life and love, despite being at death’s door.

Nevertheless, her death must have been devastating for her loved ones. The names printed in today’s bulletin are just a few in a vast multitude of persons whose lives and love mean everything to you. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus’s friend brother Lazarus has died. When he was ill, his sisters Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus to come immediately and heal their brother. But Jesus remained another two days where he was—and by the time he arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days.

The first thing both sisters say when they see Jesus is this: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

Chances are, you know exactly how they feel. You prayed to Jesus with every fiber of your being to spare a loved one from death—and spare you from the agony of losing them. But they die.

You recall the many instances in the gospels when someone who is seriously ill cries out to Jesus, and he heals them. So why not you? Why not the one you pray for?

Why are there candles on the altar, instead of loved ones in the pews? Why is death allowed to exist in God’s world? 

One of the things that makes a day like today so difficult is that we confront the most difficult questions of our faith. There are no clear answers or explanations to set our minds at ease. 

What we do know is that Jesus is disturbed and indignant by what death has done to his friends. And he is resolved to do something about it. 

Before Jesus raises Lazarus, the people must roll back the stone. The people must unbind him from the grave clothes. 

Think of it this way: the people who came to help Mary and Martha grieve are now working together with Jesus to restore Lazarus to life. Their actions help to reveal God’s glory in this place of death. 

This is something we must take to heart. You and I cannot raise the dead, anymore than we can explain why death and evil are still a thing in God’s world. 

As the Body of Christ, we unbind resurrection life. Jesus speaks new life into being, and we as his people make it real. Though we are powerless against our mortality, we receive from Jesus a strength to push back so hard against death that it loses its power over how we live. Think about it : God helped Edith to push back hard against death, taking the last of her life’s energies and turning them into words of love and gratitude that surely brought great comfort to her loved ones. At GriefShare, we push back hard against death by giving people the freedom to express their anger, their disappointment, their struggles, and their fears—without criticism or judgment. 

The people gathered there help each other to unbind new possibilities for life, despite the losses they have suffered.

Loss and mortality affect every human being who walks this planet. One of the most important ministries of the church is to show compassion compassion for those who grieve, which helps to make God’s comforting presence a reality. 

We light these candles as believers in the resurrection of the dead. We light these candles because death cannot destroy the blessings God gave you through these precious lives, even though they are absent from you in body. 

Why do we believe these things? Because after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the plot to kill him was set in motion. Jesus will to suffer the helplessness and agony we all suffer as mortal beings. He will suffer evil to its fullest extent. He is going into the grave and will descend into hell, because love will not leave anyone behind in those places. 

The challenge to all of us in these evil times is to trust Jesus’s power over death. Jesus isn’t going to let death and evil win, so why should you? Why should we give up being church together while our neighbors are suffering the very things Jesus is determined to defeat? Why should we give up giving generously, when God’s gifts are so abundant, and God’s grace is so amazing? Why should you give up on prayer, when God never gives up on you? Why should we not pray ceaselessly for Jesus’s help to unbind new possibilities of life for ourselves for our neighbors and people across the world? Why should we doubt the power of Godly love to make this world a better place?

As people of God, we live and we love in a bold defiance against death—because death will never have the last word in God’s world. Whenever death strikes, we strike back with Jesus. We unbind each other into new possibilities for life, and living it well.