Lent 5, 2005.Ezekiel 37.1-14, Ps130, Romans 8.6-11, John 11.1-45.I’m going to live for ever, or die trying.
My son and I often communicate on the internet. The son I’m referring to is Liam, the 17 year old one, who lives with his mother down south. We chat through a program called MSN Messenger. Now with this program you can give yourself a nickname, and often people type in witty things instead of a name, sayings, quotes, etc. I have to say my son’s got a good sense of humour, very much into Monty Python and things like that, inherited from his dad perhaps, just as mine was inherited from my dad. So often he will put something funny on his nickname. At present he has this one “I will live forever or die trying”.
Now there is an element of truth in this, a reflection of reality. Many good comedians take everyday life and twist it, exaggerate it or reflect it back, and in the absurdity of it all we see the funny side of life. Much social comment is made by comedians – in fact, often we are caught off guard by when the joke has a sting in its tail. It can be cutting sarcasm, irony, absurdity, and it’s very effective for changing the way people think. Comedy is often just slightly removed from tragedy, just a touch. But it is all based in reality, very heavily, even the absurd Monty Python and goon show stuff. There has to be a common point of reference for the joke to work. So when we hear that line about living forever or dying trying, we laugh at the contradiction but we also relate to the reality of the statement. Because most of us will die trying to live forever.
Is it reasonable to want to live forever? If we go back to last week where I spoke about the concept of healing, I think many people see the healing they need is to become immortal. I mean, if we are to be healed of every sickness that we can possibly become afflicted with, every problem we can have with our bodies, then this is where we end up - immortality. It’s the only full healing we could get. We would be asking for the genetic issues we have in our bodies that lead to the breakdown of the body that will be the death of us to be fixed. Most people, deep down, would love that genetic manipulation that will keep us alive forever.
Why do we want this? Well, because we fear death, basically. It’s a barrier we cant normally cross and come back. It’s a border with almost exclusively one way traffic. We fear the fact that there is not the option to return. We fear the unknown aspect of death, the loss of security in this world. Death makes us feel vulnerable, inconsequential. We fear the change that death brings upon us. We fear the end of what we have known. So when we read this mornings Gospel reading, we instantly identify with Jesus raising Lazarus. I mean, to be saved from death like that would give most of us great comfort – we think. Yet this raising is only a part of it, and as Jesus says, it is an illustration of the grace and power of God the Father. It is not what we are all promised. It was not a resurrection as such, but a resuscitation. Lazarus was restored to human life, only to die again later on. Lazarus in a sense was perhaps the unlucky one. I mean, if death is the path to resurrection to a better life, then Lazarus has struck out. He was brought back to his earthly life, to keep going through all that existence stuff, all the worry about that people go through in life, working, relationships, persecutions, all that. I mean, if it happened in these times, it would mean a death certificate would have been written out, and legally, even coming back from the dead would be difficult. Imagine all the red tape involved in proving you were really alive again? Still, I suppose you could think about that whilst spending your life insurance. But then after all of this, he has to die again! That’s not healing I reckon. That’s not resurrection. Resurrection is something else.
This reading of course points us towards Good Friday, and Jesus death. That is where we are headed. This event is the beginning of a chain of events that will lead to Jesus death on the cross. Yet it is also pointing beyond that as well. When we consider the crucifixion, we don’t consider it as the end point. Sure, it is the end of something, the end of Jesus life as a mortal, the end of that part of His ministry. But after the crucifixion came the resurrection, so when we consider Jesus’ death, we also consider his resurrection and his new life. They go together. We embrace the pain of the remembrance of His death, but with the assurance of the His new life to come. There is hope in this. A great hope.
Yet even there, Jesus goes beyond this future hope. Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise again. Martha agrees that yes, he will be raised on the last day. Jesus brings it back to the present “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” This is not just some end time promise, believe now, receive later, but a promise that is here and now. Jesus, even before He is crucified, is the resurrection and the life. Jesus is talking about sharing His life here and now and forever. It is an understanding of the story that moves beyond the literal. I mean, if we stuck with the literal base level meaning, the story would be quite ridiculous really. I mean, why raise Lazarus so he can die again? It just doesn’t make sense. But if we look beyond the literal interpretation, we see a sharing of life that is present, past and future. It is eternal. Lazarus is indeed brought into the kingdom, but it is the kingdom now. We have promises of eternal life, of a resurrection awaiting us, and we live in the hope of this. But the hope of the future is nothing without a hope in the present. Eschatological predictions are useless if the risen life of Christ is not lived out in the present. The end will come when it will come. But the present is here, and the resurrection must be lived in now. I think one of the key sentences is the last thing Jesus says in this passage. “Unbind him, and let him go”. How bound up are we in particular patterns of life, fears and habits, falsehoods, and all that other stuff we justify our lives with? How bound up are we in rules that do not serve ourselves or others? How bound up are we in trying to make a better future when the present isn’t the best either? Jesus offers us freedom from this stuff. Jesus offers us a resurrected life now. But He’s not going to force us. Just as Jesus called to Lazarus to find his way out of the tomb, so Jesus calls us to leave our living deaths, and to embrace a freed existence in his resurrection.
We are called to freedom in Jesus service. Accept that call, embrace this existence. Live freely and fully, love completely.
In the name of Christ, Amen.
