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Today is episode 169: Lessons from Lazarus

Hi friends. I have been thinking about the Gospel reading from the 5^th Sunday of Lent now for a few days, and the lessons that I’m taking away from it are proving to be a good foundation for Holy Week, so I thought I would share these takeaways with you as we head into the week together. The long version of this reading is over 800 words and so, I thought it might take a little bit too much time for me to read it for you here. I would encourage you to take a look at it for yourself. It’s John 11: 1-45. Maybe you could take a look, and then come on back here after you do. In any case, this is a story you are likely familiar with. Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, has died. His sisters Martha and Mary (this is the same Mary who anointed the feet of Jesus with oil and then dried his feet with her hair), well, these two sisters are grieving, and they experience a range of emotions including anger and disbelief, things with which we can all identify, I’m sure. The reading ends with Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, which results in many more people coming to believe in Him, and these events threaten the religious leaders of the day, setting into motion the events that will lead to His Passion.

I have five total takeaways from this story and the first one is this: We can be honest with Jesus.

Neither Martha nor her sister Mary hold back when telling Jesus about their disappointment in Him following the death of Lazarus. Her statement, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” embodies a kind of frustration and disappointment, despair and even anger that I have felt and expressed many times with the Lord. Maybe you have, too. I have learned in my lifetime, though, that not only can God ‘take’ our difficult emotions, but that He welcomes them. God wants our whole selves, and He wants to wrestle through the hard things together with us. And it’s important to remember that when we pray while angry with God, we are still praying. Conversation and connection are still happening, and that is what’s important.

Takeaway number two: Jesus knows what’s happening and He knows what’s going to happen, too. 

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, He replied that “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.” You might remember that He said something similar about the man who was born blind – that his blindness was not his fault nor his parents’ but happened that God might be glorified through it. Now, that’s kind of a long game plan on God’s part, don’t you think? Well, there is every indication in this reading that Jesus knows exactly how all of the events will unfold, not only the death and raising of Lazarus, but his interactions with Martha and Mary as well. In our lives, we can be sure that Jesus knows what’s going on, and we can know how God will work in all of it for our good. God does promise restoration in some form, even if we can’t always imagine the shape or timing around how that restoration will arrive.

And this truth relates to takeaway number three: Waiting is so very hard for us, but God uses waiting as a tool for our good.

Let’s look here at how Jesus reacts to the news about His friend. The Gospel says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, 
he remained for two days in the place where he was.” Hmm, let’s repeat that one more time. Here’s the quote. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.” Um, what now? So, Jesus loved them, and He knewthat Lazarus had died, and so He… waited for two whole days to go and help them?

Well friend, I’ll admit, this is a hard one for me. In my prayers, I often remind God that while He always knows how things will turn out, I am not privy to that information. My anxiety and grasping are a part of my human nature and nervous system, and though I am working on it, trusting God sometimes feels like a Herculean effort against my own wiring. At the end of the day, though, I do know that I can trust Him with even my heaviest concerns, and I can look back on my own life to see the good work that God has done within me while I waited, however impatiently, for an answer to prayer. Good things do happen in the waiting, even when it is uncomfortable for us.

Here’s takeaway number four: The disciples (that means us) rarely know what Jesus is talking about.

It’s true what Isaiah the prophet said, that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than our ways. Time after time in the Gospels, the followers of Jesus just have no earthly idea what He’s even talking about. The disciples can’t understand why Jesus would want to return to Judea, where it is clear that He will be in great danger. They also thought that Jesus was going to wake Lazarus from sleep rather than from death. And even though Jesus had taught the disciples all about His coming death and resurrection, they just could not conceive of it when it actually happened. And I think that this example teaches me to be somewhat gentler with myself as just another one of the friends of Jesus who are so well-meaning, but just get it wrong sometimes. Like His disciples, I can trust God to teach me, to lead me step by step, and to allow myself to be more open and teachable about His higher ways.

Okay, my fifth and last takeaway from the Lazarus story is about a third way. A third way comes into play when there is a binary system – you know, this or that, one or the other, black or white, yin or yang. A third way can come as a result of a compromise between the two, or it can rise up as an entirely different kind of solution to a problem, one that had not previously been conceived of or known. There’s a beautiful example of a third way in the story of Lazarus, and it is very Good News indeed.

To the problem of the death of Lazarus, we see two human approaches. One is religious and the other is natural. The religious response comes from Martha who meets Jesus on the road and professes the faith which she had been taught as a child. John 11:21-27 reads,

“When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “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.” 

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her, “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. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.””

Gosh, I love Martha’s faith, it’s so gorgeous. Even in her grief, she makes the effort to go to where Jesus is, and then she echoes back to Him the teachings she has already received. Martha knows that Lazarus will be raised in the resurrection on the last day, because that is what she has been taught, and you can feel Martha coming to terms with it, even in her grief, with hope in that far-off resolution. Maybe you’ve felt something like what Martha might have felt that day, disappointment and deflation while at the same time working so hard to accept and hope in a solace that is not nearly the thing that you wanted or needed, but is maybe God’s best consolation prize at the time. I know I have felt that before.

In contrast, the other approach to Lazarus’ death is natural, and there is messy humanity all over this reading. The disciples want to avoid danger, the sisters want to express their human emotions to God, those who were in mourning were weeping, and some were frustrated and even openly resented that God did not act to save Lazarus when He could have, saying, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” All of them just humans being really human, right?

When Jesus asks that the stone be rolled away, Martha voices a very natural concern. It’s been four days, and surely there will be a smell. But Jesus asks them to hold on in faith because He is about to reveal a third way – not religious based on their teachings or natural based on their humanity, but supernatural. Jesus is about to do something that no human can do, raise a long-dead person back to life. This is something the people just could not conceive of. Though they saw Jesus return a dead son to his widow mother, and a dead daughter to her ruler father, this resurrection of Lazarus was considered definitive, maybe precisely because he had been dead and buried so long. Maybe that was the reason for Jesus’ delay in the first place. Well, this instance was a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own death, burial, and resurrection for sure, but it also was conclusive proof of the supernatural power of Jesus as the Son of God. This third way, a way His followers could not accomplish on their own, was proof that Jesus was much more than a prophet or a seer or a healer or a teacher, though He is all of those things. At that time, the people (and maybe us, too) finally see the truth: that Jesus is the Son of God.

And that is the Good News that changes everything.

As we enter into Holy Week together, let’s take these takeaways with us to each of the stories we will walk through together on Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. These are takeaways about us and our humanity, but also about this new way that is only available to us because of Jesus. Let’s leave space for the miraculous in our own lives, the things that we could not comprehend or predict. Let’s leave room for God to move in a way that we cannot anticipate – not religious or natural, but supernatural.

Because this is God, who became one of us and who shows us the beauty and blooming that is possible – life from death. Who was fully human and fully divine. Teacher and servant. Our Friend and our God. Jesus is the God of all things new in this third way that humans could never have imagined, and that is the very best news we could ever receive, thanks be to God.

 Thanks so much for being with me today, friend. If you need me, you can find me on Instagram @kerrycampbellwrites, at Substack at kerrycampbellwrites.substack.com, or on my website at kerrycampbell.org. Thanks so much for rating, reviewing, subscribing and most importantly, sharing this podcast with a friend.  That makes a real difference in growing our community, so thanks. If you would like to support this podcast financially, there are a couple of ways for you to do that in the show notes, along with some resources related to today’s episode, so do check all of that out, but before we go, let’s pray together.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Lord, we hear your invitation to walk with you through this Holy Week. Help us to take your hand to learn from you. Open our ears, eyes, and heart to receive you, and open a space in us to receive your third way, one not borne of institutions or our humanity, but of the Divine becoming human to help humanity become divine. Thank you, Jesus.

We pray for us and our dear ones this week in the name of Jesus and wrapped in the mantle of Our Mother Mary, amen.

Friends, thanks so much for listening today. Please be assured that I am praying for your blessed Holy Week. I pray that you’ll receive the unexpected abundance that God has for you in it, and I’ll see you next time.

Show Notes

I’m taking five takeaways from the story of Lazarus into my experience of Holy Week, and I hope you’ll take them along with you, too.

If you’d like to connect with me, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠find me on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠at my website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you’d like to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠help support this podcast financially⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, there’s a way to do just that ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on my page at buymeacoffee.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Thanks for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow.

Thanks as always to my friend, Peter Vaughan-Vail, for providing the beautiful harp music you hear in this and every episode.

Here are some resources to help you dig into this week’s topic on your own:

1. Video: ⁠Palm Sunday Mass 2024 at St. Cecilia Boston⁠ – a great foundation for your Holy Week

2. Video: ⁠The first half of the Gospel of John⁠ including the story of Lazarus, from The Bible Project

3. Video: ⁠The second half of the Gospel of John⁠, from The Bible Project

4. Lyric Video: ⁠You Came – Lazarus⁠, from Amanda Cook

5. Song: ⁠Rise Up⁠, from CAIN