Message for Proper 26 – Sunday, November 3, 2024

Brothers & Sisters,

Our selected gospel reading this year written in John 11:32-44, is the well-known passage which we refer to as the Raising of Lazarus, and it highlights for us the seventh and final miraculous ”sign” recorded in the gospel of John.

Jesus and his disciples are ministering several towns over, several days’ travel away. Lazarus becomes deathly ill. Mary and Martha send for Jesus, their trusted, dependable, beloved friend to come quickly. Surely he would hurry to minister to those he loved so dearly. Verses 4-6 show that he tarried for several days, telling his disciples, “This sickness will not end in death, …it is for God’s glory…” Yet, it did end in death. Death of the one he loved so much, Lazarus. When he decides to travel to Bethany, his disciples argue with him that it will be too dangerous for him. One more time, Jesus does the unexpected. He sets aside the danger to himself and travels to Bethany.

Readers may be shocked at the brazen and disrespectful way Martha and Mary approach Jesus when he finally arrives. It appears unseemly to question his intentions, his attention, and his decisions. And here is the new lesson. We can freely approach Jesus with what is on our hearts — be it doubt, disbelief, even questions. He is big enough, strong enough, and loving enough to handle our thoughts, our emotions, and our questions. These are the basis of coming to our own faith. To bring our real selves to him and trust him to take them and fill them with his spirit (see Ephesians 1:13-14).

Another lesson from this Scripture is that grief may be all-encompasing. The emotions can overwhelm what we already know, even the truth we have already accepted. Martha and Mary share their unbelief in Jesus not coming immediately when they called for him. Yet, they also declare their faith in his power over sickness and death as they state, “if you had come he would not have died.” Both things can be true. We can have questions even as we have deep faith. It is with any relationship, that we work towards greater understanding together.

There are greater lessons to be learned in this Scripture, of course. As Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, we begin to understand that he has the power to change death to life, physically and spiritually. When it looks like the end, when the facts say it is over, he brings new life. We can trust this in our own lives. We get just a glimpse of the bigger picture that arches over everything, “It is for God’s glory, that the son of God may be glorified in all things.”

Contributed