"Weeping Christ" - Sermon for Lent 5 2017

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who meets us at our graves.

            This is sort of crazy, but after such a long reading, I want to start by reading more, this is verses 46-50, just after where our reading stops. ⁴⁶ But some of those who were with Mary and Martha went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” ⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰ You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”

            It’s important to note this extended passage, because it really points out for us, that even though we’re only in chapter 11 of 21 chapters of John, we’ve reached the point where Jesus travels towards Jerusalem for the last time. Partially because of this text those plotting against Jesus begin to truly seek his death.

            We’ll get back to this, but now back to our text itself. As I noted before the reading, it’s another very long text, but I actually want to focus on the smallest part of it. Vs 35, Jesus began to weep, known better from other translations as, Jesus Wept.

            There is really so much to this small verse when we look at it. Much of the time, we read it simply as how the people present there describe it, it’s because he loved Lazarus, and he is now also mourning his death. I think it is much more than that though. If that is all it is, we have to ask, why is Jesus mourning, when leading up to this moment he is so completely confident in being able to raise Lazarus from the dead that he spends 2 extra days before heading to the town.

            It shows more so that Jesus mourns with those who mourn. What Jesus reacts to is seeing Martha, Mary and all the others mourn at the graveside of Lazarus. When Jesus encounters those in deep mourning, he mourns with them. We have a rather stoic Jesus in John, who is set primarily on doing his mission, teaching that the kingdom of God is here, and going to the cross for us. But, at this moment I believe a pause comes to Jesus. When we began this text, he is set, Lazarus will die, and Jesus will raise him to show forth the glory of God. The disciples of course don’t get it at all, but Jesus does. At the beginning Jesus states, this illness does not lead to death, but to the glory of God, and the Son of God glorified through it. In that light, the death of Lazarus means nothing, he will die, but eh.. whatever he’ll be resurrected by Jesus, so it’s all fine.

            But, when Jesus arrives in town, he first encounters Martha, if you have been here, my brother would not have died! Then Mary, if you had been here, my brother would not have died! Mary says this while weeping, the Greek showing nearly hysterical wailing, not just mere tears, but falling on the ground uncontrollably sobbing.

            And so then, when Jesus sees the tomb, I think he realizes something. Yes, Lazarus will be alive again, but that experience of grief and loss that Martha, Mary, and the others go through will not leave them. And, in that moment, Jesus joins their grief.

            Jesus weeping at Lazarus’ tomb tells us that even though we have the promise of everlasting life, the pain of death still exists. Grief still is there. Martha admits this, She says in vs 24, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” And yet she mourns his death. The promise given to us in our baptisms of a resurrection like Jesus’ does not mean that grief will not come. Being claimed as Children of God does not eliminate hardship faced in this life. But, this text here, and all the promises of God do tell us that God walks with us in these moments of grief, Christ weeps with us at the tombs of our loved ones, at the same time as he reminds us of their life eternal with God.

            It also means that just as Jesus weeps at Lazarus’ tomb, he weeps and stands outside our own. When you ever gather as a family at a graveside, know that Christ is there. When you walk through hardship and grief, know that Christ is there.

            Next week is Palm Sunday, when we witness Jesus’ final entrance into Jerusalem and the beginning of his own last week. This text of arriving at the tomb of Lazarus reminds us that just as Jesus meets us at our tombs, we must follow him to his own.

            Where we go to witness the death of the one who loves us so much that he dies for us. And then to go out into the world to bear witness and tell the world of the one who loves us so much that he weeps with us.

            May God bless you and keep you as we soon begin our Holy Week. Amen.