Tears of Action:
All
Saints’ Day
Jackson
Snyder, November 1, 2003, based on William G. Carter
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John
11:32-44, 1 Corinthians 15:47-48
Teens Attend
a Bible Study?
The middle school youth group was going “good.” The advisors, Bob and Bettie, planned a full calendar of events to keep them busy. The youth went bowling, roller-skating and to retreats, sleepovers, ball games and lock-ins. They played a lot of sports, talked about a lot of movies, celebrated every holiday with a party. But when it came to leading the teens to faith, Bob and Bettie were frustrated. They really didn’t know much about the faith-life themselves, much less how to lead others Heavenward.
After church, Bob announced that the group
was going to study the Gospel of John. “It’s a good book and we think a church
youth group should read it,” he said.
Bob’s news was greeted with sighs and boos. But Bob persisted. He
gave each kid an assignment. “During the next week, we want you to flip through
John until you find a verse that means something to you. Memorize the verse. Next week, you’ll recite it for the rest of
the group.”
Attendance the next week was way down, but
the few who dared come were prepared. They went around the circle, starting
with Diane. “My verse is John 3:16. God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Bettie asked why she picked that verse. Diane said, “My grandmother said
it was important.”
Mark was next. He quoted, “Truly, I tell
you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” When Bettie asked him why he picked that
one, Mark said, “I opened my dad’s Bible and saw the words printed in red
ink. I figured they must be important.”
Whether they knew it or not, the kids in
the group were doing something important. The Gospel of John is full of
terse, pithy sayings, like “The Word became flesh and lived among us,” and, “I
am the resurrection and the life.” Every page has three or four important
truths compressed within the narrative like brilliant diamonds ready to spring
forth when the book is opened. In each chapter, the eternal Word of Yahweh is
revealed not only in stories but in one-liners. By memorizing these verses,
these teens were learning the gospel.
At least it looked that way. Soon it was
time for Brad, the preacher’s kid, to recite. Bettie asked him, “Now, Brad,
what verse have you memorized?” Brad
said, “ John 11:35.” He cleared his
throat like he’d heard his old man do. He stood straight up and looked around
the group with the stern eye of a midget preacher. Then with a gravity of great
importance, he orated, “Jesus wept.”
That about did it. In making fun of his dad with such an insignificant reading, the
rest of the kids cracked up while Bob and Bettie tried to get back in control. Bob said, “Brad, why’d you pick that
verse?” With perfect logic, Brad
replied, “It’s the shortest verse in the Bible.”
Two Words
Two words only: “Jesus wept.” These two words seem insignificant compared
to other verses. The Gospel of John often reveals it’s gems in single
sentences, but the sentence “Jesus wept” doesn’t seem too profound, even when
the New Revised Standard Version expands it to four words (“Jesus began to
weep”).
“Jesus wept” occurs in the story of the death of Lazarus, a
significant event in the life and ministry of Jesus. Lazarus was the disciple whom Jesus loved (John
11:5). More than a servant or
an acquaintance or a disciple, Jesus calls him a “friend” (John
11:11). Yet now
his friend is dead. He was neither sleeping nor hiding out of sight. Lazarus is stone cold in a tomb. Had Jesus come
sooner, Lazarus might’ve been healed. But by the time Jesus reaches Bethany,
it’s too late.
The death of this friend prompts Jesus’
tears. His tears look just like ours. You and I’ve shed such tears during recent
committal services in the cemetery right behind this building. (In the last year, we’ve put two beloved
members to ‘rest’ with tears. On All
Saints, we rejoice in knowing that we’ll see saints like Flora Stuckey and
Louise Kelly on the great day when tears of grief become tears of joy.)
Yet it’s comforting to know that, at graveside, Jesus is as human as the
rest of us (and sharing our grief on those days).
We want to know our Father in Heaven is
compassionate and that the Mighty One of Israel suffers with us. When people
gathered outside the tomb of Lazarus, some see these tears and say, “See how
Jesus loved him” (John 11:36). At the point of human brokenness, and we
have each reached that point many times in our lives, it should be a
comforting thought to know the Holy and Almighty One sympathizes and suffers
with us. And hopefully we’ll stay attune to his presence during such
times. Hopefully. . .
Curious
Tears
But wait a minute. His tears have led lots
of preachers to the assumption that Jesus was overcome by grief. Others outside the same tomb said, “Couldn’t
Jesus have kept his friend from dying in the first place? If so, isn’t there something mighty curious
about his tears?” The answers to the
questions are “yes” and “yes.” Both
Martha and Mary knew. Each came to
Jesus and said exactly the same thing, “Master, if only you’d been here, my
brother wouldn’t have died.” They knew
Jesus’ ability. They knew he could do whatever he wanted. But he didn’t prevent their brother from
crossing over, though he could have.
That suggests a second explanation for his
tears. According to the story, Jesus “was greatly disturbed in spirit and
deeply moved.” Literally speaking, “he
was over the top with righteous anger and churning inside.” His tears may have been from anger! ¿Was he mad because he was disgusted with
human unbelief? No, Martha said she
believed. Was he mad at himself for not
arriving soon enough? No, Jesus acts
on his Father’s timetable. Maybe
he was beside himself at the destructive, demonic forces that brought Lazarus
down. For elsewhere in John, Jesus
says, “I have come to bring life, and to bring it in
abundance.” Yet people still die. At
the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus wept tears of righteous anger as well as of grief.
In a little town in
Pennsylvania, a twenty-year-old man drank a little too much one Saturday night.
While driving home, he flipped his Jeep and it burst into flames. The young man
died horribly. Four days later, the
funeral was subdued. At the graveside service, however, his two brothers
suddenly began to weep and wail, then they began to pound their fists on the
casket. One of them shouted at the top
of his lungs, “Jesus Christ, it ain’t right!
It ain’t fair! It ain’t right at
all!” In the name of the giver of life,
the dead man’s brother spoke the absolute truth. Death is never right and seldom fair.
Curious
Words
In this light, “Jesus wept” sounds more like
words of resistance than grief. His
tears announce how wrong it is for loved ones to die prematurely. His tears, as it were, shake an angry fist
at the forces of evil and destruction, and cry out for justice and divine
restoration. When Jesus wept he stood tall against the ways of death in an act
of holy resistance. William Billings,
the famous eighteenth century hymn writer, put it this way:
When Jesus wept, the falling tear
In mercy flowed beyond all bound;
When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear
Seized all the guilty world around.
The world was put on notice when Jesus
arrived in Bethany that day. He wept tears of sympathy, choosing to associate
himself with those who mourn. He wept
tears of indignation, affirming death as a common enemy. Yet the good news is that Jesus wept tears
of action. It was not enough for
him to weep over the world’s pain or to distinguish between Yah’s way and the
ways of the world. Jesus committed himself to making a difference in the face
of death – the greatest amount of difference that he could possibly make. He arrived in Bethany to offer a way out
for those who don’t know any way out.
And he proved his offer to be good by this enduring sign – the
sign of the Beloved Lazarus.
The Gospel of John says Jesus acted, but
only on his terms and only according to his timetable. When he
heard Lazarus was ill, Jesus didn’t drop everything and rush to his
bedside. Instead he worked for two days
longer to finish the job his Father had assigned him. By the time he went to
Bethany, Lazarus had been in the grave four days. Jesus seemed strangely free
from gushy sentiments or emotional entanglements. He went on his own
initiative, not in response to an announcement in the paper or to a personal
request or out of duty to the family or respect for the dead. Rather, he went to embody the
gracious initiative of the Creator Yahweh, who moves us-ward even before
we ask his help, who loves us even before we love him, who comes to bring
abundant life even before we’re taken captive by Death.
What’s more, the writer of John insists
Jesus already knew what he was going to do. He knew Lazarus would die.
He knew his Father’s power would be revealed by raising Lazarus up. Most of all, Jesus knew the resurrection
would set in motion the events leading up to his own death. In Jerusalem, the
high council huddled in fear, terrified of Roman “involvement.” The high priest
even prophesied, “It’s better that one man die so we might be saved.”
Jesus knew this, too, and he chose death so
that we might never taste its finality. As he says elsewhere:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep. No one takes my life from me, but I lay it
down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
up again. I have received this command from my Father” (John 10:11,18).
It was Jesus’
choice to give or withhold his life.
Tears to
Blood
When he wept, his tears anticipate that
pitiful moment before he himself was led to slaughter -- that Gethsemane
moment -- when he sweat great drops of blood. By choosing to bring Lazarus out, Jesus chose to go in. The One who invited disciples to “come and
see” supernatural works “came and saw” within that tomb the inevitable
consequences of such works –fatal consequences! With tears of action, Jesus gives the gift of his life for
you, for me, for the world. Through the
tears of his crucifixion, we’re baptized into the eternal life of his
resurrection. Hallelujah! I know I shall be saved from the finality of
death because he lives. Eternal life is
a free gift. We participate in eternal life by trusting Jesus and living our
earthly life in his footsteps, yoked together with him in his joyful service.
Reflecting on Lazarus’ resurrection,
Episcopalian priest Robert Capon writes:
Jesus never meets a corpse that doesn’t sit up right on the
spot. They all rise not because Jesus
does a number on them, not because he puts some magical resurrection machinery
into gear, but simply because he has that effect on the dead. They rise because
he is the Resurrection even before he himself rises -- because, in other words,
he is the grand sacrament, the real presence, of the mystery of a kingdom in
which everybody, everybody, everybody rises. (The Parables of Judgment)
You Only
Live Twice
Lazarus died. Jesus raised him back to life.
Lazarus died again later on at the hands of those who killed Jesus, but Jesus
raised him up once again. This is the good news: in all of our deadness
and death, Yahweh in Yahshua raises us up and fills us with the life of
eternity – he makes us like one of the stars – a burning immortal light in the
firmament of his eternal sky. Our hope
is not merely a dream of resurrection on the last day, but a kind of
life that begins today in faith and continues on, far beyond the tomb –
for, my friend, you will never see your own tomb. Trust me; when your old body is dying, your tombstone is the last
thing you’ll think of. It will be of
absolutely no importance to you whatsoever.
Hopefully, your final thoughts in this body will be in regards to
eternity.
Receiving the gift of everlasting life is
pretty easy. All we need is to take it
from the One who told Martha and Mary, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those
who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who believes
in me will never die.” (Rodney
Nance is taking that step today in being baptized. This is his show of commitment to following Jesus to the cross
and beyond. It helps us to remember
that Jesus insisted, “Unless you change and become like little children you
will never enter the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3)).
“Believest thou this?” Then take your gift and go your way without
worrying about death or the demise of your loved ones who already have this gift. If they’re truly saved, please quit
worrying. Yahweh has a hold of them –
they’re in his charge. Instead, take your
gift and unpack it, then spend your days marveling in its great value with
tears of joy rather than tears of grief or indignation or distrust of G-d. For now with the saints of all ages you have
the right to address death personally:
O
death, where is thy sting? O grave,
where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55).
“Believest
thou this?”