Sermon. Lazarus - "he stinketh!"

Sermon. St Michael and All Angels, Little Ilford, 2 April 2017.

Lent 5 (Year A)

John 11.1-45

Today's gospel is very obvious good news. A problem is solved. A tragedy overcome.

• Lazarus has dead.
• Jesus comes along.
• Gd through Jesus raises his from the dead.
• In Jesus, death leads to new life.

There can be no better story. This is the Easter story, anticipated. What's not to like?

That is a fair-enough summary of the gospel today. Sermons throughout the land will be bringing just this story of hope and newness. It's a good outline of the message of the gospel-as-a-whole – not just today's reading, but the Easter gospel - the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, if that is what you need to hear today, good, then hear it please:

In Jesus, death leads to new life.

But... you notice I am not saying 'Amen', and sitting down. My apologies to those who would like nothing more than for me to shut up and sit down (you know who you are and you know that I know who you are). I have not quite finished, because I want to – need to – add that there are other elements of the story of Lazarus for those who have eyes to see. It is not a simple, or a simply happy story.

Let us try to face up to what is uncomfortable in today's story. I'd like to suggest that Jesus behaves in three ways which may challenge us.

First, on being told that Lazarus – Lazarus whom Jesus loves – is ill, how does Jesus respond?... Let's be blunt: Jesus responds by doing nothing. He stays where he is. For two more days.

We, who know the whole story, have an idea why he did this. He did this so that everyone is absolutely sure that Lazurus is really, utterly dead. So when the miracle happens, no one can say it is just a healing of someone at death's door. But note that at the time Jesus responds by doing nothing, no one around him can know why this is.

So (can we see?) there is here, for us, too, among the good news, some hard news. Jesus is free to respond similarly to our own needs (real though they are), by (from time to time at least) doing nothing. For this own hidden purposes.

There's more. On one level, Martha and Jesus have a perfectly understandable discussion about the resurrection of all who have died. Martha, as a good Jew influenced by good Pharisees (that's another sermon right there), says she believes in the resurrection. Jesus says that resurrection is much, much closer than she realises. But at another level, Jesus' message is and remains utterly mysterious. 'I am the resurrection and the life'. Beautiful poetry, no doubt, and much loved in Christian circles. But if I ask you what it means...?

We may come up with the idea that it refers to this or that aspect of later Christian teaching on Jesus. But I for one am unable to tell you what it means. I cannot see what these words add to the discussion about the resurrection, or add to the story.

So (can we see?) there is here, for us too, among the good news, some hard news. Jesus's message to us can similarly be inscrutable, more like a riddle than an explanation.

Third, Jesus loves Lazarus, Lazarus is his friend. Lazarus is about to undergo the hardest and most shocking moment in his life. So, Jesus, Lazarus' friend, will be by his side, talking him through it, encouraging him with friendly words along the way. Right?

Oh, how wrong. Here is the conversation the two of them have: Jesus said: 'Lazarus, come out!'

That's it. No conversation, no gentle encouragement. Just the command. So (can we see?) there is here, for us too, among the good news, some hard news. Jesus is similarly free to relate to us by giving blunt commands. 'Do this!'

So, Jesus is free

• to respond to us by doing nothing,
• to speak things we cannot understand,
• to give simple, unadorned commands.

I do know that this is unlikely to be new information for you. We are used to hearing these things, for we understand that Gd in Christ is in charge and not us, and Christ does not come to us just to reassure us. We know it. But it can be good for us to look it straight in the eye, from time to time, as the harder side of the good news.

But... in truth, these aspects of the story are really the lesser challenges. There are two greater painful elements we must face.

Let us go back to Martha. When Jesus suggests that the stone is rolled away from the tomb, how does Martha – who believes in the resurrection, and who believes in Jesus and his capacity to be the instrument for all manner of miracle – how does she react? With simple faith? With bated breath?

No, with simple disgust: 'Already there is a stench'.

Or (I've come to realise over the years) this is one time people like to Authorized Version: 'by this time he stinketh!' Yes, Lazarus stinketh. He stank. Notice, Jesus does not deny this. A corpse in a sealed tomb, free of fresh oxygen, would by day four, have long begun to decay, to rot. There would have been a stench, we can be sure.

Here is a greater warning for us. Brothers and sisters, the gospel for today, if we can bear it, makes it clear that when Jesus comes to us, to bring new life out of death – by no means only literal death but out of all that is deathly and deadening in us - there is likely to be a stench. All that we have neglected, all that we have locked away (we think safely), will be brought to the Lord. And it will not be pretty. We must be prepared to have others see just how rotten we can be. We stinketh. Gd in Christ can bear that. It does not stop Gd acting to bring that newness of life (Gd does not have a delicate constitution). But can we ourselves bear the stench?

It gets worse. 'The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.' Let us try to picture this. Lazarus lives (great!), but is blinded (his face is covered), and is disabled (hands and feet bound). How would you bind up a corpse? You might just perhaps bind each hand and each foot separately. But why? To what end? Surely, you would bind the easy way, turning the corpse into one, tightly bound shape. In other words, it's like a coffin, only much snugger, with even less room.

So Lazarus comes out, stinking and wriggling, ungainly, comical even. It's his greatest appearance (he's the icon of a great miracle), and he appears at his worst.

I won't labour the point. Here too is a warning for us. In short, if we want Gd in Christ to make a difference in our lives, where we can find we often choose what is deadening and deathly, we had better not care what people think. We had better not have egos, or precious reputations to protect and improve. Gd sees us as we are, loves us as we are. The pressing question is whether we are up to seeing ourselves, smelling ourselves (as it were), as we really are.

• Lazarus,
• congregation of St Michael and All Angels,
• Little Ilford
• humanity

come out!

There is good news for us here. There is hard, challenging news for us here. There is Easter here. But there is more to Easter, and to Lazarus, than a happy ending. Gd raises us from the dead, but raises us as we really are. So be it. Amen.