John is doing some great narrative theology here. He’s telling us this story in a way to highlight truths that otherwise might be missed if we simply imagine that this a blow-by-blow account. For example, did you notice that the two sisters each come to Jesus separately and with the same, identical, word-for-word indictment: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” First, Martha, then Mary. Two sisters, same situation of loss and grief, exactly the same words, in the same spot (vs. 30) but Jesus offers two different responses. I want to look at both of Jesus’ responses as necessary components to a Christian vision of suffering – hope and sorrow. If we are to engage the suffering that all of us will face – honestly and with compassion, we must offer both. The Apostle Paul will offer a succinct understanding of just such a posture when he writes: “do not grieve as those who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).
Hope in the face of despair – Jesus is “I AM, who is Resurrection and Life."
When Martha speaks one can sense a bit of rebuke. A sort of, “You came too late. You failed me.” And Jesus responds, “I am the resurrection and the life! With me it’s never too late.” The flow of her heart is toward despair, but Jesus pushes back – to give her hope, to set her free from assuming an end that isn’t an end.
And let’s be clear about what this hope is. This isn’t Jesus simply saying, “I can revive Lazarus – I have special access to heavenly defibulators and divine drugs. The hope isn’t simply that Jesus can perform a miracle. No, it’s bigger, more mysterious, and even more hopeful than that. Jesus is utilizing an ancient formula for God’s own personal identity and name. By the time of Jesus, the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Universe, could simply be known as “I am” (e.g. Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 43:10-11). So Jesus is claiming something utterly extraordinary – to be the living God, which also means that he is revealing who God is – resurrection and life. We must never lose this pairing. Yes, Jesus is telling us that he is divine. Yes! But he’s also telling us, showing us, WHO the Divine is (“I and the Father are one,” he says (10:30); “He who sees me has seen the Father,” he announces (14:9). We’re learning that in this exploration of suffering that Jesus is constantly revealing to us that God is not a death-dealer, not a blame-maker, not a guilt-inducer, not an insufferable suffering-maker. God is Christlike and in him there is no unChristlikeness. So Jesus’ “I AM” statements are God’s name and vocation –resurrection and life. Jesus’ “I am” is who He is and what God does.
So listen, Marthas! God doesn’t bring death. He came to beat it. God doesn’t come to bring blame. He came to bear it. God isn’t mad at you. See how he loves? You weren’t made for suffering and death. You were made for resurrection and life. Yes, you will die but this is not your end. Jesus doesn’t say, “You are the resurrection and life.” He simply invites us to trust that he is. Now, does your trust determine whether God is resurrection and life? Does your belief make it so or does it provide comfort because God is so? Our hope is not merely that death doesn’t have the final say over your life or that God lets us have the final say or even that God has the final say because I know of people who speak of God as a sovereign death-dealer – that God is wrath and death. No, Jesus is saying that God’s final say is “resurrection and life.” But somehow – even that isn’t enough, or at least by itself, it can lead to a triumphalism which turns into a sort of moral fantasy. If that’s all that Jesus said it would be all too easy to imagine that we should therefore never suffer, never lose, never hurt. And yet we do and we will. And friends, our hope is in a person, not an explanation. Jesus never explains “why” suffering befalls any one person and neither should we. As I said last week – true faith should help us see – and anyone can see that we tragically and inexplicably hurt in so many mysterious ways that are not God’s doing. We need Mary to come along – and let Jesus teach us again that there is another divine response.
Sorrow in the face of sadness. - "Jesus wept."
When Jesus sees Mary, who says exactly the same thing as Martha, he somehow discerns a different reality – there’s no theological argument; in fact, he’s almost speechless. Instead of pushing against the flow of her heart’s sadness, he enters it. He stands alongside her in her grief and feels his own. He is barely able to mumble the question: “Where is his body?” before he bursts into tears. We’ve heard Jesus speak strongly about hope and his divine identity and vocation but now our minds get blown (another way of talking about repentance and belief) by Jesus becoming emotionally vulnerable and tragically undone. His love pulls him down to a solidarity that weeps. It’s interesting that it’s not Jesus’ statement of hope that reverberates with the crowd as an act of love but his expression of heartfelt grief that makes people say, “See how he loved him!” It’s Jesus’ painful recognition of mortality that reveals the depths of God’s heart for us - the deeply divine paradox that “if you love until hurts, there can be no more hurt.”
Mary Oliver said, “Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say "Look!" and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.” Today we might alter her slightly – “Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think that they have all the answers about suffering. Let me keep company with those who say “Look!” and weep in solidarity, and bow their heads.”
At my previous church, I received a call that every pastor dreads. One of my parishioners had a two-year-old who was playing around his grandmother’s pool and fell in and drowned. Gone. This is not the time for a Martha response. Any so-called hopefulness that cannot digest the utter tragedy and senselessness of the event and weep is not a theology worth having. Anything that can’t name such horror truthfully as NOT God is not the faith of Jesus Christ nor the weeping that he calls us to. So how do we hold both hope and tears? Well, let’s look to Jesus one more time and discover a battle and an enemy. And who is that enemy – death.
Love and anger in the face of the enemy
It’s often frustrating that almost every English translation seeks to downplay Jesus’ honest emotional response. In vs, 38 the NIV says “Jesus, once more deeply moved”. Translations like this function like verbal Prozac, seeking to mute and contain Jesus’ real, fully human and fully divine response to death and suffering. Instead, John uses a strong verb ἐμβριμάομαι/ embrimáomai which literally means to engage [en] in a snort [brimaomai, “to snort”] like an angry horse; or "snort (roar) with rage.” It expressed anger, indignation, and frustration. One writer captures its meaning by saying, “Jesus bellowed with anger.” Why is Jesus angry? Because THIS is the fight of his life!
Jesus bellowed with anger because death is the real enemy. The great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas captures Jesus’ bellow: “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Jesus is raging against death. He doesn’t say to the sisters, “Look, just get used to it. Everybody dies.” He doesn’t say, “Don’t cry. God is in control.” No, he looks squarely at death and suffering and rages against “the dying of the light.” Those who watched Jesus with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus understood. They declared, “See how he loved him!” I hope you understand that Jesus’ love and anger mean that we say, “See how he loves us, you, them, everyone.” See how Jesus loves – becoming fully human in solidarity with us, being fully God to show us God’s heart and hope, entering our world, to face our greatest enemy - death. So “rage, rage, against the dying of the light,” weep and know that he has won.
Friends, can I tell you something – something that might be one of the more important Biblical strategies you will ever hear. Don’t go to the book of Revelation to understand the end of the world or your final destiny – or at least don’t go there first. If you want to understand God’s ultimate plan and your destiny (called eschatology)– the earliest church said that you need only go to 1 Corinthians 15. There the Apostle Paul preaches, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death . . . so that God may be all in all.”
Friends, this is your end, brought about by Jesus himself – the death of death and God’s victory – “resurrection and life.” This is your doctrine of end times – “resurrection and life.” This is your ultimate hope in the face of suffering – “resurrection and life.” So hope, weep, and rage or snort against death and trust that God in Jesus Christ suffered, died and won – and will be all in all. The light has shown forth in the darkness. And the darkness does not overcome it. So put you’re your hope in Jesus, feel free to weep at pain, welcome anger, and rage against the dying of the light. Amen.
