The Perspective of Lazarus (All Saints Sunday)
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Today, on the church calendar, we celebrate all the saints. That is – in biblical terms – all of the people, both living and dead, who have lived in faith and been servants of Jesus. It’s especially a time when we remember those who have died and gone before us. But it’s also a time to remember that each of us is called right now to be saints in the life of the world around us.
And so I always think it’s cool when we read the story of the raising of Lazarus on All Saints Sunday. After all, Lazarus is both a saint who was dead, and saint who was alive! He gets to be both in today’s Gospel reading.
And yet, we don’t know very much about Lazarus. He appears only in the 11th and 12th chapters of John’s Gospel, where he’s introduced along with his sisters, Mary and Martha, as people who are especially close to Jesus. Lazarus is ill, and his sisters send word to Jesus that he should come and heal him.
But Jesus sits tight for a while, and doesn’t head out until after he knows Lazarus is already dead. When Jesus and his disciples get to Bethany, which is just outside Jerusalem, Lazarus has been dead for four days, which is where today’s story picks up.
Jesus tells Martha to move the stone away from the entrance to the tomb, which she reluctantly does because of the stench of a dead body. And then, Jesus calls out to Lazarus, who miraculously returns to life and comes out of the tomb.
And yet, Lazarus has no speaking part in this story, here or elsewhere! And while the Gospel recounts the impact of this event on the crowds, on Mary and Martha, and even on the surrounding community, we really don’t ever get Lazarus’ perspective on what just happened!
And so, on this All Saints Sunday, it might be good to consider for a moment what it must have meant for Lazarus to be a “saint” – that is, to be someone who, after being called back to life by Jesus, was called to live in faith and continue to be a servant of Jesus.
What would it mean to be a “saint” from the perspective of Lazarus? Of course, nobody in the story asks him, but it seems to me that being a saint, from Lazarus’ perspective had to mean:
- Living with a deep understanding of grace in his life – after all, Lazarus did nothing to contribute to this miracle. He was literally dead. He couldn’t even “hear” the voice of Jesus calling him back to life. But I suspect that for the rest of his life, Lazarus lived with a sense that in Jesus, God would love him and find him and help him, even when he couldn’t do a thing to help himself or change the outcome of a situation he was in. And that had to affect how he lived into his newfound future…
- Living with hope – after all, Lazarus had been dead, and not even death had separated him from the love of God in Christ Jesus – for him, that verse from Romans wouldn’t have simply been a hope for the future, but an actual lived experience. And it also didn’t mean all his problems were behind him. We read this story some years in Lent and on All Saints Sunday, but we never read the follow-up a few verses later. Just after this story, Jesus is back at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha having dinner. And the Gospel records that, “When the great crowd of Jews (from the Passover crowds in Jerusalem) learned that Jesus was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.” You gotta feel sorry for Lazarus at this point – he’s just been raised from the dead, and suddenly there’s a plot to kill him! He lives, maybe for the rest of his life, in a dangerous and life-threating situation. But this time, he faces it knowing that even if they succeed in killing him, it won’t be the end. That’s what living in hope really is…
- Living in community – after all, even though Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, he’s still tied up. Apparently, he could sorta hop his way out of the tomb, but unless the community of Jesus’ followers unbound him and let him go, he couldn’t do much. And I suspect that Lazarus, in being unbound and set free, understood that part of his job in living as a saint meant that he was now unbound so that he could return and be part of a community that set others free – whether from physical, spiritual or emotional bonds. And it’s always the case that when Jesus frees someone – whether it’s from sickness, loneliness or even from death – that they’re freed so that they can return to community and share what they’ve received with others…
And so on this All Saints Sunday, the perspective of Lazarus can also help us to follow Jesus and live as saints in our own time and place. For whether or not we experience any kind of miracle in our lives, as followers of Jesus, we’re all called to be saints by being people who live:
- By grace – and that’s important in a culture in which we’re almost always “earning” what we get, or arguing about what we’re “entitled to.” I’m sure most of you know that the expression, “God helps those who help themselves” is from Benjamin Franklin, not the Bible, right? Yet often, we live like maybe God needs a little bit of a hand from us. But Lazarus literally hears and receives the voice of Jesus when he’s dead. Even when he can’t help himself at all, Jesus helps him. Sometimes, I’ve read Christian “self-help” stuff about how you can listen for, and hear, the voice of Jesus in your life and figure out God’s purpose for your life. I get it – I sometimes even preach about stuff like that. But sometimes, these things give you the impression that God has placed a secret code somewhere in the Bible, or a subtle hint in the world around you that you may or may not be able to find. And it gives people the impression that God’s voice will only come to you if you’re really attentive. Yet while being attentive is good, when Jesus wants Lazarus to hear his voice, Jesus does it, even when Lazarus can’t physically hear. And trusting that Jesus will do the same for you is often what living by grace is all about…
- With hope – and for us, “hope” is often a pretty weak word. We use it in ways like, “I hope it won’t rain when we have an outdoor event.” It’s just really a wish. But hope for Lazarus was confidence, not that no bad thing would happen, but that the bad things wouldn’t finally win out, not even death. And for us, living in hope is about living with confidence that God’s love and power are stronger than whatever chaos we’re going through at the moment. And that as long as Jesus is there for us, it’s really not the end, even if our preferred candidates don’t win this week…!
- In community – one of the really horrible things about death is that you’ve been cut off from the community of your loved ones. And when Lazarus was revived from death, he returned to community – he was at meals with everyone – he didn’t go off and sit by himself. And for us, experiencing grace and hope and even resurrection right now is more often found when we participate in the community of believers instead of continuing to lie in a cave by ourselves. I’ve read a lot of articles, and you probably have too, about how “loneliness” is sort of epidemic in our society right now. And often, that’s been linked to people lacking communities (both religious and social) where they can find meaning, purpose and connection outside of themselves. And for us, the community of Jesus is a community where we can both experience being unbound from being alone, as well as one in which we can be Jesus’ agents of unbinding others…
So today, we remember the saints – like Lazarus – who have gone before us. But even more than that, the voice of Jesus calls us to be saints in our own time and place. And often, we learn what that means by remembering the perspective of saints like Lazarus.
And being a saint like Lazarus doesn’t mean we need to have a unique, miraculous experience in our lives. But it does mean that we’re called to be followers of Jesus who rely on God’s grace instead of our own strength. Being a saint means living in hope that even when things get bad, it’s really not the end. And being a saint means living together in community in such a way that we can be unbound and empowered to be people who unbind others by sharing the grace and hope we’ve found in Jesus.
Amen.