John 11: 32-44

Today’s Biblical passage presents a paradox between the grief of death and the joy of new life. The difference between grief having the final word and Jesus having victory over death. But in order to fully appreciate the joy of the resurrection, we need to face the sting of death. 

Mary and Martha believed that Jesus was the Messiah and believed that he could bring healing and perform miracles. And now that their brother’s health was quickly failing they sent word to their master and friend  to come quickly to them and restore wellness to Lazarus. But Jesus didn’t make it in time. In fact he didn’t even make it to them the immediate days after Lazarus’ passing. Now four days have passed and he has finally arrived at their home in Bethany. Mary was the first to see him and the words that exited her mouth rang with grief and accusation, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

How many times have we said a similar thing to God, especially in our times of grief. Oh God, if only. If only you would have been here. If only you would have intervened. If only you would have stopped the car. If only you wouldn’t have allowed this to happen. If only you would have answered my prayer. If only. We, like Mary, look to Jesus for answers, but instead find something else, perhaps of greater worth then any answer could be. We find a companion.

Notice that Jesus did not answer Mary’s statement, he did not explain or defend himself. Instead, he went to where Lazarus body was laid and wept. He was so moved by Mary’s grief and the grief of those who were gathered with her, that words would not suffice. For centuries Jesus grief has perplexed scholars - what could Jesus’ weeping mean? Why would he cry if he knew that Lazarus was going to be resurrected? Is this showing of emotion simply his humanness coming through or was he deeply troubled by the crowds lack of understanding at what was about to take place? Was Jesus just weeping to trick the crowd into thinking that he was sympathetic or did he truly love Lazarus and grieve his death? 

Scholars can debate what these tears meant as much as they want, but we believe that Jesus was truly human and truly divine. That he came in the form of a helpless baby in order to experience the human life to understand us more fully. And brothers and sisters, our lives involve loss and grief at times. We have a Savior who chose to freely enter into our suffering with us and walk with us through the shadow of the valley of death. When Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend, gone was the idea of a God who was far removed from our heartaches and trials. No, this God who walked among us, understands what it feels like to have someone close to him die. 

Jesus tears are not the only perplexing part of today’s narrative. Today’s translation says twice that Jesus was greatly disturbed. But the Greek wording could better be translated as angry. We don’t like to think of Jesus as being angry. What did Jesus even have to be angry at in this passage? Was Jesus mad at himself for not making it to Lazarus sooner? Or at the crowds for their lack of faith? Jesus was angry at death itself. Death that was not in God’s plan for humankind. Death that is a tool of the Advisory. Death that has tricked us into thinking that it is the final end. And death that effects us so deeply. Remember way back to the Garden of Eden when God told Adam and Eve that if they ate from the trees which they were forbidden to touch they would surely die. God did not say when they would die, only that they would. And is that not now each of our fates - to eventually fight life’s final battle at an undermined time and die? But thankfully today’s story, and the story of our faith, does not end with death being victorious. Jesus had those gathered roll away the stone to the grave and prayed to God before crying for Lazarus to come out of the tomb. And the dead man came out! Jesus took this opportunity to proclaim that God would have victory over death and that he is the resurrection and the life. 

Today we will celebrate All Saints Day, our time to remember our loved ones who have passed away and to proclaim, as the church, that we believe that death is not the final end. That Jesus is our resurrection and our life.  This is the time to honor those saints, both whom we know and those whom we don’t, who have left this life of great ordeal and have joined those who are in God’s presence, worshipping daily. As Methodists we believe that all Christians are “saints”, not simply martyrs or forefathers and mothers of the faith. So today we celebrate all those who are deceased, and honor their memory. We honor those whom we know. We grieve our loses. We celebrate the lives they lived. We strive to embrace what they have taught us, so we can pass on the lessons of the faith. And we praise God for their lives on this earth and their lives eternal. 

Brothers and sisters, who do you miss this day? Who do you grieve over, like Mary? Whose memory do you want to uphold and recognize as being a blessing in your life and the lives of others? They do not have to be someone who has passed this year, for often our grief cannot be contained by human time frames. Who do you both want to mourn and celebrate?

Last year we had an All Saints Service for the students at the Wesley Foundation at Penn State, many of whom had never celebrated this day in the church before. One of the young men got up, with tears glistening, and lit a candle for a loved one whom was still alive, but who had died to his old habits that separated him from the love of Christ. Friends, do you have anyone whom you want to lift up in prayer today, celebrating that they have come one step closer to recognizing the grace and love of Christ? Light a candle for them as well.

We have gather together to celebrate the lives of those who have went on before us into eternity. To remember each of them – to re-member. To continue to live our lives in a different way in the absence of those we care about. When we remember those whom we have lost, we are reminded that while they have died, they are still part of us gathered here, the living. They are still part of our fellowship. And we have hope that we have fellowship with them again around the heavenly banquet table!

Brothers and sisters may we now prepare to honor those whom we love, knowing that whatever the circumstances are, this, the first day of the week, and particularly this day, as we celebrate All Saints Day, we have gathered to worship a God who has conquered the grave and has had victory over death. We gather in the presence of our God who is angry at death and grieves with us. Though we may have come to worship today with weary and heavy hearts, we have a hope in Jesus that cannot be contained. A hope in the one who cries for us to be unbound from our death clothes and freed. For in the words of scholar Cynthia Jarvis “The miracle is this: that united in his death by his grace, you may wake from the death that is life without him and live unbound, now and eternally, to God’s glory”. May it be so. Amen.