April 6 -- Fifth Sunday in Lent

Listen to this sermon HERE.

Yesterday -- looking at “Serving all people following example of Jesus” in confirmation -- picking up trash in the neighborhood.  And we wore our yellow ‘God’s Work Our Hands’ SVLC t-shirts.  And when we were done my shirt was sweaty (and it was a cool day yesterday, and my trash bag was one of the smaller ones) -- but I had this thought, thinking about our text for today: that sweat is similar to tears.  It’s like tears of the body, which was quite an image as we talked yesterday about sin and Jesus.  The thought crossed my mind: perhaps our bodies were crying as we picked up the trash that our sisters and brothers in the neighborhood (at one point probably) had thrown on the earth... 

Bible's shortest and perhaps most 
profound verse: "Jesus wept." Jn 11:35

See, I’m not sure what is more amazing about this story:  Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead or Jesus crying…Jesus—who in the Gospel of John is clearly the very embodiment of God! —weeping.  

At first glance, the most miraculous of these two events is that Jesus brought Lazarus back to life after being dead for 4 days.  Amazing, right?  A joyous twist in the journey of Jesus to the Good Friday cross that we didn’t see coming, right?  Totally unexpected!

Well…amazing except for those of us who have heard this story many times, who’ve seen it in the movies...  For many students of the Bible, the very name Lazarus is synonymous with one being raised from the dead.  When we think Lazarus, we think “once-dead man walking.” 

If we’re not careful, this last and final sign of Jesus in the Gospel of John, which has risen to the surface of our attentions in these few minutes can just as quickly fall back into the corners of our minds as just “another great Bible story,” just another one of Jesus’ great miracles – something that happened long ago, which really has no bearing on our world or our lives today.

And this is where this second event comes in: Jesus weeping.  As a believer in Jesus, I think this is far more unbelievable.  It makes sense that God almighty has the power to raise someone who’s been dead: That’s what gods are supposed to do.  They are supernatural and all-powerful.  That’s what Jesus is supposed to do, and we all saw it coming, for Jesus tells us: “I am the resurrection and the life.”  

What we might have skimmed over, however, what we might have missed -- which is easy to do because it’s the shortest verse in the entire Bible -- is that “Jesus wept” beforehand.  

What is that?!  What is God almighty doing crying?  Especially if Jesus who knows he’s God and knows he’s able to call Lazarus out from the tomb? 

For me, Jesus weeping is way more amazing and profound than Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead…because there’s nothing supernatural about crying.  There’s nothing divine about weeping: or is there?  Is this what sets our God apart from all the other gods?  You have to understand that Jesus is all-power, all-glory, all-wisdom, all-God according (especially) to the Gospel of John.  In John we detect no fear ever on Jesus’ part…all the way to the cross, all the way to his last breath, where he declares, like a king on his throne, “It is finished.”  Good Friday is truly good, because of the Gospel of John’s interpretation.  Jesus conquers all, Jesus fears none, Jesus is always in control.  

Except that…crying is an expression of losing control.  When emotions take over, because feelings run so deep…tears begin to fall.  I would expect Jesus to cry in the Gospel of Mark or Luke or Matthew, where Jesus shows more human attributes.  

But what is Jesus doing weeping in John?  Amazing.      

The over-arching theme of John is LOVE, love divine.  And today we see how that looks...

[slowly] Love divine means that the tears of God come first.  The tears of God precede the healing, the re-connection (thinking of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones); the tears of God precede the resuscitation and unbinding of Lazarus.  And the tears of God precede the resuscitation and unbinding that is before us as well.

[pause] Sisters and brothers, St. Paul reminds us again today that, in Christ, we die, and in Christ we live anew.  Through a baptism of tears your old self is drowned and your new self, your Christ-reflecting self emerges, from the tombs and the bands that formerly locked you up and held you down.  

Jesus weeps us back to life.  Those who are battling addictions, Jesus weeps us back to life!  Those who are grieving unimaginable losses, Jesus weeps us back to life.  Those who are out of work, or going through great transitions, or bored out of your minds, or scared about the future...Jesus stands outside our tombs – weeps first, then calls us, “Come out!”  Sweating while picking up trash, is a micro-snapshot embodiment of this reality!  Through the sweat and tears and into the light (foreshadowing of the death and resurrection: through the tears and into the light).  Those of us struggling with depression, Jesus weeps us back to life!  Sitting beside us, abiding with us in our darkness, promising never to leave us.

Those of us longing for peace in this world, amid bombs exploding, crowds teeming with angry protests, soldiers going numb to the emotional and psychological pain in order to survive it all.  (I was talking to a soldier...but not just soldiers.)  How we can numb ourselves to the pain of this world—conveniently forgetting about the hungry child, the battered spouse, the homeless college student, or the immigrant frozen in the desert night.  There is a certain “stench” to our ignorance of the world’s pains, and our hesitation to discipleship.  But when we go numb to the pain of countless and nameless others, as a survival mechanism, Jesus weeps us back to life.  Jesus weeps, and we are drawn into that sorrow, and that is the beginning of new life, just like we can be drawn in when someone around us starts to cry, starts to lose control, and we can’t help but extend a gentle hand, offer a hug or a gift...or start crying with them.  

Jesus weeps us back to life, one bone, one sinew at a time.  For those of us bound by fear, Jesus weeps us into freedom.  I always wondered, when they unbound Lazarus, did they pull the bands in such a way that he became dizzy with freedom?  Sisters and brothers, Jesus frees us from our fears, dizzies us with freedom.  And freedom from fear can be dizzying.  Freedom from whatever is keeping you from being the woman or the man that God is calling you to be...from whatever is stopping you from having the difficult conversation, or offering the difficult amount of money, or going the difficult extra mile, or just getting closer to another human being…which can often be the most difficult.  

It’s so hard getting close to people.  [hospital rooms]  Because to get close means to know even more intimately their pains, their fears, their deep sorrows.  And I don’t like pain and fears and sorrows – that stuff has got a stench.  I like happiness and flowers.  

But that’s not where Christ leads us…and that’s certainly not where Jesus abides.  Christ dwells among the ashes of our world, the stench of our lives, the valleys of the shadows of death.  And that’s precisely where Christ weeps us back to life.  

[pause] Divinity in the Christian faith is not something/someone distant and calculated albeit miraculous; it is incarnate.  Divinity is made known to us through a wet cloth – a tear-soaked rag, a foot-washed towel, a sweaty t-shirt.  AMEN.