Do you believe?
Fifth Sunday in Lent, 9th March, 2008
Fr Matthew Healy
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus said to Martha "I am the Resurrection and the life....do you believe?"
A few years back I was told a story by a prospective ordination candidate of the questions posed to him by an examining chaplain of a certain churchmanship: "Is Jesus Christ your Lord and Saviour? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?" The prospective candidate, understanding the particular sub-text attached to such a line of questioning, rightly, honestly and confidently replied "Yes" to both questions but then quickly qualified his answer with "but I am not too sure it's the same Jesus you believe in." Needless to say that person was not selected for ordination training in that particular diocese (and I think you can guess it was not the Diocese of Wangaratta!).
And before I take you down the road of this sermon, let me preclude any doubt in one important matter — when I refer to "the Jews" in this sermon, I do so as intended by the meaning of the text of John's Gospel, namely the people who ejected the Johnanine community out of their local synagogue. It is therefore not a reference to the Jewish people of all time and place. John's Gospel use of the term "the Jews" reflects what was understood then as a purely intra-Jewish problem, and therefore it has no association with the unfortunate and regretful anti-Semitic policies and actions that is now a scar of shame in the history of Christianity.
In the narrative of John's gospel the motif that underpins the development of each character revolves around their attempt at answering the implicit question of "Who is this Jesus?" Today's select portion from the gospel is no exception.
The supporting characters personify the responses given to the implied question of "Who is this Jesus?" They inform us that Jesus is "The Lord", "The Messiah", "the Son of God" and "the Teacher". In the narrative the response that each character makes reveals their level of belief in Jesus — no belief, part-belief, or for want of a better phrase — full or right belief. John develops the supporting characters of the narrative as guideposts for the hearers and readers of the gospel so as to bring them into an understanding of Jesus — to elicit from people a response as to "Who is this Jesus?" Bringing the hearer or reader, you and me, to this Johnanine understanding of belief in Jesus is the sole objective of the Gospel. Like our friend, the examining chaplain, the Gospel has its own agenda and its own desired outcome.
On the stage are two principal characters — Lazarus and Jesus. The other supporting characters are the individuals of Martha and Mary, together with two distinct groups of people, the disciples of Jesus and "the Jews."
Lazarus has a pretty easy role. All he has to do is die, get spiced up by his sisters, and be put in a tomb. He utters not one word. He is almost a passive character throughout the scene. His main role is to symbolise death, and he does a very good job at it, especially when on the fourth day it would appear that a little bit of incense would not of gone astray.
The portrayal of the disciples by John is of them up to their usual tricks — perplexed, full of doubt and incomprehension. No matter how many occasions they witness the mighty works of God in Jesus, the Seven Signs of God's presence — water into wine, the healing of the royal officials son, the healing of the lame man, the feeding of the five thousand, the walking on water, the giving of sight to the blind man, and the bringing of Lazarus from death back to life — after all that, they continue to think of Jesus as been some "size-me-up" Rabbi.
Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, bring us a pair of contrasting characters. Because of other gospel accounts we have grown used to Martha as symbolizing distraction and needless activity before the presence of the Lord; whereas Mary is seen as the one who sits attentively, soaking up every word of Jesus. This is not so in today's gospel account. Both miss the point. Whilst both act out their known characteristics — Martha running around doing things and Mary sitting at home, they equally fail to understand the reality of who is before them — both cling to old ways, to old wineskins — both cannot move beyond their religious expectations to risk trusting that their experience of Jesus points to a reality beyond this world, to God's dimension and way.
Martha could believe and trust in Jesus' miracles, his wonders signs, but she fails to make the connection between the outward signs of the miracle to that which the miracle reveals — to the greater reality that the presence of God is among them in the flesh of Jesus.
Mary is been led away by false shepherds, "the Jews." For John the role of "The Jews" symbolizes antagonism and utter contempt and rejection of the word of Jesus. Pretty hard stuff, but as previously mentioned it does have a context. It is important to note who takes sides with "the Jews" — yes, the great friend of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, who is weeping with them — and this indicates, on the Johnanine scale of belief, that she has some way to go. This show of grief by Mary seemingly evokes a similar response from Jesus. Perhaps this is the type of Jesus some of us may possibly be thinking that we can re-affirm our belief in — because by his weeping, he displays his humane characteristics. Not so — before you take too much comfort from this, let me debunk the supposition as to where the emotion of Jesus is directed. For the action and accompanying words of Jesus are indeed charged with emotion, however he is not weeping over the death his dear friend Lazarus; nor is he "going out in sympathy" with Mary and Martha; and he is certainly not in cohort with "The Jews." His highly charged emotional state arises from his frustration with his followers, his closest friends from Bethany, who despite their observance of him performing signs, almost sacramental signs of outward nature pointing to an inner reality, they remain outside the realm of full belief. They simply can't or won't get it. Sure, Martha is almost there, a partial belief, but then she too reveals that her earlier profession of belief is qualified by her stunted, short-sighted, limited religious criteria. Her belief in Jesus remains constrained by the limitations of popular and religious Messianic expectations.
The shocking contrast between who they thought Jesus to be, and as to whom he really was, is only revealed, as we know, when Jesus' hour arrives — dying as a convicted criminal, nailed to a barbarous instrument of torture and execution, in human desolation, and despaired of faith — and it is here, at the apparent destruction of life, that God's glory is fully revealed, that the fullness of life is given.
The point of today's gospel, indeed of all the readings, is to show that death, the ultimate fate of every creature, has found an anti-dote in Jesus through his death. His death is our life. Like the Moses in the desert who by putting the snake on a stick for people to look at saved the Israelites from the snakes venom, so it is for us who look to Jesus on the stick of wood, the cross, are brought into realm of eternal life. Our friend Lazarus is a foretaste of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Lazarus in a way, is also a model — because even in death he hears Jesus' voice, just like those sheep who hear the voice of the Good Shepherd calling them by name and obey, and so too, Lazarus hears his name, and obeys the invitation to a new life. He comes out of the tomb, the restrictive bindings of death are removed, and he is given his freedom. Just as Jesus cured the man on the Sabbath Day and showed by doing so that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, so by bringing Lazarus out of death into life he shows that he has dominion over death and is the Lord of Life.
The readings that the church has selected for the Sundays in Lent in the cycle of Year A are the preferred or normative lection for churches which prepare adults to receive the Sacraments of Initiation into Christ and his Church at Easter. It is through the waters of Baptism, by the Seal of Confirmation, and when welcomed to the Altar-Table of the Lord in the eating and drinking at the Eucharistic banquet, that women and men are formally brought into the life of Jesus, into a belief in Jesus, the Christ. This journey of discipleship is our grace given response to God's call to move out of the tomb, to be unbound by the confines of death, and be brought into his eternal life. I'm rather glad that the "way" of our Christian journey is called discipleship — for to be numbered among the disciples of Jesus, with all their doubts and fears, their incomprehension and their persistence in keeping Jesus within the confines of their worldly expectations certainly ought to bring us much encouragement to keep working at it, to continue seeking Jesus, so as to see him for whom and what he really is — our way, truth and our life. It ought also bring us much encouragement to us as the church, especially in our present time in the Anglican Communion, that it is indeed a journey towards a greater belief and a deeper faith.
If the dead can be called and brought to life, then those already living can be called and brought into eternal life.
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