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| Tomb of Lazarus in Bethany |
Waiting For God
If one were to conduct an informal survey on the street
where we ask people where food comes from, what would we likely hear from
people? Very likely a great many people
would say that food comes from the grocery store. If we need something, we right away go to the
store and there it is whenever we need it, in whatever quantities we want, and
in whatever variety we like. In reality,
however, food takes a long time to produce.
Crops must be planted and grown; animals must mature to a certain age
before being prepared for market; cheese and other such items take time to
prepare. Food is not instant, and yet
for most people their experience is otherwise and we have come to demand
instantly whatever it is we want in the world of food.
Has this demand for instant gratification also come to
dominate our relationship with God?
Today’s Gospel text challenges us to consider this question for
ourselves, for everyone in the story expects Jesus to come when they want and
they want him to do what they want.
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The story also tells us quite explicitly that
Jesus deliberately delayed in coming to Bethany, even though he knew that
Lazarus was ill to the point of death.
Had the people come to expect Jesus to act on command performance? As in so many other instances, Jesus shatters
our expectations and preconceived ideas of who he is and what he can do.
We might do well to step back from this story and put it in
context of the stories we have heard over the past two weeks prior to
today. Two weeks ago we met the
Samaritan woman, an outcast in the eyes of Jesus’ race and an outcast among her
own people. And yet Jesus talks with her
about living water and she comes to understand the identity of Jesus, so much
so that she becomes the first missionary who leads her entire village to accept
Jesus as “savior of the world.” Last
week we read the story of the man born blind – a Jewish man who becomes an
outcast by accepting Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
The man came to see the identity of Jesus, while the religious
authorities of Jesus’ day could not get past their own expectations and
preconceived ideas. They could not
accept the miracle because it took place on the Sabbath.
In the story of Lazarus we see Jesus care for one he loved,
and it is at this sign that Jesus becomes a complete outcast in the eyes of the
religious leaders of the day. This sign
is the last of Jesus’s signs to be performed before his passion, death, and
resurrection. In the raising of Lazarus
we receive a glimpse of the great Sign Jesus will perform in rising from the
dead. Lazarus was raised, but he will
die again. Jesus was raised and lives
forever with the Father. All of the
previous signs Jesus performed pointed to and led up to his resurrection. By the same token, it is only in the light of
Jesus’ resurrection that we come to understand his earlier signs and what they
meant.
The identity of Jesus was and is not something that can be
recognized all at once. We must wait for
his identity to unfold in the Gospel drama.
Different events in the life of Jesus cannot be taken in isolation from
the others in order to establish his identity or be used in some hollow
apologetic for tangential purposes. The
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus must be taken as a whole. They must be lived and experienced over time
in order for us to understand the full meaning of Jesus’ identity and
mission. And so, like the characters in
our Gospel text today, we must wait. We
must wait, put aside all our expectations and preconceived ideas, and allow God
to reveal himself to us in the person of Jesus in his time. When we allow God to do this, we experience
more than our expectations and preconceived ideas could have ever
imagined. Only by this patient waiting
and self-emptying can we arrive at resurrection and eternal life.
We need one another in order to wait in patience and to
overcome these expectations and preconceived ideas. And so we gather again to pray for the help
we need as we draw closer to the Great Feast of Jesus’ passion, death, and
resurrection. “Let us pray for the
courage to embrace the world in the name of Jesus. Father in heaven, the love of your Son led
him to accept the suffering of the cross that his brothers might glory in new
life. Change our selfishness into
self-giving. Help us to embrace the
world you have given us, that we might transform the darkness of its pain into
the life and joy of Easter. Grant this
through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
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