This is a reflection on the story of Lazarus found in John 11. It is the gospel reading for All Saints Sunday.A day will come when three women will go to the tomb and ask one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" But not today.
Today we stand before another tomb, immersed in the grief of two sisters who have lost their brother; we stand before a stone which holds at bay the stench of death.
And we want to believe.
We want to trust, that this tomb is not just another dead end, and the promises we have learned and then taught others are real and to be trusted. We want to know that our loved one: a spouse, a friend, a child a parent, rests in the arms of a merciful Creator.
Yet it is is even deeper than that. We want to know about the deep dark places of our world - our places of fear and loss, our places of worry and powerlessness - we want to know if these too can be redeemed, if these too can be healed.
We are all too familiar with this side of the tomb. Some days the brokenness of this world overwhelms us; deaths pile up around us in our personal lives, our community, our nation: opioid addiction, gun violence, evil and terror, relentless diseases, and toll of poverty.
As we stand before the tomb today we know that this is no place for slapping smiley face stickers. We want to know where is Jesus in all this misery and suffering. We want to know if this is as good as it gets. We want to trust.
But it is hard. Very hard. Because we only know what we know: this man Lazarus who once was is now no more. The life has drained out of him and now he lies behind that great stone, beyond our reach. We only know that there seems to be no end to the wounds we are willing to inflict on one another, the wounds we both give and receive.
So it is easy to laugh at Jesus' words, just like the neighbors did in the ancient story. He promises life when the evidence is right before our face. It is so easy to stand with Mary and Martha's neighbors and mock this so called Savior.......when in fact we are longing for a truth which makes fools of us and all we think we know.
It is so easy to doubt when one is standing before that giant stone which is a monument to the place where it all ended; a monument to our forever powerlessness. It is so easy to let go of hope.
"If only you had been here our brother would not have died." Jesus was Mary and Martha's hope, right? Jesus who claimed to be one with the Creator, who claimed to be the way, the truth and the life. Standing before that stone it is easy to feel foolish for having invested in this Jesus, believing that the great feast that God was preparing for God's people would include them and us.
We are led to ask ourselves, "Are we the greater fools for believing in a reality beyond the one we see here? Are we the greater fools for using whatever power we have to build up others, to care for our neighbor and to forgive the offenders.....instead of grabbing all the fun and wealth we can now? Have we not hoped that this one called Jesus could hold us fast in the face of all the forces who daily deal death?
Is it not our hope that this one called Jesus would call our name and pull us out of the deepest darkness where there is no life at all? That Jesus would hold our lives as precious?
Jesus cried out, "Lazarus, come out" and we watch as Lazarus stumbles from the tomb with the shroud of death still covering him. So Jesus commands again, "Unbind him, and set him free."
Free. From death. Free to live. Free because of Jesus.
On this side of the tomb and on the other. Unbound and set free in Christ's name.
On that first Easter morning, three women go to another tomb and ask one another. "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"
For all the saints: those who draw breath today; those who are yet to be born, and those who now live beyond our sight, there is is only one answer and his name is Jesus.
