Terror and Joy

Daily Devotional • September 13

30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Meditation

Imagine Martha and Mary preparing Lazarus’  body for burial. The washing, the anointing, the wrapping, the laying in the tomb. The ever-flowing tears, the grief that is beyond comfort but can only be sympathized with. Like all priests, I have dealt with death many times in my ministry: the deaths of the elderly whose time had come and was anticipated, but also the deaths of children, of young people who died in accidents, of people who had been murdered.

Imagine the uncontrollable wailing of mothers, the haggard and grim faces of fathers. In this lesson we have the verse, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Often cited as the shortest verse in the Bible, it also summarizes Jesus’ identification with us as mortals. Lazarus “has been in the tomb for four days.” Bodily decay has begun with its revolting, gagging stench. 

Here, arguably, is the greatest of Jesus’ miracles. The raising of the dead is not only a world-changing miracle; it is marked by a compelling command. The command is not given to Death, but to the dead. The command is shouted with undeniable authority: “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43). 

Compare the translations; most have “Lazarus, come out,” as if he is revealing himself at the end of a game of hide and seek, but “Come forth!” is a command to present yourself before the Master, a command to which even death must submit. 

In Zeffirelli’s miniseries, “Jesus of Nazareth,” at this point there is a scudding away of a shadow from the stone field before the tomb as if blown away by the wind, and the land is left bright and sunbathed. The closing verse, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (John 11:44) is a summary of the entire meaning of the Gospel: the rescue of the beloved from the supreme grasping clutches of death and the grave.

David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Indianapolis – The Episcopal Church
The Episcopal Diocese of Springfield