Jesus Wept

All Saints Sunday – Year B-RCL

 

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

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." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 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." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 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." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 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."

I have to admit that this is one of my favorite passages from the Gospel of John.  It is a place in the gospels where I can certainly relate to Jesus – it is a place in John where we get to see the incarnate Jesus at his most human.  Jesus Wept.  In John’s Gospel there is an assurance from the very beginning that Jesus is the Christ – the Son of God.  The Gospel of John starts not with the birth of Jesus in a manger but with Jesus being present at the very beginning of creation.  For John there is never a question of who Jesus is. That he is the messiah.  

It is in John’s Gospel that we read that Jesus wept.  The death of his friend Lazarus stung Jesus.  Jesus knew that he had the power to overcome death but death still stung.  It still evoked tears.  And this is a passage that gives us permission to mourn a loss.  It gives us the permission to weep.  We also hear that Jesus was greatly disturbed at the death of this friend.  Jesus reaction is one that I bet all of us have had at one time in our lives. Jesus’ reaction at the death of Lazarus gives us permission to hurt and to be angry.  It gives us permission to grieve.  Growing up in a society that taught that boys don’t cry it gives me permission to cry – which I admit is not something that is easy for me.  Jesus wept. So we can weep.

Today as we remember all the saints who have gone before us. Today we are explicitly given permission to remember.  

Death is not easy.  Even the so-called good deaths – those deaths that have given relief to suffering and pain – are not all that easy.  And some deaths seem to sting more than others.  When we are touched by the death of children or very close loved ones the hurt is strong.  No matter the death the loss always catches us up short.  There are saints in my life that I remember fondly and for no reason, after many yeares, the loss will catch me up short at the strangest times.  One of the saints in my life was a wonderful woman - Nell.  For Nell the great commandment to Love God and Love neighbor was practiced with wild abandon. She loved God’s creation in ways that I can only strive to duplicate.  She was always there for me in so many ways.  

After my Godfather died she called me every Tuesday at 6:30 AM.  She called me then because she knew it was my early day at college and that I would be up getting my day started.  She called for a year – every Tuesday – to check in and let me know that it was ok to grieve.  She is now counted as one of the saints and every so often something will remind me of her.  It might be the smell of an oak woodland in summer.  It might be the picture of her than hangs in my house.  It might be the sound of bird-song, she was a great bird watcher! It can be anything and even after all of these years a tear will come to my eye – or a smile to my face.

Today we remember all the saints – known and unknown.  We read names from the Book of Remembrance and bring photos or other things that represent those who have joined the ranks of the saints and offer them to God on an altar of remembrance.  It is a time set aside for us to remember.  It is a time to remember their earthly pilgrimage with us.  It may also be a time to weep again at our loss.  And we can be comforted in our sorrow.  We can be comforted that even the incarnate Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus.

We also need to remember those Saints who have nobody to remember them.  They are surely just as much part of the host of Saints as those we hold in our hearts.  When I visited the great Abbey Church in Melk I was struck by two Unknown “crypt Saints” who are in glass coffins on two side altars.  The inscriptions said that they had no idea who these people where in life.  But in death they offered them names.  One they named Clemens and the other Friedrich.  We know nothing about their lives before they ended up in Melk but in death they are saints.  

Today is also a time to remember that God has power to destroy death.  Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb.  Even though Martha warned Jesus that Lazarus was sure to stink after being dead three days – Jesus still called his name and even in death Lazarus responds.  Jesus will do the same for us.   When we are in the depth of despair and hurt Jesus is calling our names.  Calling us out of whatever tomb we have entered.  Jesus has the power over death.  Physical death and the little deaths that we all experience in our lives.  Jesus doesn’t care that we may stink.  He will call our names anyway.  All we need to do is respond.

We don’t know what life after death looks like.  The book of Revelation promises us that we will be with God.  That death will be no more:

"See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them as their God;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away." 

God will wipe away our tears.  That is why I am here.  The gift of the incarnate Jesus – the promise that God dwells with us.  The gift of God weeping at the death of his friend.  And the promise that in our grief it is God who wipes away our tears.  We don’t read today that we are not to grieve.  We read that even our incarnate Lord wept.  And that God will wipe away our tears.  

All we have to do is listen for our name.  And we will be called.  It doesn’t matter how much we stink or how much we think we are unlovable.  The truth is that God loves his creation so much that God dared to dwell with us.  God dared to cry with us.  And God will dare to be with us for all time.