Killing Lazarus

Grief is a powerful emotion. If you have ever lost someone close to you, you have some understanding of grief and its power. It is comforting to me, at the times when I feel grief, to know that even Jesus grieved. We are told that when Jesus arrived at Bethany to find that his friend Lazarus had died, he wept. Presumably he wept with grief at the loss of his friend. Most of us know the rest of this story. Jesus resurrects his friend from the dead.

In the twelfth chapter of John we find Jesus back in Bethany as he shares a meal with his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The other gospels do not name the woman, and we are left to understand that it may in fact be someone different, but in John's gospel it is Mary, the sister of Lazarus who anoints the feet of Jesus with expensive oil. John tells us that Judas objects, but Jesus says that she is preparing him for burial. Many of us are familiar with this story, and there has been much discussion about the oil, the poor, the role of Judas, and so on. I want to consider one other aspect of this story for a moment.

John goes on to tell us that when the people learned that Jesus was there a large crowd gathered "not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well" (John 12:9b-10, NRSV). By killing Lazarus they hoped to erase all record of the miracle that Jesus had performed - to eliminate the evidence. By removing the result, in other words, they hoped to remove the problem.

And how often do we do the same? In our culture, or work, our government and so many other ways, don't we assume that if we can eliminate the symptoms we have cured the problem? By killing Lazarus, effectively eliminating the symptom, the priests thought they could cure the problem. And the result? We don't know that they actually carried out the killing of Lazarus, but I suspect that if they had, the end result would have been the same as it was from killing Jesus, instead of killing the problem, it exacerbated it.

What problems face us daily? What problems face our world? Oppression, racism, poverty, hunger, ignorance, war - we cannot cure these problems by eliminating the evidence of them. We must address the issues that create the problem. Killing Lazarus would not address the problems they were having with Jesus (killing Jesus would not solve the problem either). Too often we, as well, think that by silencing the critics, killing the prophetic voices, and removing those who protest that we can eliminate the problem. If we hide the poor away, kill our enemies, and lock up our social conscience, we can cure the problem. These are not the problem, though. Like Lazarus they serve only to remind us of the realities with which we are faced.

Jesus tells Judas (in John's gospel) that we will always have the poor with us. This is not an excuse to ignore the problem, but like Lazarus was for the chief priests, it is a reminder that we have real problems to address. We cannot cure the issues that face us as a country or a world, by covering over the evidence of problems such as global warning or health care and pretending that we have solved them. When we refuse to fund programs that help people in favor of programs that expand our ability to fight war, we are, in effect, killing Lazarus.

On that Saturday following the crucifixion, I suspect the chief priests probably felt like they had solved their problem by killing Jesus. Were they still plotting to kill Lazarus? And what then, come Easter? As we approach Easter Sunday, the stories of the resurrection of Lazarus and Jesus remind us not just of hope, but of life. Life has problems and living together creates problems. Instead of killing Lazarus and killing Jesus to try to fix our problems, let us recognize at Easter and beyond that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit as the people of the Kingdom of God to find ways together to address our problems. Ignoring, hiding, or burying our issues will not make them go away and temporary fixes will only bring them back later. Killing Lazarus may be the easy way - but it is not the solution. Instead, as God's people in Jesus Christ, let us find ways to work together and to work with others to effect permanent solutions in faith, in hope, and in love. Happy Easter!!