"Looking Toward Easter" John 11: 17-27; John 19: 38-42

The final week of the Lenten study groups brings us to the end of the Gospel of John, which means the story of the resurrection and Jesus post-resurrection appearances.  Of course, with Easter one week away, it seems a bit premature to proclaim the resurrection in the sermon.  I am going to try and reflect on the resurrection in a way that prepares us for its arrival.  When we chose this study, I knew this week would arrive with its mixed signals of resurrection and the waving of palm branches, but I think the study of the Gospel of John has been worth this dilemma.

Part of the sermon seems to be headed toward a continued discussion of the difference between the resurrection of Christ and bringing a dead person back to life.  In fact, I will compare the raising of Lazarus with the resurrection of Christ.  One of the members of the congregation I serve sent me these words from the first chapter of Luke Timothy Johnson's book Living Jesus (1998):

The resurrection of Jesus has nothing to do with his avoiding death by luck or design in order to continue his former life without any real change.  Theories ancient and modern proposing otherwise replace evidence with imagination.  They also fail to appreciate that such a prosaic denouement would have been good news only for Jesus and his associates, not an event that changed the world.  The New Testament is unswerving in its insistence that Jesus truly died — indeed, was killed by the legal violence of state execution (therefore in a certified and public way) — and was buried in the manner of others who had their lives ended.  Like every other human being who ever lived, therefore, Jesus of Nazareth also died.

In the same way, the resurrection of Jesus is understood not as a resuscitation from clinical death, though such dramatic resuscitations are attested in the ancient world as well as in our own.  Elijah raised the widow of Sarepta's son in this way so that the young man could continue his life (1 Kings 17:17-24).  Jesus likewise raised the widow of Naim's son from his bier (Luke 7:11-16) and his friend Lazarus from the tomb (John 11:38-44).  In all these cases, resurrection meant only the perpetuation of the same life that was led before the moment of death.  Lazarus did not live in a qualitatively different fashion after being brought back to life.  He was not more alive than before, simply alive again in the same way as before.  That he was alive again no doubt pleased both Jesus and Lazarus's sisters, Mary and Martha.  But even when resuscitated, Lazarus remained mortal; he still faced inevitable death.  In other words, his mortality was postponed but not transcended.  And when he finally died, Lazarus stayed dead, like all others before him.  In sum, his resuscitation did not mean that he was more alive than he had been, or that he continued in life forever, or that he lived powerfully in the lives of others.

As I ponder that quote, I am reminded that Lazarus came from the grave with his grave cloths wrapped around him; Jesus' gave cloths lying in the tomb and the head wrap folded up by itself.  As if Lazarus did not escape death, but was still bound by death, albeit death at a later time.  On the other hand, Jesus has removed beyond death in his resurrection.

I am also pondering how differently the resurrected Christ must have appeared since people had trouble recognizing him.