Reflections on “Dancing with Jesus: the Lazarus Lurch” John 11: 33-44

Most weeks, I teach the week's dance during the Time with Young Disciples.  this week, we had the puppets involved in teaching the dance.  It went really well.  The first section below is the script of the Time with Young Disciples, then the sermon is found.

I liked the sermon, although each of the three points could have been a stand-alone sermon.  I would like to preach this text again and expand the third Move into a full sermon.

 

Lazarus Lurch Time with Young Disciples

 

(The skit begins with Richard welcoming the children to the front of the sanctuary. Bible Billy is present in the puppet theater.)

 

Richard: I asked our friend Bible Billy to help me out this morning. Hey Billy!

 

Billy: Good morning! 

 

Richard: Ya’ll know that we are learning dances this summer. Our dances help us to understand and remember the story. So – it’s time to dance!

 

Billy: (startled) Wait a minute! Did you say “dance”?

 

Richard: Well, yes. My preaching series this summer is about dancing with Jesus. We have been learning dances every week! I need your help teaching the Lazarus Lurch! (Bach Toccata plays briefly and Lazarus puppet appears dancing…then immediately disappears. Richard and Billy stare at each other in disbelief.)

 

Billy: (flustered) Oh, no, no, no…. I don’t think I want anything to do with whatever that was! I’m afraid I cannot help you! I apologize friends, but I’ll be leaving now…. (starts to exit)

 

Richard: But, Billy, it’s just a little dancing and we’ll all do it with you!

 

Billy: No, no. I’m sorry!

 

Richard: Wait, Billy! What if we tell the story first before we do the Lazarus Lurch dance? (cue a repeat of the music and Lazarus – awkward pause before continuing) Yeah, how about we tell the story.

 

Billy: (hesitantly) Yes, I think that’s a good idea… Today’s bible story is about a man named Lazarus. Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha were good friends with Jesus. But, one day Lazarus became very sick. His sisters sent a message to Jesus who was in another town. They wanted Jesus to come right away and heal Lazarus. Kids, what do you think Jesus did? Did he rush to go help Lazarus? 

 

(time for kids to respond)

 

Richard: Jesus did NOT rush to help Lazarus. Can you believe that? Jesus waited two whole days before going to see Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

 

Billy: By the time Jesus got there, Lazarus had died! His sisters were very upset. They knew that if Jesus had come right away, he could have saved Lazarus. They believed in Jesus! 

 

Richard: Jesus was also very sad that Lazarus was dead. He wept with Lazarus’ friends and family. Then Jesus asked for Lazarus’ grave to be opened. Lazarus’ sister Martha thought that was a bad idea, but Jesus reminded her that her faith in him and God could do amazing things.

 

Billy: The people opened Lazarus’ grave and Jesus yelled, “Lazarus, come out!” And do you know what happened? (Lazarus puppet immediately pops up and seems to be waiting expectantly.) (Billy: a little freaked out) …Well, Lazarus came back to life and walked out of his tomb! It was a miracle! His body was wrapped up in cloths from his burial. Can you imagine what that was like for the people who were there that day! They would have been beyond amazed to see Jesus raise someone from the dead! (awkward pause as Billy eyes Lazarus…) Uh Richard…he seems to be waiting for something….

 

Richard: (unsure) Maybe he wants to dance?

 

Billy: Do I have to????? (Lazarus nods and Billy gives in.) Oh, alright. Let’s dance!

 

Lazarus: (sticks arms in the air to the right)

 

Richard: Ok – do what Lazarus does…arms up to the side

 

Lazarus: (sticks arms in the air to the left)

 

Richard: Arms to the other side…

 

Lazarus: (does a shimmy dance and twists side to side)

 

Richard: (leads kids)

 

Billy: Wow! That’s pretty fun! Let’s do the Lazarus Lurch! (organ music starts and all do the Lurch together.)

 

(after a few rounds of the dance, the music stops abruptly and Lazarus immediately disappears.)

 

Billy: That was strange and fun…

 

Richard: Imagine how the people felt that saw Jesus actually raise Lazarus from the dead! Alright, let’s say a prayer…

“Dancing with Jesus: the Lazarus Lurch”;  John 11: 33-44; July 23, 2023; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp

John 11: 33-44  ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus began to weep. ³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹Jesus 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.” ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴²I 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.” ⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The 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.”

Introduction:  the story of Lazarus is only told in the Gospel of John.

Remember last week when I mention that the tipping point in the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) was Jesus disrupting the Temple activities by turning over tables?  From that moment on, the authorities conspire to crucify Jesus.

the Gospel of John lays out Jesus’ story differently.  His action in the Temple is early in the gospel, and this story of Jesus raising Lazarus is the tipping point.

once Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, forces will rise up against him and his crucifixion is inevitable.

As we reflect on this story, keep in mind this irony: 

Jesus gives life (to Lazarus);

which leads to Jesus losing his life (his crucifixion);

which leads to giving us life.

So much going on in this story. 

this morning, three thoughts on what we learn about Jesus.

move 1:  Jesus joins with us out of love.

a. that’s what sticks out most in this story to me - Jesus’ love for the people.

1.   we know that Martha and Mary were his friends, as was their brother Lazarus.

2.  Lazarus was a really good friend.

2.  No surprise then for Jesus to feel sad or be emotional.

b.  But notice how the story plays out - Jesus sees Mary weeping;

1. Jesus sees the friends who were there to console Martha and Mary

2.  Jesus sees these people:

the people with whom he had come in flesh to be with; 

people who had been following him

some people he had come to know very well

others he had not come to know, but in time he would

some he sees he knows will turn away from him shortly

3.  He sees these people grieving and in pain, and it moves him.

4.  he weeps for Lazarus, for Martha and Mary, for all the people he sees, people he loves.

b.  His response, we are told, is to be "greatly disturbed in his spirit" (11:33). 

1.  That phrase is repeated so we know how deeply Jesus is affected.

1.  There are a couple of other places in the gospels when Jesus shows this kind of emotional, spiritual disturbance:

2.  Gethsemane, the place where Jesus goes to pray just before he is turned over to the authorities;

the place where he begins to feel the forsakenness of betrayal

the place where even his disciples fall asleep on him

the place where he determines to give his life for the people - the people for whom he will soon say, “Father, Forgive them.”

Gethsemane, where even in his despair he cannot forget the people whom he loves.

3. The other place Jesus is greatly disturbed is when he looks over Jerusalem and weeps.

Jesus knows the confusion and betrayal that were about to take place in Jerusalem

and he weeps for the people.  (https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2011/04/lazarus-is-us-alcye-mckenzie-04-04-2011?p=2; )

this story is a love story - it reveals Jesus’ love for the people he comes to save.

Move 2: the story also shows us Jesus gets down in the messiness of our lives.

a.  We have the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible in the pews.

1. We read the biblical stories each week in that translation.

2. I like it.  language easier to understand.

3. Certainly easier to understand the Elizabethan language of the King James version.

4. But, sometimes, King James’ language sounds better.

this story is one of those occasions.

when Jesus asks Martha to take him into the tomb, in the King James translation Martha says:  “Lord, by this time, He stinketh.”

1. He stinketh!

2. Surely Lazarus does as his un-embalmed body is already starting to decompose after 4 days.

b.  That does not deter Jesus.

1.  Jesus literally gets down into the stink of life and death.

2.  In that act, we are reminded that Jesus comes to join us in the messiness of our lives.

3. We stinketh - which does not drive Jesus away from us, but compels him to come to us.

4.  Jesus engages us not because are perfect, but because he chooses to enter the messiness of our lives to call us out, to invite us to new places.

c.  the text tells us that Jesus "cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 

1.  Raymond Brown, the New Testament scholar, notes that verb kraugazein [cry out] occurs only eight times in the whole Greek Bible, six of which are in John.  (Raymond E. Brown, The Anchor Bible Commentary on the Gospel According to John, Vol. 1, Chapters 1-12 427). https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2011/04/lazarus-is-us-alcye-mckenzie-04-04-2011?p=2

2.  It is the verb used when the crowds cry out, “Crucify him, crucify him”

3.  that is what Jesus does in this story - he comes into a world that cries out for his death with his own cry of “come out,” which gives life.

Into the messiness of our world that offers the ways of death, Jesus comes with the invitation for new life.  The crowd's shout brings death to Jesus. Jesus' shout brings life to Lazarus and to us.

Move 3:  A final thought - Jesus opens the door, but we have to walk through it.

a.  "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.”

1. “unbind him”

2.  Jesus calls Lazarus out from the grave, but then he instructs those around to unbind him.

3.  Jesus gives new life, but we participate in that new life.

4.  Lazarus needs those around him to unbind him.

b. “Let him go.”

1. Hard to imagine what it is like to be called back to life after being dead for four days.

2.  One ancient tradition says that the bits of decay that had begun on his body never healed after his resurrection, and he lived with the scars until he died again. There’s not really anything in the story that supports that, but it does seem like Lazarus would have lived with some trauma after they unwrapped him. After all, he had no say in what happened; life just went on. (https://donteatalone.com/lenten-journal/lenten-journal-life-goes-on-2; milton brasher-cunningham)

3.  Must have been weird to get his legs back underneath him.  Maybe like walking on land after having been on a boat for a while.

4.  Thus, the dance the Lazarus lurch.

5.  Lurching forward into new life.

c. Jesus gives us new life.

1.  how do we move forward in our lives when we are unbound, released from those bindings that tie us down?

2.  the story of Jesus giving new life is lived out by how we move into the world after we are set free.

3. Jesus calls us to new life - we have to live into that new life.

Conclusion: 

“Dancing with Jesus: the Temple Slam”; Matthew 21: 12-17

Another text I do not believe I have ever preached.  I enjoyed working on the sermon this week.  It felt like a good sermon to me, but not a single comment from anyone leaving worship!  Often, the sermons I like don't seem to be as well-received by the congregation.

 “Dancing with Jesus: the Temple Slam”;  Matthew 21: 12-17; July 16, 2023; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp

Matthew 21: 12-17  ¹²Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” ¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. ¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry ¹⁶and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?” ¹⁷He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Introduction:   We continue with our Dancing with Jesus preaching series, although this morning’s dance does not seem like much of a dance to me.

Dancing to me is more like a waltz, or a two-step.

Dance reflects the chaos - Temple grounds chaos as the crows arrive for Passover; 

the usual chaotic feel of a marketplace

Add to it the chaotic sense we might feel as we read about Jesus acting out in ways we would have not seen in other stories - Jesus seems to be throwing a bit of a temper tantrum.

challenges our normal rhythm

Move 1:  A very important story

a.  Found in all four gospels  

1.  This story is placed near the beginning of the Gospel of John.

2.  Mark and Luke join with Matthews placing the story near the end, as part of Jesus’ movement to his crucifixion.

3.  in the Gospel of John, Jesus has a whip - sort of an Indiana Jones approach, I suppose.

In the other gospels, Jesus just overturns the tables.

b.  Matthew refers to temple using the Greek for the whole complex, not just the sanctuary part of the Temple where only the priests can go.

1.  multiple buildings and courtyards.

2. Separate court areas for Jewish men, Jewish women, and Gentiles, plus the holy areas only the priests could enter.

2. Court of the Gentiles was the place where animals were sold for sacrifices and money was exchanged into the currency that was acceptable for gifts at the Temple.

3.  Imagine the Passover crowd - maybe 300,000 to 400,000 people gathering in and around the Temple area

c. Jesus enters the temple area not as a priest with special privileges, but like any other Jew arriving for the high holy days.

1.  Although, the religious authorities are watching Jesus;

listening to what he says.

2.  They have heard the stories, and perhaps even watched Jesus in action.

3. they fear him, or perhaps they fear the ways the crowds respond to them.

ways over which they have no control.

4. Jesus arrives as a potential threat to their authority and the Temple system.

Move 2:  the story shows the radical shift Jesus brings to the religious institution and practices in place.

a.   The Temple will no longer be a marketplace.

1. Not just about selling or changing money but about dismantling the structure in place.

2.  Jesus enters the temple and finds what one would expect during a pilgrimage festival. The vital trades are in place for the necessary exchange of monies, animals, and grains for the required sacrifices. Nothing is out of order at this point.

3. Except this pattern is not acceptable to Jesus.  

4.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus, clearly takes on the marketplace role of the Temple as he cries out:  “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” (for detailed analysis see https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-john-213-22-3; Karoline Lewis)

4.  In Matthew, we notice that Jesus drives out the sellers and the buyers - not just a comment on those selling, but on the whole system in place and the patterns governing Temple worship.

c. Jesus also pushes back on the way the Temple institution has been involved in the practices of injustice.

1. We know that a  good deal of money was stored at the temple, where it could be loaned by the wealthy to the poor who were in danger of losing their land to debt. The Temple establishment therefore co-operated with the aristocracy in the exploitation of the poor. 

2.  The rich get richer as the Temple resources are used to enable injustice rather than proclaim and live out the justice to which God calls us.

4.  No surprise, that One of the first acts of the First Jewish-Roman War was the burning of the debt records in the archives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple#:~:text=The%20narrative%20occurs%20near%20the,includes%20more%20than%20one%20Passover.)

c. When Jesus uses the phrase “den of robbers,” he is also calling attention to another Temple abuse - using the Temple to avoid consequences for unjust actions.

1. the phrase comes from the Prophet Jeremiah (7: 1-11), who refers to the Temple as a place where those who have mistreated and unjustly taken advantage of others can come hide.

2.  Again, the Temple is being used in ways that do not reflect the justice and mercy to which God calls us.

c. Jesus' righteous anger in the Temple demands rethinking the whole Temple system 

1.  some biblical scholars note that Jesus’ actions would have been a drop in the bucket to the whole Temple system.

2. But, Jesus has pointed out where the institution of the Temple has failed and announced a new way.

3.  In Matthew, this becomes the tipping point, the moment when the religious authorities decide Jesus must be dealt with, a decision that leads to his crucifixion.

d.  In this story, we recognize our call to point out the injustices in the world and demand change.

1. Even if it means the hard work of dismantling the very systems of which we are part.

2.  it is not enough to look at our world and say “Wow, things don’t look so good, but the problem is so big there is nothing I can do about it.”

3.  If Jesus can overturn tables in the Temple and demand change, so should we!

This story is a story about demanding change in the world.

Move 3:  A Story about finding God.

a.  this story asks a fundament question - do we only find God in the Temple, or do we find God in other places?

1.  Is the Temple even necessary?

2. This question, of course, has been asked in previous generations by those Israelites who saw their temple destroyed by the conquerors and found themselves exiled away from the Temple.

3.  Some of the first readers of the gospel of Matthew probably lived after the destruction of the Temple in the first century.

4. Can they follow God if the Temple is no longer there and they cannot pilgrimage to the Temple?

b.  I am reminded of C. S. Lewis’ third book of his Narnia series, The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’, which provides a wonderful illustration of what I’m talking about. If you remember, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the four Penvensie children travel from war-torn London to Narnia and there meet the great lion (and Christ-figure), Aslan, and with his help defeat the White Witch who holds Narnia captive in a perpetual winter. 

In the second book, the children travel back to assist Prince Caspian in obtaining his rightful throne, and at the end of that book Aslan tells the two older children, Peter and Susan, that they will not return to Narnia.

Now, at the end of the third book, Aslan meets Lucy and Edmund at the edge of the Eastern Sea and tells them the same, that this will be their last trip to Narnia. 

Lucy is distraught at the prospect of not seeing the beloved lion again, but he reassures her that she will see him in her own world. When she is surprised that Aslan is present in her world, he tells her that the whole reason for bringing her to Narnia for a time was so that, coming to know him well here, she would recognize him more easily there (https://www.davidlose.net/2015/03/lent-3-b-igniting-centrifugal-force/; David Lose)

1. We who follow Christ, who know what he taught and how he lived,

We who are led by the Holy Spirit;

We can see God at work in the world.

2.  We can point out to others where God is at work.

3. We can hear God’s call to do God’s work in the world.

4.  Jesus takes issue with the Temple when its practices no longer reveal God to the world and no longer live into its calling to be God’s presence in the world.

Conclusion:  did you notice what Jesus does immediately following the overturning of the tables?

he cured the blind and the lame.

Jesus will be at work - pointing out injustice, showing God’s mercy, 

Will we join him?