John 11: 32-37
We, humans, always chase after getting the sense of control and security. That’s why we often pray “Tell us why, God, and maybe we can offer a convincing argument why not;” “Tell us why, and maybe we can be so outraged by the answer that we decide to reject it and manufacture answers of our own;” “Tells us anything we can handle, control, but do not ask us just to believe it.”
Why me, why this, and why now? This is a strong question to ask God, but it is the truth of how we feel when we cannot make sense of what happens to us, when we are not given a reason.
To have faith in God, to have faith that we are in good hands, to have faith whether or not we understand it, everything will be all right and the world makes sense. This may be the hardest choice we have to make every day.
We may have any evident for that “everything will be all right,” but this truth has been proved again and again through people who have a faith in their heart. Therefore, we are called to simply give up our illusion that we are in control of our lives and step out like stepping out into the air without a parachute jump-suit from the airplane.
What I’d like to draw our attention to today’s passage is that “Who and what things can today’s Lazarus be?” What things seem to be dead for a long time in the world or in us?
Look at what is happening in the world now--war, famine, poverty, injustice, and Pandemic etc. Well, those issues are not new, and no one even has an exact answer. But one thing I know is we all are called to remain faithful and to be remnants who are always not just saying, “everything will be alright,” but also living out what “everything will be alright” really means within the hopeless circumstances.
If we see those seemingly hopeless situations as today’s Lazarus, we know what to say and how to respond—crying out, “Lazarus, come out.” If we, like Martha in the passage, keep complaining to God, “Lord, where are you? If you have been here, the world would not have been shaped in this way,” we know what to say, “Lazarus, come out.”
If we, like Martha in the passage, keep remaining doubtful and cynical, “Lord, this is the way things are. It is what it is,” we know what to say, “Lazarus, come out.” If we can read ourselves into today’s passage with Lazarus, who was wrapped in a linen bandage and with eyes concealed by a cloth, we know what to say, “Lazarus, come out.” So that we might be able to see and do the things in the same way Jesus saw the tomb and did to Lazarus in the passage.
God still calls us to stand in front of the tomb with hope and faith, and even wants us to move the stone that blocks that tomb. And God still calls us to cry out with a loud voice to the world, “Lazarus, Come out.”
Thanks be to God.