No Fear

John 11:32–44

32When 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.”

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.”

No Fear

Some would say that we have entered a time of darkness. The world out there would want us to believe that we are now entering a time of darkness. The clocks went back last weekend didn’t they, it is darker. The world is a darker place. We are remembering the dead. There are commemorations this week to mark 100 years since the end of the first world war, where there was so much death. There are some wonderful reflections and memories being shared, including at this Church where we have these thought-provoking displays. 100 years. Next Sunday is Remembrance Sunday and the days are getting darker.

This last week saw the celebration of All Saints Day, on the 1stof November, the day on which it is remembered each year. All Saints Day was followed on Friday by All Souls Day. All Saints Day, which is a principle feast in some Church traditions, is when we remember that ‘great cloud’ of witnesses. And we are reminded of that ‘great cloud’ in the passage from Hebrews 12:1 ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us’.

I should say here, that when we talk of the saints, we talk of all the faithful departed, all those whom have gone before us. Those many millions of faithful believers who have gone before us and died in the faith. What a huge cloud of witnesses that is. I have in my mind those images you may have seen of clouds of starlings, swooping round and round, the cloud changing shape and form, beautifully, with no pre-distinct shape, changing shape and pace as it swoops low. Not touching the earth, but rising again as though climbing into the clouds. Gathering everything into it and growing whilst making these beautiful, dark, sweeping patterns across the sky. Then eventually landing, on earth and settling as if they have never been away. If you were standing miles away you would say it was some kind of whirlwind or strangely calming tornado. It is only when we look closely that we see they are creatures, birds. This is the image I think of when I remember the great cloud of witnesses.

The text we have this year for All Saints is the Gospel of St. John. I should highlight two translation issues at this point before we go into the text. In 11: 33 we have the word ‘weep’ which is translated from the original Greek word klaio, this may be more correctly translated as ‘wailing’ — that ritual wailing, which is grief but it is also despair, “what are we going to do ? Who will save us ? How will we manage ? What is our future”. It is a cry of despair. Lazarus is the head of the family and he is gone and we are finished. This is the waling which we hear from Mary and Martha. And in our reading we also hear that Jesus weeps. In 11: 35 we hear that ‘Jesus began to weep’. The Greek word used here is is dakryo and this isthe only occurance of that word in the NT. This is a different word to the word used for the mourners; Jesus’ weeping is different. The word we see here is more associated with crying, with tears, with sorrow; not with despair.

The second thing I should refer to is the description ‘greatly disturbed’ in verses 33 and 38 which is translated from the Greek embrimaomai, this is used another three times in the NT where it is more correctly translated as angry, scolding or a warning. But we are given ‘greatly disturbed’ in our translation. Our translators have wanted to soften the text. Jesus being with us, with his friends and joining them in their grief. We do not want to hear of an angry Jesus when we are grieving. But angry and frustration is Jesus’ in reaction in this story. The family are in despair, Jesus is not. He is full of sorrow yes, but he doesn’t share their despair. And Jesus actually rejects their despair, because he has hope. So, the translators have tweeked the words a bit and given us a translation in which we can go on seeing Jesus as appropriately compassionate at the death of his friend. Perhaps then we should just change our translation, we should just change the words to what they more correctly mean; Jesus is angry.Or is the problem really fixed that easily? No, there is really a deeper problem with this whole story. In our reading this morning you see, we picked up the story at verse 32. This story in its entirety, however, begins in verse 1 of chapter 11. There have been 31 verses to the story already before we jump in at verse 32. And the deeper problem is that, for the story as a whole, anger does make better sense at verse 33 than does sadness. The story begins with Jesus and his disciples in another place. Bethany we know, is very near Jerusalem, and, apparently, when Lazarus took ill, Jesus wasn’t very close to Jerusalem. Well, that’s why Jesus is sad when he gets there too late, right? No, not quite. Because here’s what St. John tells us happened when Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, send word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick. Here’s Jesus’ response:‘But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ‘ (John 11:4–6)There! That’s the real problem in this story. Jesus delayed on purpose! He has healed many, many people throughout his ministry, most of them perfect strangers. So, when he gets word that one of his best friends is gravely ill, does he come running to heal him? No! Instead, he delays a couple extra days. Why? This story only makes sense if Jesus knows that it doesn’t end with death.[i]Yes, Lazarus dies. He’s been in the tomb four days and is stinking when Jesus finally arrives. But Jesus has known all along that this episode in Lazarus’ life is not going to end in a permanent death. Death is not going to be the end. Martha and Mary are desperate for Jesus to heal Lazarus, just as he has healed many others. Jesus on the other hand, knows it is time for them to learn about resurrection and for them to learn that death can have no hold on us. So, Jesus lets his friend die. In the verses just before we pick it up this morning, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26) From the moment this story has begun, Jesus has known exactly what is going to happen. Lazarus is going to die. But, then again, he isn’t. Believing in Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, means, in effect, that we don’t have to die. Critically, we don’t have to fear death because it is as easily brushed aside by a God of life as is being asleep. Jesus implores us to not fear death.

Each year when All Saints comes around I remember a short film I saw about Christian martyrs. All of those who had been persecuted and who had died for their faith — that death is not the end, that God has power over death. Christian martyrs, people who died for their belief and for not shaking their belief when they were threatened with death. The early Church was the Church of the martyrs. This was the first Church, it is easy for us to forget this as we meet, in safety, in this wonderful warm building built and established many years ago. The first Church, when these texts were written, was a Church in hiding, which met in secret, which was regularly persecuted. Those first Christians had every reason to fear, for their lives, to fear every waking moment. This is the context for All Saints Day, as we remember that cloud of witnesses.

The first Christians had every reason to live in fear; it was a crime to not worship Caesar, who was worshipped as a god. It was a crime punishable by death, if the Romans so chose it. And those Christian martyrs simply refused to live in fear, those who went to their deaths, went knowing that death had no hold on them. As Nero and his thugs were scapegoating Christians for the great fire in Rome — by barbecuing them, by using them as entertainment, throwing them to hungry lions, the worst of human excesses — using pain, suffering, execution and torture for fun and entertainment. Yes, there was great sadness and so there should be — anger as well. But the Church of the martyrs happened, it existed and it refused to die, it grew and it converted the Roman empire. Because the Church of the martyrs knew that death was not the end and that death could have no hold on us. Yes, there were tears.

When I was becoming a Christian, going through the phases of asking lots of questions; do I have to believe this, do I have to believe that, manipulating my image of God into something that was more acceptable to me, my mother went into hospital for a heart bypass operation. I was afraid that she wouldn’t come out. I went to Wesley Owen as it was then and I bought one of those message cards that fit in your wallet. I can’t remember the words but it was something like John 10: 10 ‘I have come that you shall have life and have it to the full’ — because I thought that my mother needed some reassurance, some uplifting, some certainty that she was going to be alright.

When I had finished the chit chat with her at her bedside the night before the operation I said “I got you this” she looked at it and smiled and read it, “that’s lovely Robert thank you”, then she gave it me back saying “why don’t you keep it”. Cheers Mum. She knew that I needed it more than her, she had no fear, I had. My mother was what you might call a quiet Christian, she went to church every week when she could but she didn’t talk about it much. You see, I thought that she needed her faith sorting out. But she had no fear of what was going to happen, no fear. Faith.

When years later she was coming to the end of her life, on the night before she died I was reading poetry to her, with tears streaming down my face, she reached out and squeezed my hand. She, was comforting me. No fear. I was trying to reassure her with kind words, she needed no reassurance, she had no fear of death.

Fear can grip us. Our world is driven by fear. Politics is driven by fear, society is riven with fear; fear of the stranger, fear of the immigrant, fear of the Muslim, fear of the terrorist. We’re afraid of terrorists and yet the most dangerous thing we could do right now is to walk across Churchill Way. We’re afraid of food that may be out of date and yet we consume sugar and fat that is sure to kill us as though it were the gateway to eternal happiness. Our fear is irrational and it grips us. I have a friend who is afraid of flying, which we know is the safest way to travel and yet he nonchalantly drives around in his clapped out old car as though he doesn’t have a care in the world. It could kill him and others each time he charges down the dual carriageway in it. We’re afraid of talking to someone we don’t know, when we know nothing about them and yet we do know from statistics that most crime is committed by people who know us, even within families and with the people we think we know best.

The world wants us to fear. The powerful want us to fear, fear of the foreigner keeps the arms industry going, fear of cold or fear of overheating keeps the energy industries going, fear of being dirty keeps the makers of Persil and the Utilities going. Fear of unhappiness keeps the entertainment industry going. The world wants us to fear as much as possible. The world wants us to run on fear.

And how different would our Churches be if we could live without fear. Without fear of paying the parish share, without fear of not having enough, without fear of losing, without fear of failing, without fear of looking foolish. How different our churches might be. The Church of the martyrs had nothing, apart from everything; faith — that death was not the end, that eternal life was grasped from the moment that we realise that death has no power over our wonderful, all-loving Creator God and our all-loving all-powerful God. That great cloud of witnesses, those millions who have gone before us are there to remind us that death has no power over us, that fear of death, that fear of failing, that fear of losing; has now power over us. As Jesus says in this text “Unbind him, and let him go.”We are free.

Amen

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