All Saints’ Day

Reformation, Media

Larry V. Smoose

It was a moment of crisis and shock.  When George arrived to pick up his Son Joel, who had been living with his mother after their divorce, he was greeted with unexpected news.  “Joel has to move in with you – you’ll have to get all of his things out of here today.”  George was flabbergasted – “today?”  “why today?  What do you mean?”   He knew communications had not been great with his former wife, but this was out of the blue.  She had a new job, was moving on Monday and Joel wanted to stay near his friends.  “You have to get all of his things out of here today.” 

As the finality of that statement set in, George, in shock, called us his best friend – “Bill, I need some help right now.”  George outlined the situation and Bill, looking at his calendar of appointments for the day said, “I’ll be right up – give me time to pick up a rental truck – about an hour.”   That’s what best friends do.  In crises, they drop other stuff and come to help.

We don’t usually think of Jesus as being the kind of person who had close personal friends.  WE know about the disciples and the multitudes that flocked around him, but we assume Jesus was too busy for things like friendships.  According to John’s gospel, however, Jesus was very close to Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary.  He was a frequent guest at their home. 

So one day, when Jesus was out of town and he received word that his friend Lazarus was very ill.  “Lord,” the message said, “He whom you love is ill.”  We would expect Jesus to drop everything and go.    After all, Jesus was often interrupted by strangers who needed healing and would graciously respond to their need.  Surely he would rush back to take care of his beloved friend, Lazarus.  But, John 11:6 records, “after hearing that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”   Jesus didn’t hurry.  And Lazarus died. 

No wonder Martha and Mary both greet Jesus with the words of frustration and anguish, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.”  Even some of their other friends who had come to console them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man from dying?”  Best friends are there when you need them – so why didn’t Jesus hurry?

Jesus is more than just a friend.  I love the hymn “What a Friend We Have In Jesus,” but there are times when we need more than a friend.  Jesus waited so that through his best friend Lazarus, he could show Martha and Mary, his disciples, all those who were gathered there and you and me that he is The Resurrection and the Life.  He wanted everyone to know that at the very moment when everyone thought it was too late – when there was nothing more that could be done – He was the resurrection and the life.

This is the central miracle in the New Testament – not new life out of old, not more values and principles, not Jesus as the great example for living, but rather that Jesus died – like Lazarus – and rose again from the dead.  Apart from this miraculous fact there would be no New Testament, no church, no Christian faith, and at best only the slightest remembrance of Jesus in some musty history of ancient Jewish religion and its sects.  Without that central fact in the New Testament, I would have nothing to say to you.  What would I have to say to those growing old and dying, or the families of those whose loved ones have died – I could quote Job – “Man is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble.  He comes forth like a flower and withers.  . .”

But because Jesus has revealed himself as the Resurrection and the life – showing in Lazarus his power over death – and confirming it with his own death and resurrection, I can say to those who are growing old and dying that God has been there – in the darkness, in the despair, in the loneliness, in death – and all is well!  Darkness and death do not have the last word.  The end is not death – but life.   LAZARUS COME FORTH! Is not just words of a miracle here in this lesson, but the miracle of resurrection by God’s command to all who have died. 

Moreover, you can’t divorce the love of God here and now from the great hope that death and darkness do not have the last word.  For how can you talk about the love of God here and now – evident in the world around us, or in the love of parents for children, or in our efforts to bring justice for the poor and hope to the third world – and not think about the love of God when a person faces death and the darkness beyond?   This is especially important when we think about God’s love for a child – an infant or a young person whose life is snuffed out before it even had a chance to bloom.  Whether it be the soldier in Afghanistan or the infant killed by H1N1 or the innocents killed by suicide bombers.  If God cringes at the destruction of war and disease and weeps at the innocents swept to death by these agents of destruction, then that love of God is utterly meaningless apart from the hope that there is more in store for them. 

The great hope of resurrection from the grave speaks most eloquently for those whose lives never had a chance, blasted by illness or mental disorder, crushed by violent death.  To speak of the love of God apart from the hope of resurrection is to speak of a meaningless, temporary love.  You can’t separate out the love of God in life from the love of God in death. 

But here, in November, as the days are shortening, the darkness deepening, the dreariness wearying us and a long winter ahead – when nothing in nature speaks to us of new life – we celebrate All Saints’ Day and sing our alleluia’s because the end is not a withering away into death – life’s interminable NO.  The end of it all is God’s triumphant – YES LAZARUS, COME OUT. 

There are times when we need more than a best friend – And our gospel reminds us that we have a savior and a Lord whose love goes beyond the grave.  “For I am convinced,” says Paul, “that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Amen.