D. Oh fuck it, I’m bored with my own stuff, let’s talk about your stuff. How’s it going?
H. Oh well, had to do some research for a sermon I got to preach in a couple weeks on the raising of Lazarus.
D. What you gonna say?
H. Something about Jesus being upset that even people who were closest to him did not understand what he was on about and did not trust that he could raise Lazarus up. And so, in a Lenten context, maybe we can take comfort in the realisation that even the folks that were closest to Jesus did not understand him at all.
D. I think that’s a lot of b******! It is sad when people die. When people grieve they “lose it”, they say things they don’t mean, their loss nearly shatters their hope, that’s what happens. It is sad even if people are walking with God. Because as Espiritu Paz puts it, the left behind shed “tears for their lost dreams of life with their brother/sister”.
So even if you were right, it would be the worst timing ever to reprove anyone for their lack of faith. It is sad that life has to be so full of heart wrenching brokenness – it is sad that Lazarus has to die, it is sad that Mary and Martha face a life without their brother. It is sad that people who resist the Empire get tortured to death. It is sad for those who end up getting killed (Jesus and nearly all of his immediate followers) and it is horrible for the people who stay behind too. In my opinion the raising of Lazarus is more about God the Father encouraging Jesus to go ahead with the plan.
H. Yeah, they are a few folks who think that Jesus was sad because Lazarus was dead, but most commentators seem to be closer to my argument.
D. Um okay, I don’t know about any of them. Maybe I just trust my own intuition too much.
H. Oh well, had to do some research for a sermon I got to preach in a couple weeks on the raising of Lazarus.
D. What you gonna say?
H. Something about Jesus being upset that even people who were closest to him did not understand what he was on about and did not trust that he could raise Lazarus up. And so, in a Lenten context, maybe we can take comfort in the realisation that even the folks that were closest to Jesus did not understand him at all.
D. I think that’s a lot of b******! It is sad when people die. When people grieve they “lose it”, they say things they don’t mean, their loss nearly shatters their hope, that’s what happens. It is sad even if people are walking with God. Because as Espiritu Paz puts it, the left behind shed “tears for their lost dreams of life with their brother/sister”.
So even if you were right, it would be the worst timing ever to reprove anyone for their lack of faith. It is sad that life has to be so full of heart wrenching brokenness – it is sad that Lazarus has to die, it is sad that Mary and Martha face a life without their brother. It is sad that people who resist the Empire get tortured to death. It is sad for those who end up getting killed (Jesus and nearly all of his immediate followers) and it is horrible for the people who stay behind too. In my opinion the raising of Lazarus is more about God the Father encouraging Jesus to go ahead with the plan.
H. Yeah, they are a few folks who think that Jesus was sad because Lazarus was dead, but most commentators seem to be closer to my argument.
D. Um okay, I don’t know about any of them. Maybe I just trust my own intuition too much.
5 comments:
Although I understand where the other argument is coming from, personally, I agree with you Dany. Why can't Jesus be sad about Lazarus' death? Isn't this life worth living? I love the fact that Son of God favours the life on this earth even though He is the only one who knows that there is eternity. Jesus' grief makes Him more human and more God.
Love:)
Derya you rock! If I was preaching on the raising on Lazarus I would cite you verbatim. "I love the fact that Son of God favours the life on this earth even though He is the only one who knows that there is eternity."
I don't know what commentaries H. is reading, but they're not the same ones I've been reading. Unless we're allowing Greek concepts of the divine (and of divine apatheia, in particular) to colour our reading of Scripture, this section of John accords well with the rest of Scripture in revealing to us a God of passion -- a God with emotion, and a God who suffers, and who shares in the sufferings of others. I mean, it does contain the bible verse that everybody has memorised -- "Jesus wept." NOT because he was misunderstand, but because his friend died. If Jesus was weeping over misunderstanding, but unmoved by death, I reckon he must have been a serious douchebag -- I'd (unprofessionally) diagnose narcissism with perhaps some sociopathy.
Granted, there may still be comfort in the observation that those who were closest to Jesus misunderstood him (although this is not what Jesus was really upset about... at least not this time), but the comfort in the observation is this: the good news of God's inbreaking kingdom is even better than we ever imagined it to be.
mmmm... it seems like Nakedpastor would agree too. http://nakedpastor.com/archives/1877
"Les grands esprits se rencontrent", as the French would say.
Speaking of cartoon images, this is one that I've always found extremely powerful. It's from Exploding Dog. Here's the link:
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.explodingdog.com/dumbpict51/ohthatswhy5.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.explodingdog.com/january1/ohthatswhy5.html&h=600&w=600&sz=64&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=Au3dtqG1C0V0qM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dexploding%2Bdog%2B%2522oh%2Bthat%2527s%2Bwhy%2522%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX.
Holy shit, that ended up being a long link!
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