"I Am the Resurrection and the Life"
 |
| JESUS MAFA. Jesus raises Lazarus to life, from Art in the Christian Tradition |
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." 4 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." 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." 8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" 9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." 11 After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." 12 The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." 17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." 28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When 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." 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus 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." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I 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." 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 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." 45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
TRUMP & RYAN - CHRISTIANS NEEDING RESURRECTION
There are parts of the above story that speak quite personally to me. First is when Jesus says that Lazarus apparent death is instead an illness that does not lead to dying. The passage can leave a person wondering what illness Lazarus actually suffered from -- and once his life is fully restored, will he have a special mission and vision to fulfill? Another part of the story that moves me is when Jesus' commands others to remove the stone from the tomb and unbind Lazarus from his burial clothes.
Taken together, these actions represent release into the freedom God provides us if we will trust and hear the call to become alive again. It lays a foundation that God's power can resurrect our lives and show us what we can do and become as a result. In essence, it means that a crisis can be an opportunity. When we are raised to new life, we are called to be fearless -- for real courage means being perfectly aware of the worst that can happen, even terrified because of it, and yet doing what is right by others and right toward oneself.
These days, I can't help but shake my head that those who identify themselves as Christians eagerly awaiting Jesus' Second Coming and God's Just and Peaceable Reign here on earth, rant and rave against universal healthcare and say it is not a right. Clearly, they lack understanding of Christ's generosity and compassion in freely healing Lazarus and so many others. They sing songs with lyrics such as "...freely, freely, you have received, freely, freely give." In their reading of scripture, they seem to forget passages that call humanity to do it's part helping the world move toward a space and time when we "...will wipe away every tear -- and death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more.....” (Revelations 12:1-7). Frankly the greatest offenders standing out in this manner right now are the professed Christians Republican POTUS 45 and his sidekick the current Republican House Speaker. Their recently defeated diabolical American Health Care Act (AHCA) would take healthcare coverage away from 24 million of our fellow citizens and raise healthcare costs substantially for everyone with those costs being especially burdensome for the elderly and older adults. This is an evil for which they should be removed from public service and/or spend some time learning from the following countries that do offer Universal Healthcare and the year they began doing so:
As I treated a patient this week benefiting from expanded Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA), I marveled that the individual probably would not be alive right now if the ACA had not become law of the land. The individual's recent involuntary psychiatric hospitalization had resurrected the person from what the individual referred to as "a very dark place I don't ever want to go back to again." Now resurrected and restored to a reality-based frame of mind and able to access outpatient mental health services because of the ACA, the individual states intention to continue their healing process and getting life back on track with the help of psychotherapy, medication, and their "Higher Power". I feel hopeful for the person's mental health recovery and resiliency as defined by the U.S Department of Health's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) -- a department of the U.S. government that Republican POTUS 45 and the Republican House Speaker want to de-fund or for which to severely cut funding. Addiction and mental health services are Essential Health Benefits the ACA requires insurers to cover. Republican POTUS 45 and the Republican House Speaker wanted through their AHCA plan to eliminate coverage of these lifesaving services.
Obviously what these two supposed Christians need is a resurrection of their own. Let us pray that Christ rolls away the stones of their dark entombed mentality, opens their eyes to the evil they have tried to perpetrate throught the AHCA, and through such miracles these two men began to authentically and compassionately work toward universal healthcare for all -- that which will be a genuine expression of God's Just and Peaceable Reign here on earth.
So I close this lectionary reflection simply with asking the question, "What binds you in this life? What are you called to unbind yourself from and to release yourself into for the purposes of God's Just and Peaceable Reign here on Earth?"
May God's Peace be with you,
Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon
No comments:
Post a Comment