John 11 — Pastor Brenda Walker

The 11th chapter of the gospel of John is no ordinary Bible passage for me. In April of 1983, I received a phone call from my parents that changed the way I view this text forever.

It has served as no ordinary narrative for the church historically, over the past 2 millennia. It is certainly no ordinary pericope, or unit of verse, within the fourth Gospel, serving as a pivotal point in the story of Jesus.

I imagine John gripping a stylus, dipping it in ink and scratching Greek letters on a parchment scroll in precise, meticulous handwriting.

John is unique among the four gospel writers. Which one of these is not like the others? The answer will always be John. The other three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are known as the Synoptic Gospels because of the “synapses,” the connections, the similarities among them.

John is the proverbial horse of a different color. The 11th chapter of the Gospel of John is the pivot point in this unique take on the “good news,” which is what the word “gospel” means.

In John’s gospel, two of Jesus’ female followers and their brother function as a surrogate family for Jesus. Martha, Mary and Lazarus live together in Bethany and open their home to Jesus as a place of refuge and renewal. In the beginning of Chapter 11, Lazarus falls ill at a point when Jesus is 20 miles, a days’ walk, away. Martha and Mary send word to him: “Lazarus is ill!”

Long story short, Jesus delays on purpose and by the time he arrives in Bethany, Lazarus I dead. Mary and Martha each separately say to Jesus, when he finally arrives, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

I imagine they had said similar words to each other. If their friend, Jesus, had been there, their brother would not have died. Although they are recorded as saying the exact same sentence to Jesus, their individual interactions with him each has a very different tone.

Martha and Jesus have quite a dialogue and it is in this conversation that we have perhaps the most well known words of Jesus, spoken at most every service of Christian burial, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Mary, on the other hand, says only this one sentence Martha also says: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus does not speak at all here. His actions, however, result in what in most translations is the shortest verse of scripture in all the Holy Bible: “Jesus wept.”

In the end, Lazarus comes out of the tomb, raised from the dead. Those who are gathered around participate in response to the words of Jesus. They remove the stone, which served as a sort of door to the tomb. Lazarus shuffles out, bound by grave clothes. The crowd is then mandated: “Unbind him and let him go!”

This passage has come to have great meaning for me. I was scheduled to preach this text in April of 1983 when I was a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, when I received a phone call one from my parents on week earlier informing me that my oldest sibling had died in San Francisco four months earlier.

Over these years I have found myself in Martha, Mary and, finally, in Lazarus himself. I invite you to enter this very human narrative with me and explore the tears of loss, expressions of anger and ultimately the role of the community in the giving of new life.

- Brenda