Lazarus: New Life (A midrash)

 

The first thing I noticed was the change in the silence.  From the absolute silence of death, suddenly I could sense silence waiting—for what?  Had I missed something?

 Then I noticed that I was breathing again, and I could feel my heart beating, blood flowing, my arms and legs tingling as life returned.

 "Lazarus, come out of there!”

It was Jesus, and he sounded just a little impatient, as if that wasn’t the first time he had called.  I couldn’t see anything, but I could follow the sound of his voice.

Suddenly, the rock sealing the mouth of the cave shifted a bit, and light seeped in.  If my eyes hadn’t been wrapped, the change from utter darkness would have been painful.  But all of me was wound round with linen strips and I could smell the spices in their folds as I began slowly, stiffly, to sit up, then stretched, and put my feet to the ground.

Then I realized:  I was alive!  But I had died—the last thing I remembered was Mary weeping as we realized that Jesus would not come in time to save me.  When Martha told us she had sent a messenger to Jesus with the news, we thought surely he would come in time to lay his hands on me, as he had done for so many strangers, to take away their illness and send them on their way to a new start in life.

Surely, the man around whom our lives (Martha's, Mary's, and mine) had centered since first we met him, whom we all loved so, and who loved us and had become such a part of our household, surely the news “Lazarus is dying, please come” would have brought him to do what all the doctors could not, and heal all that was wrong with me.

But now, he was waiting for me, along with Mary, Martha and the neighbors I could hear wailing as the opening slowly widened under the muscles of the men shifting the rock from the exit of the tomb.

Oh Lord!  Now that I realize I’m alive again, and you are waiting for me to rejoin life outside the tomb, can I take a few minutes to think about this?  It was actually very restful to let go once I knew I was really dying, to know that I could not do any more to comfort Mary, or placate Martha, or even wait for you one more moment.  Coming back to life is not something I’m prepared for.  Mary will weep, Martha will scold and laugh, and how will the neighbors react to my coming back to life?  They have their doubts about you anyway, you know, Jesus, and raising me from the dead is going to be hard for all of us to come to terms with.

 But I know you are waiting for me, and the gap between the stone and the cave entrance is almost large enough for me to walk out into the sunshine and learn to live again.

John 11:1-44 

11 ^1-3 A man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. This was the same Mary who massaged the Lord’s feet with aromatic oils and then wiped them with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Master, the one you love so very much is sick.”

⁴ When Jesus got the message, he said, “This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God’s glory by glorifying God’s Son.”

^5-7 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

⁸ They said, “Rabbi, you can’t do that. The Jews are out to kill you, and you’re going back?”

^9-10 Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in daylight doesn’t stumble because there’s plenty of light from the sun. Walking at night, he might very well stumble because he can’t see where he’s going.”

¹¹ He said these things, and then announced, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I’m going to wake him up.”

^12-13 The disciples said, “Master, if he’s gone to sleep, he’ll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine.” Jesus was talking about death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.

^14-15 Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there. You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go to him.”

¹⁶ That’s when Thomas, the one called the Twin, said to his companions, “Come along. We might as well die with him.”

^17-20 When Jesus finally got there, he found Lazarus already four days dead. Bethany was near Jerusalem, only a couple of miles away, and many of the Jews were visiting Martha and Mary, sympathizing with them over their brother. Martha heard Jesus was coming and went out to meet him. Mary remained in the house.

^21-22 Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.”

²³ Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.”

²⁴ Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”

^25-26 “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”

²⁷ “Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”

²⁸ After saying this, she went to her sister Mary and whispered in her ear, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”

^29-32 The moment she heard that, she jumped up and ran out to him. Jesus had not yet entered the town but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When her sympathizing Jewish friends saw Mary run off, they followed her, thinking she was on her way to the tomb to weep there. Mary came to where Jesus was waiting and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

^33-34 When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him. He said, “Where did you put him?”

^34-35 “Master, come and see,” they said. Now Jesus wept.

³⁶ The Jews said, “Look how deeply he loved him.”

³⁷ Others among them said, “Well, if he loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.”

^38-39 Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”

The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!”

⁴⁰ Jesus looked her in the eye. “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

^41-42 Then, to the others, “Go ahead, take away the stone.”

They removed the stone. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that you have listened to me. I know you always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here I’ve spoken so that they might believe that you sent me.”

^43-44 Then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And he came out, a cadaver, wrapped from head to toe, and with a kerchief over his face.

Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him loose.”