John 11:32-44 (All Saints Day)

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."

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace, mercy, and peace are yours from
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
How frequently are you asked to use your senses? Smell, taste, hearing,
seeing, feeling. Think about it for a second. We are asked to use these senses
almost all the time. Companies use this to their advantage in advertising.
Subway: Eat Fresh
Skittles: Taste the rainbow
Folgers: The best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup
There are certainly so many others that we can think of that would fall into
this category. Our senses of smell and taste can elicit many emotions and
memories. The smell of cookies just pulled out of the oven by mom, the taste of
that pumpkin pie made by grandma at Thanksgiving, the smell of coffee that wakes

you up in the morning, or the smell of a cinnamon roll candle that your roommate
turns on in the morning to give you false hope of having cinnamon rolls for
breakfast. Taste and smell are deeply tied to memories.
Another crucial sense is hearing. The sound of hearing your name called by
your mom or dad to wake up in the morning, the sound of your spouse or loved
one calling you after a long time apart, or the sound of your dogs friendly bark
when you get home in the evening. Hearing, much like the other senses, bring
about certain emotions or memories.
All these senses are also crucial to understanding our gospel reading and
much of the Gospel of John. Throughout the Gospel of John, different senses play
certain roles. In the first chapter of John, the disciples are called by Jesus. In a
conversation with Nathanael, after Nathanael begins to follow Jesus, Jesus tells
Nathanael Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you,
you will SEE heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man. The disciples hear the calling and immediately come and
follow him and Jesus promises they will witness great things while following him.
In chapter 2, at the wedding at Cana, the wedding ran out of wine. Jesus is
summoned by his mother and tells the servants to do whatever he asks. Jesus sends
them out to fill 20 to 30 gallon jars to the brim with water. Upon returning, the

wedding guest is invited by Jesus to pull some water and tastes wine that is even
better than the wine that is first served.
In chapter 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. It is here that
while pulling water from the well, Jesus and the unnamed woman have a
conversation about water. In the midst of this conversation, Jesus tells this woman
everything that has happened in her life. The woman asks to have this living water
that will gush up to eternal life. This woman then races back to her town and issues
the same invitation as Jesus did back in chapter 1 to come and see. She says Come
and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the
Messiah, can he?"
Then in chapter 6, we see 5000 that are fed and the rest of the chapter
focuses in on Jesus being the bread of life.
Now, we have arrived to our reading for today. As our reading from John
begins, we find out that Lazarus, who had been sick for some time has died and has
been dead for four days by the time that Jesus arrives. This means that, as professor
Karoline Lewis writes, Lazarus is deader than dead. Jewish tradition says that the
soul lingered in the body for three days which means that when Jesus arrives on the
fourth day, Lazarus is indeed deader than dead. In verse 32, Mary comes to Jesus
weeping saying, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Then
Jesus sees that not only is she weeping but so are all the Jews who have come with

her which greatly moves Jesus and he also begins to weep. Jesus, who is greatly
disturbed and moved with anger, is taken to the tomb and commands them to take
the stone away.
Why would anybody want that to happen? It is going to smell. This man has
been dead for four days. This is exactly what those gathered together say in verse
39 as they say to Jesus in the King James Version, Lord, he stinketh. Jesus
commands them all the more and as the stone is rolled away, the stench of death
comes forth. Jesus then turns his attention once again to the tomb and yells in a
loud voice Lazarus, come out! The dead man rises and comes out and is
unbound. As the dead man comes out, we are beckoned back just verses early
when Jesus reminds us: I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in
me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will
never die.
Even the incarnate God is broken in his heart and soul by the death of his
friend Lazarus. Death grieves God. So also, does death break our hearts and stir up
our souls. It is within this context that we tell the story of Jesus offering life anew
to Lazarus. Death stings. Death stinks. No perfume or canned answers can remove
the sting or stench of death. And the miracle is that the smelly, dead man comes
walking from the tomb at the simple command of Jesus: Come out. At the sound
of his name, Lazarus is resurrected. This death for Lazarus is defeated.

What are we to say in the midst of the suffering and reality of death? Is it
enough to light candles or toll bells and read the names of those who have departed
from us? Certainly not. We are to proclaim the truth of the sting and stench of
death. We are to acknowledge the grief and anger that may never totally depart
those who are left in this life. We are to state the reality of the disturbing fact of the
brutality of death.
In the midst of this grief, anger, stench, and sting of death we are given
assurance that death shall never have the final word. We have our hope not on the
things on this earth but in the power of the cross of Christ and the resurrection of
those who are his children. As Karoline Lewis writes, What does grace upon
grace sound like? It sounds like when you are deader than dead and you hear your
name being called, by the shepherd who knows you and loves you, and you are
then able to walk out of the tomb, unbound to rest at the bosom of Jesus. While
we confess that not even death can separate us from the love of God, it is Johns
Gospel that makes that abundantly clear, and clear in such a way that such a
confession is not simply a theoretical or even hopeful assertion. It is given meaning
and truth in the embodied reality of Lazaruss own life and death and resurrected
life.
On this All Saints Day, through this witness of the death and resurrected life
of Lazarus, we are reminded of just how much God loves us, the saints who are

living and those saints who are living eternally. This is why we can face the loss of
our loved ones and remember on this daybecause we know that God has loved
and still loves each one of them and so has brought them over from this life
through the gateway of death to new and abundant life with God and all the
triumphant saints. And this is why we can go out into this week and world and face
the challenges set beforebecause we know that God accompanies us into this
week, through stink, stench, and successes and promises to use us as saints and by
our very presence live out Gods love for us. It is in this promise we can have
confidence. Thanks be to God. Amen.