Lent - Did the undertaker give a refund?

The story of the raising of Lazarus in this week's Gospel is a familiar tale to all Christians. Remember that Lazarus was in the grave for four days. A four-day-old corpse was dead indeed! Jesus had heard of his friend’s plight well before the tragedy of death struck Lazarus down. Yet, Jesus did nothing, he allowed his friend to die. He then went to the sisters and they professed faith that God would do anything Jesus asked him to. It was a touching demonstration of faith and yet when Jesus ordered the rock to be removed from the tomb Martha showed how little faith she really had when she said, “He has been dead four days, surely there will be a stench.” Then, when the rock was rolled away, Jesus commanded Lazarus to “Come Out.” And out he came, all wrapped up in his burial ensemble. His friends, filled with wonder and awe, untied him and he went home. 

How do you think Lazarus felt? Had he been to heaven? Was he happy to be back on earth? The Gospel is silent on this but if it was me and I was called back from the bliss of heaven, I would be ticked off, to say the least!  But here is a question.  How do we know that Lazarus was really dead?  After all, he was a friend of Jesus.  Perhaps he was just feigning death to make it appear Jesus brought him back to life. Well, that is a nice conspiracy theory but it does not work.  Lazarus would have laid completely still and without movement as his body was washed and wrapped for burial.  He would have had to make it appear that he was not breathing.  He could not have done these things convincingly. A more burning question would be, did Martha and Mary demand a refund from the undertaker?

Today let us compare the raising of Lazarus to our own Baptism. Before we were baptized, we were enemies of God. When we were drowned in the Baptismal font we died to our original nature and became an adopted child of God. But is that enough, just to be a child of God? We were brought to life like Lazarus by our baptism. This was an action of God, and like Lazarus, we are called to “Come Out” and take up our duties as the son or daughter of the Great King. Those duties are simple and at the same time profound, they are to “Love one another as I have loved you.” Like Lazarus, we have to depend on our friends to remove the bindings that hold us back from being a full partner in the redemptive work of God. That is why Christians get together. We get together to worship God, of course, but we also get together to help one another. Will we truly open our hearts to let Jesus in or like Martha will we say, “Surely there will be a stench!