Lazarus Comes Out In A Big Way, Part 2
April 15, 2008
I know. I know.
It took Jesus less time to raise Lazarus from the dead that it’s taking me to write about it. Brevity has never been a gift of mine, but we’ll get to the end eventually.
Lazarus has been dead four days and it wasn’t forest-scented potpourri filling the air.
(vs. 39)
Without the benefit of the embalming procedure and intensified by the heat of the Judean climate, there would have been a paint-blistering stench wafting out from the sealed grave, and as if it was even necessary, Martha reminded Jesus of the horrible odor to follow if the grave stone was moved. If Jesus had come when Lazarus was sick Martha knows Jesus could have healed him, and maybe if he’d arrived right at the time of his death, Jesus could have brought him back to life but not now. It’s been days. Four days. The mourners have all arrived, the community has gathered, and the house is overflowing with casseroles. And Lazarus? His body’s in the grave rapidly decaying and the hope of any kind of comeback seems grim at best.
The longer we stay in the closet the more suffocating it becomes and the more complicated it grows. What had been a place of safety in the beginning, shielding us against the judgment of people and institutions has become more like a prison keeping us removed from the world where life is happening. When Jesus called Lazarus out, he could have been dead one minute or one year and it wouldn’t have mattered because when Jesus gives life he gives it fully and abundantly. It’s never too late to come out. It’s never too late for Jesus to call us out. If you’ve been struggling with your faith and sexuality or living in the closet for so long that you’ve begun to lose hope it will ever change, trust that it’s never too late for the One who brings new life.
Jesus calls to those gathered to take off Lazarus’ grave clothes and let him go.
(vs. 43-44)
It’s through the power of God brought forth at the word of Jesus that Lazarus steps out into new life but it’s up to the crowds gathered at the burial place to unwrap Lazarus from his grave clothes and let him go. Jesus doesn’t expect Lazarus to do it all alone nor does Jesus step in to do the hands-on work of unwrapping his friend. Jesus has done his part and Lazarus has done his. Now it’s time for the community to step up to the plate and get involved in removing the last remnants that hold Lazarus back from full freedom and life.
God desires for all people to live in wholeness and it’s through the message of Jesus; words of love, grace, and justice that assure and compel us to step out of the places that hold us back into abundant life; a message that calls to those in the church who’ve used dogma and laws to hold us captive to put aside the religious rags they’ve wrapped around us and let us walk free and unhindered. Christ has done his part long ago and we’re doing all we can do to live boldy, to speak faithfully, but it falls to the people of God to step up and join us at the table that’s been set for all.
The raising of Lazarus is the event that initiated the plot to kill Jesus.
(vs. 53)
It was no small thing that Jesus did. In raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus blurred the lines and turned all the absolutes upside down. God working through Jesus messed with the laws of nature and religion. When a living organism dies, death is permanent….but not after what Jesus did. Death brought decay and destruction…but not after what Jesus did. The traditional view of death for the Sadducees was death was once and for all while the traditional view of the Pharisees was that death would only be overcome on the day of resurrection in the next kingdom. Jesus messed with all of that. Their traditional theologies were wrong. What was dead was alive….now! What Jesus did that day had been witnessed by the crowds and the word would spread and as word spread, belief in the God of love and mercy Jesus proclaimed would increase while belief in the God of law and judgment the religious leaders proclaimed would diminish. They had to destroy the message by killing the Messenger before they lost the power their laws and absolutes exacted on the people.
What Jesus is doing among the lives of GLBTQ Christians has rocked the church because in claiming to be queer and Christians we’re defying the conservative interpretation of the Bible and their beliefs about homosexuality. Homosexuals are godless. Homosexuals are promiscuous. Homosexuals are damaged. Homosexuals are miserable. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. And thanks for playing but wrong again. Their perceptions of everything gay is proven wrong in the lives that we’re living before them. Queer folk are saying “We love Jesus too.” Same sex couples are coming out to profess their love and fidelity. GLBTQ people are living lives publicly that are just as fulfilling and meaningful as any straight person and queers have no monopoly on misery since misery just like joy is part of the human experience called life.
And that rattles the cage and creates a dilemma for those who view homosexuality negatively, either as sin or dysfunction. Either they continue to reject us, even to the extent of rejecting the reality of our lives they can see with their own eyes or they abandon the beliefs that have always been the truth to them. But at the bottom line, it’s even more than that because it would require they reject God as they’ve always known and related to God. A God who while loving all people places conditions around gaining full access to that love. A God of grace and mercy tempered with demands and law. This is why homosexuality and in turn you and I are such an offense because our very lives proclaim a different understanding of God; a God who includes all, loves all, and welcomes all; a God who cares more about justice and grace than about obligations of the law and religious rituals. Consider it for joy that our lives as GLBTQ and Christian is an offense to church powers because we stand in good company as we walk the path of Jesus, announcing again the Good News of God’s love.
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Posted in Christian Lesbian Identity, Coming Out, Queering the Bible
April 15th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Yes!! You’ve nailed it, as it were, when you say: This is why homosexuality and in turn you and I are such an offense because our very lives proclaim a different understanding of God; a God who includes all, loves all, and welcomes all; a God who cares more about justice and grace than about obligations of the law and religious rituals.
And yet, that is *exactly* what Jesus’ message was to all people who hear his call and follow in his footsteps. Cool postings! I look forward to more.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Anita, I was deeply moved by your messages on Lazarus in the ways you shed light on the elements and nuances I had not previously considered or had seen differently. I read it over and over again, and again. Then I read John 11 again and again. How very different and simulataneously enlightening to read the well-worn, well-read verses through the lens of a questioning mind and in the context of your message. I always knew Jesus loved Lazarus very much, and Lazarus loved him too. But it didn’t hold comfort for me until now. The Pharisees didn’t care about Jesus’ love for the dead, the broken, the “unclean” but were incredibly concerned that the “Romans will come and take away” their temple, authority and power when “everyone” believes in Him for his “many miraculous sign”. They were so afraid of sustaining material loss. I think this is the mindset of many of our anti-gay, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-poor people today. They don’t want anyone to upset the imbalance of power and tip the scale in the opposing direction for the fear of losing their unsacred ground. And sadly enough, this was once me. I think one tends to condemn that which they perceive as a threat to their existence and values when in fact it’s the other way around. They can argue it’s “unnatural” until the cows come home, but then so is raising someone from the grave or giving sight to the blind. As I continue my own journey of self discovery, questioning, reflecting, conflicting, and hopefully, very hopefully reconciling, I hope I will come to truly experience from the depth of my soul the love Jesus has for me and his power to free me from the grave.