[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #599, Lent 5, 3/9/08

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Lent 5 – March 9, 2008

Ezekiel 37:1 14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6 11
John 11:1 45


Paint The Resurrection

Bones without flesh, flesh and bones without spirit -- that was Ezekiel's nation, dead on the battlefield or dead on its feet.  Out of the depth, out of spirit, the Psalmist cries out to God. Without the spirit of God, flesh and bones may as well just be bones, Paul says.  And Jesus returns to Bethany to find Lazarus just bones and turning flesh.  Who can do anything about this?

The one who breathed life into the man of clay on the first day, who breathed his own breath into the man of clay, can do something about this.  Is it harder to believe that God can bring a clay man to life in the first instance than bring a cadaver to life generations later?  The process of procreation is well known, so that the beginning of that process is easier to believe.  The process of resurrection is not known at all; therefore, its beginning is hard to believe.  That is why God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, prophesy!  Paint a picture of the end of a process no one has seen.  Paint a horizon not otherwise visible so that people who saw nothing begin heading toward it.  Paint a horizon that only God can see, a horizon not yet created, a horizon that is promise.  Paint, Ezekiel, paint!  This is the challenge of every funeral message.

Jesus gets back to Bethany about time to preach Lazarus' funeral, the first day to make arrangements with the mortuary, the second day to give family members time to get there, and the third day to hold services.  Yes, Jesus arrived in time to preach, but Martha didn't want preaching.  "Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'"  (John 11:21)  She didn't want any preaching about the sweet by and by.  "Martha said to him, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.'"   (John 11:24)  She wanted Lazarus back.  Ezekiel wanted Jerusalem back.  The Psalmist wanted his spirit back.  Parents want their children back.  Children want their parents back.  And Jesus said, "If you have me, you have back whatever you lost."

The one who breathed life into the man of clay can breath life into Lazarus three days dead.  John reasons it backward.  If Jesus raised Lazarus, then he is also the one who brought to life the man of clay.  He is also the one who restored the children of Israel, restored Jerusalem.  He is the only one who can restore the creation.  Therefore, seek him, not the restoration of what you lost.  He will replace what you have lost.  He embodies the replacement of what you have lost.

Many times I have read the dialogue between Martha and Jesus at funerals and wished I could do for the grieving family what Jesus did for Mary and Martha.  "Come out!  Push up the lid.  Slip the massive floral arrangement onto the floor and come out."  But I didn't breathe my breath into the man of clay, and I can't raise the dead.  Who am I?  What can I do?  I can prophesy.  I can paint a picture of Jesus.  If I lack talent, I can paint by numbers -- John 11:25-26.  When Ezekiel prophesied, no one thought there would be a new Jerusalem, but he painted anyway, and when the message was finally embraced, there was a New Jerusalem.  

There ought to be soft, fuzzy, stuffed toys in the pews for funerals, so we could embrace something throughout the service.  My chest felt so concave it was collapsing into inner space.  Like a black hole in space, it sucked every comforting word into the emptiness.  I had an emptiness no dictionary of words could fill.  Saturn and all its rings would have disappeared in my void.  My emptiness was larger even than the loved one torn out.  Only God is big enough to fill what I have lost.  That is why Jesus doesn't talk to Martha about Lazarus.  He talks about Jesus.  "Jesus said to her, '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. Do you believe this?'"   (John 11:25-26)


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
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