and a Refusal to Die
Lent 5A | John 11:1-45
Jesus is there to reveal the glory of God. Resurrection. This is what he came to do, isn’t it? To show the world what God is up to.
The people didn’t know this was the score at the beginning and Jesus wasn’t being super straightforward, was he. He’s like, My Bud, Lazarus? He’s just sleeping. I’m going to go wake him up. And the disciples are like, Oh, sweet! Sleeping? Then no big deal. Why even go! And Jesus is shaking his head, Dudes, I’m telling you he’s dead.
So there are two paths that Jesus is intertwining here: direct and indirect. He is speaking around the subject and also speaking directly to it. He announces that he has to do something for the glory of God. He speaks to the sleeping and the dying. He even announces before they leave that Lazarus is dead already.
There’s also quibbling over the timing. Jesus waits two days to leave, it seems to take Jesus two days to get there, Lazarus is dead for four. Maybe Jesus could get there in time and maybe not. Either way, that isn’t the plan. It isn’t he way to the glorification of God. That seems to require Lazarus to die.
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