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.’” vs. 39
John 11:38-44
Ever the pragmatist Martha objected when Jesus ordered the stone to be rolled away. She knew how long Lazarus had been dead, and she knew that his body would have begun to decompose. The stench would have been overwhelming. That’s how it was with death and Martha was willing to live with the customs and the rituals of her faith. She didn’t have a clue about what Jesus had in mind. We too have our customs and rituals for dealing with death, and that’s a good thing! It’s important to know what to do when our loved ones die, and the moment of their death is not the time to be wondering what to do. For people of faith that ritual will most often include an invocation of God’s presence and at the end of the service our loved one will be released into the arms of Jesus. Like Martha we don’t know what that will involve, but based on Martha’s experience we believe that it will include the gift of new life. That’s why the Lazarus story is in our scripture–we love the picture it gives of moving from death to life, and even though it’s more of a resuscitation than a resurrection, it’s an affirmation of Paul’s contention that nothing in all creation, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Thought for the Day: Who am I remembering on this All Saints Sunday?
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