***
If there’s anything that tests our patience, it’s waiting.
For example, think of how many of us sit in traffic on our ride home from work. That stop-and-go, stop-and-go feels like your inching your way into Dante’s 9th circle of hell.
***
These days, however, we’ve shed our traffic patterns for long lines at the grocery store.
We’ve all seen images of people standing outside of Costco, the line literally wrapped around the building, people standing six feet apart.
While we wait, we run through our grocery list ten times over, making sure we don’t forget a single thing.
Meanwhile our stir-crazy kids sit at home, trying to learn something from their teachers online, while their own patience is tested.
***
Most importantly, we’re waiting for an end to the Coronavirus. Time is of the essence. We need a cure.
Health experts are warning us that our healthcare system is quickly reaching a tipping point; soon enough, we won’t be able to treat every patient who’s ill.
We’ve already seen images of patients lying on hospital floors in Spain; the country is overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses are literally choosing between who receives life-saving care and who doesn’t.
Meanwhile, we wait. We wait for a cure. We wait to file our taxes. We wait to pay our bills. We wait for relief.
This all seems like a page ripped out of a science fiction novel. But it isn’t. It’s real.
Strangely enough, it’s like a page ripped out of the bible. In particular, a page from today’s Gospel.
***
Like all those infected with the Coronavirus, Lazarus is sick; he’s dying.
So his sister, Mary, does the only thing she can. She sends word to her friend Jesus, the miracle-worker, begging him to save her brother.
Then they sit and wait.
What follows, however, is haunting and strange. Jesus, fully aware that his friend Lazarus is near death, also sits and waits.
As the Gospel tells us, “When he heard that Lazarus was ill, Jesus remained for two days in the place where he was.”
Why would he wait?!?
The simple thought that Jesus lets Lazarus suffer can make our blood boil.
In fact, Jesus waits so long that Lazarus is dead for four days before he arrives. “Lord, if you had been here,” Martha says, “my brother would not have died.”
***
We know how the story ends. Lazarus is raised from the dead. But let’s push pause on that for a moment and pay attention to what Jesus does next.
It’s the shortest sentence in the New Testament, but it’s packed with meaning.
“And Jesus wept.”
***
Jesus, the Son of God, wept.
God wept.
***
Over the last two months, how many of us have wept?
People have become sick, deathly ill; others have lost their jobs; schools have been shut down; fear and frustration simmer in our hearts.
The fact that Jesus himself stopped and wept adds an incredible value to our own tears.
He wept because his friend Lazarus had died. He wept because his friends were ripped apart in grief. He wept because death is real. It happens.
Jesus wept because he, too, was human.
In these times of trial, Jesus reminds us how important it is to show empathy towards one another.
To weep with those who weep, to pray for those who protect us, to support those who cannot support themselves.
***
But thank God that isn’t the end of the story. Literally, thank God.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb, commanding his friends to untie him.
Here we see the reason behind Jesus’ waiting.
He waited until Lazarus was dead for four days to teach us a lesson, one we need to be reminded of in the midst of this current Coronavirus pandemic.
In his own words, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.”
Jesus makes Lazarus rise, showing his disciples that he has power over death, because the next person to fall asleep will be Jesus himself.
But wipe your tears away, for he, too, will rise.
This is the Easter story we’re waiting for, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In that – in his resurrection – we find the promise of our own.
***
What a timely Gospel passage for us.
We have, it seems, nearly every detail and emotion that’s happening in our world. People are sick; people are praying for a cure; some are being healed, while others are overwhelmed with grief.
But come Easter Sunday, Jesus will remind us again that we, too, shall live.
For, “I am the resurrection and the life,” he says, “whoever believes in me, even if he dies (like Lazarus), will live.”
Thanks be to God.
Amen