Lazarus Falls

The story of Lazarus continues today and tomorrow. (I listened to it this morning again at Ascension. There were fewer nuns today, but it was still a great and worthy service. I loved praying in their close and empty space, with the northern-facing stained glass windows illumined from without by just enough cloudy light to give the colors tone.)

This portion of John is, as most of this gospel, inscrutable and complex. We have Judas pictured as a thief and betrayer: not only will his word lead to Jesus' crucifixion, but he also plans to steal the 300 denarii (a year's wages) from the collection taken for the poor. What's up with Judas? In Kazantzakis' novel, Judas was the second-most important figure in the whole passion story. Without the betrayal, no crucifixion; without the crucifixion, no redemption. Are we to see him as a noble, good, and tragic man, struggling against an awful destiny, as Kazantzakis sees him; or as little more than the common criminal depicted in John?

Kazantzakis has a great image surrounding the passages around today's reading from John. The Jews decide to kill Lazarus, because the miracle of his resurrection was drawing Jews away from their leaders and towards Christ. In Kazantzakis, the Jews actually stab Lazarus, freshly awakened from the dead; he collapses, his hands holding the cruel knife, in awe and pain, very, very confused; he crumples to the ground not understanding any of it. His blood flows from him and he returns to the dead.

Jesus does not raise him a second time.

Of course, we assume Lazarus believed and therefore was granted everlasting life, but what a bizarre and cruel way to get there. His stinking, foul corpse was re-animated by Jesus, barely long enough for him to pull his own burial shroud from his face, before he found himself knifed and killed. Poor Lazarus; I'm sure he was bewildered from the moment he rose until the moment he died. Again.

The gospel of John doesn't say that he was actually murdered; just that the Jews planned to do it. Did Jesus stay their hand? Did Lazarus gain any temporal benefit from his resurrection? Did he grow old and die happy? Did he spend many more happy years with his family, watching their corn, wine and oil increase? Or was his resurrection just a sufficient action to give him belief, and therefore eternal life, which he was immediately granted, through murder? There are no easy answers.

I leave you tonight with a passage from Rilke's Book of Hours (see the previous post):

You create yourself in ever-changing shapes
that rise from the stuff of our days --
unsung, unmourned, undescribed,
like a forest we never knew.

You are the innerness of all thigns,
the last word that can never be spoken.
To each of us you reveal yourself differently:
to the ship as a coastline, to the shore as a ship.