First Lesson
Isaiah 25:6–9
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (ESV)
Second Reading
Revelation 21:1–6a (6b included in italics)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. (ESV)
Gospel Text
John 11:32–44
Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (ESV)
Comments and Questions for Discussion
First Reading
I have read, or heard read this passage from Isaiah at many, many funerals. Of all the Old Testament passages that the Book of Common Prayer suggests, this is my favorite. This passage, I think, evinces the most hope. Hope in a Gospel sense, confidence in things unseen.
As we ponder this passage and that from Revelation, later, I would like to try to explain to you how I understand prophecy to work. It is interesting that in Hebrew, future tense is expressed in a Hebrew tense called “perfect.” Yes, it’s the same tense used as for past perfect. So when a prophet speaks of things to come, he (or she) also speaks of them as if they have already happened.
And indeed they have, in the mind and heart of God. For God, all time is the present. What has happened is happening now. Jesus’ death in the past continues to shake the foundations of everything that is grounded in death even unto this day. Not mere echos, but the shaking that split rocks on Good Friday splits them today. So also, those good things that the prophet foresees are already accomplished, though we do not yet see them ourselves. Standing on the bedrock of hope that is ours in Christ Jesus, we understand that what Isaiah foresaw and what John describes later in Revelation are both “done deals.” I don’t know about you, but I find it easier to stand firm in a time where the ground feels so shaky beneath my feet when I know these things to be true already. And when my feet feel steady, I find it far easier to be compassionate toward those with whom I disagree, and that compassion, in turn, seems to help bring about the future on which I stand.
Second Reading
I’ve already talked some about the way that I understand prophecies like this one and the one from Isaiah to work in the heart and mind of the believer. I’d like to talk here a little about Revelation. Without going back to my lecture notes, I’ll drag up what I can remember. (I used to be an NT instructor at our diocesan school, so yeah, I have lecture notes somewhere.)
First thing – John is not the John who wrote the Gospel, or even the one who walked with Jesus as one of the twelve. He is a later Christian who also happens to be named John.
Second thing – The Revelation to John is not, repeat not, written as an end times description for people of our day. It was written in the first century for first century Christians to encourage them during a time of terrible persecution.
Third thing – And this really just builds on Second Thing (I sound like Dr. Suess here) It is written in the style and form of an “apocalypse.” From apokalypto, meaning removing the veil, or REmove VAIL. Revelation. Get it?
Apocalypse is always written in the present with descriptions of the near future for its readers. That’s how it works. So all those things that some Christians try to make it say about our present day are, well, baloney.
It is also written in code. This is also typical of “apocalypse” because if you’re going to write something under the nose of the persecutors about their own downfall and the deliverance of the ones they’re persecuting, it’s a good idea not to write it so they know it’s about them. That’s why we have all these wild descriptions of creatures with seven horns and such. They all referred to people and events that the readers of the first century would have understood.
Last thing – All this doesn’t mean it has no value to you and to me. One the contrary. As I said in the earlier section on prophecy, what was true about God and His purposes for people of the first century is still true for us. It’s all present tense for God. Or maybe perfect tense, all a “done deal.” So any hope that can be derived from Revelation in the first century is ours to stand on as well.
Gospel Text
Before I begin, I’d like to quibble once again with our translators of the text as we’ll hear it in church on Sunday morning from the NRSV. You’ve probably heard this Bible trivia question somewhere. “What’s the shortest verse in the Bible?” It’s John 11:35. Jesus wept. But, our translators take away all the impact of that incredible nugget by having it say, “Jesus began to weep.” It doesn’t say that. If you want to say that in Greek you use the imperfect tense, not the aorist. It’s in the aorist tense. Simple past tense. Jesus wept. What an incredible sentence that is. Remember this, too. In John Jesus tells us that the Son never does anything He doesn’t see the Father doing. God wept.
Okay, now take that with you to the rest of the story, because it tells us everything we need to know about God and the suffering that God permits to continue around us. Yes, God permits it to continue, but feels it every bit as keenly as you and I do. Every bit. From everyone who suffers. All the time.
But at the same time God knows how the last page reads. When Jesus raises Lazarus, He gives us a tangible peek at that last page, where sorrow and pain are no more, but life everlasting. And in the way that Jesus asks Martha to trust in Him and in the resurrection, He asks you and me to do the same. This isn’t a call to complacency, but an offer to work alongside God unburdened by the weight of the pain we see and feel. Yes, we still feel pain, but there is a world of difference between feeling it and being overwhelmed by it. As Jesus feels it, as His Father feels it and yet keeps pressing forward toward the day where this pain is no longer “a thing”, so we may also when we trust in our Maker and Redeemer.
