Death was no stranger to
John Donne. You remember him; he was the
English poet, lawyer and cleric whose poems you probably read in high school or
college. What you may not know is that John
Donne’s father died when he was only four years old; that two of his sisters
died before he was ten; that six of his twelve children died before reaching
adulthood; and that his wife died in childbirth. As I said, death was no stranger to John
Donne, but death didn't conquer him, and it didn't rule his life. He wasn't afraid of death because he believed
that death is done. And that’s the point
of today’s Gospel.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus
is revealed as the resurrection and the life, the one who fulfills the prophesy
of Ezekiel in our first reading: “I will
open your graves and have you rise from them.”
Fulfilling a prophesy is a pretty big deal, so the raising of Lazarus can’t
simply be a private favor that Jesus grants to his close friends. It’s much more than that. It’s “Jesus’ culminating self-revelation on
the eve of the passion.”[1] It’s Jesus’ revelation that he is the resurrection and the life. Up to this point, Martha and Mary and many
others certainly knew that Jesus was special.
He could heal the sick – all agree that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus
would still be alive. But they never
imagined that Jesus would actually bring Lazarus back to life. They never imagined it, because they didn't understand who Jesus really is. They had
no clue that Jesus was the one sent by God to raise the dead to new life. They had no idea that Jesus could conquer
death – that through Jesus, death is done.
But how can we say that “death
is done,” when we still die? Well, let’s
take a closer look at our Gospel. At the
beginning of the passage, Jesus says that “[t]his illness is not to end in
death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified
through it.” When we speak of the glory of
God, we have to understand that God isn't on an ego trip; he doesn't need our
accolades. God is glorified when he
gives his own life to his people.[2]
God communicates his life to us through Jesus
Christ, who is the resurrection and the
life – the one who carries us through death into God’s eternal life. By taking human form in the person of Jesus,
God brought eternal life into this
world. So eternal life isn't something we’re
waiting for. It begins now. And if eternal life begins now, then death is done.
Death is no longer an end; it’s a
transition that serves God’s purpose of bringing all believers into the
fullness of God’s eternal life.
John Donne spoke eloquently
of how death serves God’s purpose in the last sermon he gave just a few days
before he died. Donne explained that the
Trinitarian God delivers us from
death, by death and in death.[3]
[You knew you were getting an English lesson
as soon as I mentioned a poet at the beginning of this homily, so brush off
your prepositions]. Donne explained that God the Father, the God
of power, rescues us from death by sharing
his eternal life with us. Sharing in God’s eternal life means that we
will never be separated from God,
even by death.
God the Son, the God of mercy, rescued us by death when he entered death himself. “The
love that troubles Jesus and makes him weep at the loss of Lazarus also makes
him go after Lazarus and free him from the imprisonment of death.”[4] Just the same, Jesus’ love for all humanity makes
him go after us to free us from the imprisonment of death. By accepting death, Jesus brought God’s eternal
life into the realm of death to free us from it, and so we were saved from death, by his death. Finally, John Donne
preached that God the Spirit, the God of comfort, rescues us in death by giving us the consolation at
the hour of our death that we are loved infinitely by God and that death is not
our end; it’s our entrance into the fullness of God’s eternal life. That “[c]onsolation ultimately comes from
realizing that love is stronger than death.”[5] So God fulfills his purpose of bringing all
believers into the fullness of eternal life by saving us from death, by death and
in death. I think we've run out of prepositions, so
death must be done. But I’m not.
The challenge for us, then, is believing. A lot of people live their lives under the philosophy
that when we’re dead, we’re done. They
spend their lives counting the days, waiting for death, fearing death. What a sad way to live. But that’s not the Christian philosophy. “Christians are invited and enabled to
integrate the ever-ambiguous experience of death, that of loved ones and [our]
own, into [our] faith vision.”[6] That faith vision calls us to believe that
Jesus is the resurrection and the life; to believe that God has rescued us from death, by death and in death; to
believe that through the gift of eternal life, death is done. Believing opens our hearts to the consolation
of the Spirit that carries us through our mourning and our weeping, through our
pain and our suffering, and through
death into eternal life. Believing is a
wonderful way to live.
John Donne believed, so even though he mourned the
deaths of his loved ones, he wasn't afraid of death; it didn't rule his life. In fact, one of his most famous poems confronts
death head on. It’s formally known as Sonnet
X of the Holy Sonnets, but it’s more
popularly known by the words of its opening and closing lines:
Death be not
proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and
dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those,
whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow,
Die not,
poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me. . . .
One short
sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death
shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
[1]
Sandra M. Schneiders, Written That You
May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (New York, The
Crossroad Publishing Company, 2003) at 174.
[2]
John Shea, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels
for Christian Preachers and Teachers, Year A (Collegeville, Liturgical
Press, 2006) at 143.
[3]
John Donne, “Death’s Duel,” (March 1631), Christian
Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/donne/deaths_duel.html.
[4]
Shea at 153.
[5]
Id.
[6]
Schneiders at 183.
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