{"id":2036,"date":"2026-03-22T19:28:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T23:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2026-03-22T19:28:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T23:28:52","slug":"conversations-before-the-cross-5-come-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2026\/03\/22\/conversations-before-the-cross-5-come-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations Before the Cross #5: Come Out!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Conversations-Before-the-Cross-05.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Sermon for the Salem United Church of Christ, Harrisburg, PA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fifth Sunday in Lent\/A \u2022 March 22, 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts\/?y=17134&amp;z=l&amp;d=29\">Ezekiel 37:1-14 * John 11:1-45<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout this season of Lent, we\u2019ve been overhearing Jesus\u2019 conversations. We heard him talk to Satan, responding to each temptation to live from his own needs with God\u2019s Word and a determination to live that Word. We heard him tell Nicodemus about new life by being born from above, from living as a child of heaven. We heard him offer a woman at a well in Samaria living water, flowing from the love of God, baptizing her in a way that opened the way to new life. We saw him heal a man born blind and the conflict it caused when his eyes were opened and he believed in Jesus. Now we come to this story and there are so many people, so many conversations going on that it\u2019s hard to hear Jesus directly. What do you hear in the story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See how carefully John invites us into the scene. Bethany is a suburb of Jerusalem. Mary and Martha are gathered there; Lazarus, their brother, is deathly ill. I know this scene and perhaps you do as well. It\u2019s played out in hospital waiting rooms every day. Right now, at Harrisburg Hospital, at Hershey Hospital, some family is gathered, waiting, talking, worrying. Nothing has changed; nothing is different, then, now. Their brother has been sick, perhaps for a long time. Everything has been tried; nothing has worked. Now they try one more thing. Jesus has a reputation for healing and he\u2019s their friend. So someone, another friend perhaps, is sent to get him. Imagine their hope, their last hope, that Jesus will swoop in and save the day.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he doesn\u2019t. In fact, after the messenger arrives with his frantic plea, Jesus doesn\u2019t rush off, Jesus doesn\u2019t interrupt whatever he\u2019s doing, Jesus stays where he is, the text says, two more days. The story invites us into an irony that reflects our own fears. When the messenger arrives, asking, begging Jesus to come to Bethany, his disciples are afraid. \u201cThe last time we were down there, people rioted and we barely got out with our lives!\u201d, they remind him; that\u2019s what it means when it says they were stoned. At the moment Jesus is asked to intervene and prevent Lazarus\u2019 death, the disciples urge him not to go because they\u2019re afraid of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This delay is one of the most interesting parts of this story. It lifts up our own question, doesn\u2019t it? Why doesn\u2019t Jesus come when we summon him? Here I am Lord, here\u2019s what I want. That\u2019s the subtext of a good deal of prayer life, I suspect. Here\u2019s Lazarus\u2019 family reaching out in what they think is their most needy moment. When he does eventually arrive, they can\u2019t let it go. But, as John Fairless observes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>If Jesus had arrived on their timeline, He would have healed a sick man. Admirable, certainly\u2014a demonstration of compassion and power. But John, the writer, has a deeper revealing in mind. Healing the sick was routine in Christ\u2019s ministry. Raising someone dead for four days is categorically different. [John Fairless, \u201cDivine Delay\u201d]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The disciples don\u2019t want to go because they\u2019re scared; Jesus waits because the moment isn\u2019t right yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When his disciples were discussing the man born blind, he told them, \u201cI am the light of the world.\u201d Now he gives them an example of living in the light and makes his way to Bethany. There he encounters first Martha and later Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, and each one confronts him with an accusation: \u201cIf you had been here, my brother would not have died.\u201d They are grieving, they are hurt, they are angry and their anger and faith have mixed into a bitter blindness. Swirling around this entire conversation is a group of other mourners as well and emotions run high. Jesus is himself caught up in the moment; the text tells us \u201cJesus wept.\u201d Grief is real; hurt is real. Jesus doesn\u2019t tell them, \u201cOh, stop\u201d, he enters into the moment with them. He weeps; he mourns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I imagine we\u2019ve all been to a funeral and probably to that time before the service, calling hours, wake, different names for the same moment. Usually there is a casket or an urn at the front of the room and a line leading to it with a grieving family off to one side. I don\u2019t know what you think of as you wait in that line but for many, it\u2019s what to say to the family. What comfort can you bring? What story can you share? So I imagine this scene like that: the family and friends gathered around as Jesus, Lazarus\u2019 great friend, comes forward through the crowd. See him walking slowly? See him weeping? Now he comes to the opening, he tells them to roll away the stone and they object: the odor of death will escape. But the grave is opened and suddenly he speaks, he says what no one imagined or expected, what none of us would say:<br \/>\u201cLazarus, come out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus shouts: \u201cLazarus, come out\u201d, the same word\u2014\u2018shout\u2014 is used at his entrance about the way the crowds shout \u201cHosanna!\u201d, the same word is used days later when the same crowd shouts, \u201cCrucify!\u201d The crowd changes from moment to moment; Jesus never does. His voice doesn\u2019t come from an impulse. This is what we often miss about Jesus. I don\u2019t believe he suddenly decided to talk to Nicodemus or the woman at the well; I don\u2019t believe he suddenly decided to heal the man born blind. And he doesn\u2019t just call Lazarus out of the tomb because they are friends. Jesus lives from who he is. He says, \u201cI am the resurrection and the life.\u201d This is the quality of his life that inspired and continues to inspire: he doesn\u2019t act like resurrection, he is resurrection; he doesn\u2019t act like he loves, he is love.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now he calls Lazarus: \u201cCome out!\u201d And now there is a faint. The family wanted healing, Jesus brings resurrection. Now there is a noise from inside the tomb, now there is the sound of stumbling feet, now there is a shadow moving, moving toward the light from the darkness, just as the man born blind moved from blindness to sight, just as the woman at the well moved from her loneliness to love. \u201cCome out, Lazarus!\u201d And Lazarus stumbles forward, wrapped still in the linen cloths with which bodies were bound in that time. Jesus offers a new command: \u201cUnbind him and let him go.\u201d And they do. Notice that in each command, Jesus invites others to take action. He tells others to move the stone; he doesn\u2019t pull Lazarus out of the tomb, he calls him out; he doesn\u2019t unbind him, he asks the whole group there to do this. Jesus works through a community around him, commanding, inspiring, calling, showing them what to do and inviting them to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fundamental Christian mission is to go to where the power of death is working and call God\u2019s children to life, to go to darkness and bring light. Perhaps a story from almost two thousand years ago is so distant it seems irrelevant. But there are still times when Christians are called to go into tombs and bring life. In 1940, Holland was overwhelmed by a German assault and captured almost in a few days. Soon the Nazi focus on eliminating Jews made itself felt. In Amsterdam, a large theater was gutted and used as a detention center and nearby another called the Creche, was used to gather Jewish children. A small group of Dutch resisters, both Christians and Jews, began to work to save these children. Despite the increasing risks, for the next three years they organized networks to smuggle children out of the creche to homes in northern Holland and other places where families would hide them and help them. The creche was meant to be the first stage of a tomb for these children and so it was for thousands. But thanks to the efforts of these who walked into that tomb and spirited them out, hundreds of children were saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s not simply a story of heroes and happy children. Many of the group were lost to the Gestapo, arrested, tortured, murdered. Darkness is powerful; death does not give up. The only power greater than death is resurrection, the only thing that can keep the light alive is the power of God\u2019s love. All along his journey, Jesus has faced conflict and threats. We saw the anger of the Pharisees last week when he healed the man born blind. We know that the charge, \u201cHe eats with sinners,\u201d was frequently used and that included people like the woman at the well certainly. Beyond the reading for today, John tells us that the raising of Lazarus leads directly to the plot to arrest and execute Jesus. Remember how Jesus\u2019 conversation with Satan ended. Satan did not say, \u201cI give up\u201d; instead, we\u2019re told, he left him for a more opportune time. Now that time is coming. The darkness is closing around him even as he himself brings light. I wonder in that moment what his followers thought; I wonder what we would have thought, what I would have thought. I read this story and I want to rejoice but it scares me as well. I wonder: what now Lord?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the story of Jesus calling someone to life from death isn\u2019t just history; it is the present too. Over and over in my ministry I have seen this happen. Some person, nurtured by a congregation, comes alive. Perhaps it was a woman whose life had been bound by walls of oppression; perhaps it is a man who turns a life around. Perhaps it is someone who only comes to church for a little while and then moves on. This is what sustains me on my journey. I\u2019ve seen Jesus call people to life. I\u2019ve felt Jesus call me to life. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every moment is a gate between the past and the future; every moment comes with a context and holds possibilities. As we go out each day, we have to choose among those possibilities. How will we choose? The power of resurrection comes into our lives when we face the day, face the possibilities, face the choices with this question first: what now Lord? What now? If we ask, surely he will answer; if we ask, surely he will show us how to walk in the light, how to live following the one who is life. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Note: The account of the Resistance group working to save children is found in The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every moment is a gate between the past and the future; every moment comes with a context and holds possibilities. As we go out each day, we have to choose among those possibilities. How will we choose? The power of resurrection comes into our lives when we face the day, face the possibilities, face the choices with this question first: what now Lord? What now? If we ask, surely he will answer; if we ask, surely he will show us how to walk in the light, how to live following the one who is life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[346,347,3,13,2,69],"tags":[64,98,172,33],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-john","category-john-scripture","category-sermon","category-theology","category-worship","category-year-a","tag-healing","tag-hope","tag-love","tag-resurrection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2038,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}