N. T. Wright is the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England. He is also widely recognized as one of the great New Testament scholars among English speakers. N. T. Wright is literally world famous. His books sell thousands of copies. Some of you have heard me quote N. T. Wright in various classes that I teach here at St. Luke’s. In his commentary on John’s Gospel, N. T. Wright says this about this passage, the raising of Lazarus. I would like to quote it. It is very brief, just two lines, but this is a powerful statement. N. T. Wright says about the passage we have just heard read, “If we don’t feel its power, and find ourselves driven to awe, and thanks, and hope, then, either we haven’t learned to read, or we have hearts of stone.” That is a powerful statement about one Gospel passage. Here, one of the great New Testament scholars in all the world is saying, “If we aren’t moved by this story, if we aren’t pushed to give thanks, and to be in awe, and to be filled with hope, after having heard this story, either we haven’t really heard it,” Wright is saying, “or we have hearts of stone.”

I want us to take a couple of minutes this morning to look in some detail at just a couple of verses in this Gospel passage. Here we encounter Mary and Martha. We encounter them in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 10:38-42. We see the very famous situation where Martha is busying herself with work in the household, and Mary is more contemplative. For 2000 years now, women have had to decide whether they are a Mary or a Martha. I talked in my sermon six or eight months ago that that is really a false dichotomy. Work has its place, and contemplation clearly has its place. It is a false dichotomy to think that you have to choose between either a Mary or a Martha. We can be a blend of both. But here are these two sisters again that we encounter in John’s Gospel, and we encounter their brother, Lazarus. It is clear that Jesus knew this family. He was friends with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. We don’t know how. Scripture doesn’t tell us. But they are clearly personal friends. Oftentimes, Jesus just encounters people on the road, or he will teach to a crowd of people. But Mary and Martha and Lazarus are friends of Jesus. Word gets to Jesus that Lazarus has died. We can assume that this was fairly sudden. The text doesn’t tell us but it was much more typical at this period of time for people to die suddenly in an age before modern medicine. Jesus gets word that his friend Lazarus has died. When he gets near Bethany, Martha is the first one to greet him. She says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” So Martha is clearly distraught. Then, when Mary gets to Jesus, she is weeping, and she says what Martha had said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Here is what I want to focus on for a few minutes this morning. Let’s look at Jesus’ reaction to these friends of his whose brother has died. We read in vs. 33, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” I want to focus on this wording here. This is a hard concept to translate into Modern English. The Greek word in play here is embrimaomai. Embrimaomai. That word typically is translated as angered. The NRSV says, “He was greatly disturbed in spirit.” The King James translates this as, “He groaned in the spirit.” The translators are trying to capture the depth of the emotion here when Jesus sees these two sisters suffering so. But, most literally translated, what the text says here in Greek says is, “He was angry.” He loved this family so much, he was angered that Mary and Martha were hurting so, and were feeling such depth of grief for their brother. He can feel their deep anguish when they both say to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” So, Jesus is angry here. He is filled with emotion. He is filled with compassion. That is what I really want us to think about. See here the compassion of Jesus. He says, after Mary greets him, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” And then the very famous verse 35 of John 11. The shortest verse in the Bible. “Jesus began to weep.”

I was remembering this week as I was thinking on this sermon, I remember so very well in Sunday school as a child, when the teacher would ask, “What is the shortest verse in the Bible?” I always knew. Jesus wept. That is true. It is the shortest verse in the Bible. When you read it in Greek, it is Iesous dakryo. That is all it says. Iesous dakryo. Jesus cried. Jesus wept.

What I want to say is this. I submit to you this is not a surface emotion. What we see here is genuine compassion. Jesus no doubt will miss Lazarus, but I submit to you, when we look at the text, what John is conveying here is the depth of Jesus’ compassion for these two sisters. It runs so deep that he is moved to tears. Iesous dakryo. Jesus wept.

Finally, a part of what N. T. Wright is talking about, when he talks about the awe that this story is meant to convey, happens in the final couple of verses. Just imagine with me for moment having been there that day at that cave in Bethany. Ancient people knew just as well as modern people do that people don’t rise from the dead. Particularly after four days, people don’t rise from the dead. Lazarus has been entombed. He is in the cave. He is in the burial clothes. When we think about the Shroud of Turin, whatever we may think about its legitimacy, that kind of burial wrapping is what Lazarus would have had. So, imagine being there, and hearing this rabbi cry out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Then imagine seeing this dead person coming out of the cave with these linen wrappings all around him, prepared for burial. Just imagine what that would have been like to be there. The King James really does say it well. Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.” “Unbind him, and let him go.”

What we see here is compassion. Jesus loves this family. He sees their grief. He feels their grief. And, he draws on his power to bring life back to his friend. Not to show off that power, but out of compassion for these people whom he loves. I simply want to leave you with this, as I leave it with myself today. We are to learn from this story that we are to be compassionate. It is a part of the Christian journey to grow more and more into a compassionate, forgiving, understanding person. Sam Keen says in one of his many fine books, “Use compassion as your spiritual barometer.” “If you are becoming more compassionate, you are probably on the right track spiritually,” says Sam Keen. “If you are not becoming more compassionate, you probably need to take a look at your spiritual life.”

There is a lot of spiritual wisdom there. That kind of wisdom comes out of this kind of Gospel passage. We see our Lord’s humanity here. We see his compassionate heart. As we continue in this Lenten season, and as we prepare for Easter Day, now only a couple of weeks away, may we each look inside today, and ask ourselves the question, “Am I becoming more compassionate?” Amen.