So, someone I was talking to the other day said, “You know, I am just tired!”

“I am tired of people arguing with each other. I am tired of politics. I am tired of the Corona Virus. I am tired of life being so strange compared to where we were two years ago.”

“I want to get off this crazy merry-go-round.”

What they were describing I think is the reality for a whole lot of people!

We come all this way and we are exhausted! We are frustrated, we’re sad, we’re lost, we’re stuck, and we don’t know what to do or even if there is anything to do.

I get it.

Sue and I have often talked about both the blessing of being able to lay low during the Covid epidemic, but also how we been frustrated at not seeing folks, and the sadness that so many others have experiences because they have been so overburdened by life.

As a pastor I can tell you that a lot of the symptoms, tiredness, sadness, a loss of hope, wishing things were different, anger, and crying, are pretty common, as well as note that they are all signs of depression.

And, they are also evidence of grief!

While many of us think of grief as the emotional reaction that comes when a loved one dies, in fact grief is much bigger than that. It is the emotional state that comes with any loss.

It comes when our experiences are sad, but can also come when the experiences are good and happy, but cause a change in life that drains all our emotional resources.
Grief can come after a promotion, after a move from one house to another, and even after you graduate from high school or college. The uncertainty overwhelms!

The key component to it all is change, potentially gaining good things, while at the same time, leaving some things behind.

Death is the pinnacle grief experience. But so can be what are called mini deaths; a house fire, a job loss, or the loss of friendship.

And when grief comes, we struggle, we hurt, and often times we cry, if not outwardly, then certainly inwardly.

And because of all the losses of these past almost two years, many of us have been grieving. We have lost family members and friends to Covid, had friendships shatter, some of us have lost jobs, and some folks on the front-lines of the Covid disaster have watched as their personal resources of energy, time, compassion, and even love have dry up.

It is into this story of our grief that we meet Jesus, off on an adventure with his disciples, inviting us to see that not only does Jesus understands our grief and has felt it himself, but see that Jesus offers good news in the time of grief: resurrection power!

The story as it was read today actually begins earlier in John’s gospel when Jesus had been told that Lazarus was sick. Lazarus’ sisters had sent a message to Jesus letting him know.

But Jesus did two crazy things. One, Jesus told his disciples “His sickness won’t end in death.” And two, he stayed right where he was for two more days.

The disciples it appears were glad they were staying away from Judea because they were convinced that if Jesus went back, he would be arrested and killed.

Then Jesus he told them, “Lazarus is dead! I am glad that I wasn’t there, because now you will have a chance to put your faith in me. Let’s go to him.”

Did you hear that!

Jesus seems to suggest that our grief, and that of Martha and Mary and his disciples is an opportunity to put our faith in Jesus.

That somehow recognizing and accepting our grief, lays the ground work for what Jesus is about to do, and opens up the possibility that now, we will finally believe.

For Jesus grief is tragic and painful and a huge loss, but it also something else.

It is the opportunity for God to reveal to us at the deepest level the wonder of resurrection.

All of this must have been wildly confusing to the disciples, who I imagine all thought that they had already put their faith in Jesus.

But just like dessert, there is always room for more, especially when it comes to grief.

So, he and the disciples went to Bethany to find Martha and Mary, and Lazarus who had now been dead for four days.

The four days mattered too, because in Jewish tradition, the spirit of a person could hang around a dead person for three days. But by now, not only was it clear that Lazarus was more than mostly dead, he was dead dead, and his body would have been badly decomposing.

Yet Jesus, as we have seen so often, was unafraid of death. He immediately waded into the sadness, the anger, the tiredness, the disputes, the depression, and the grief.

And like Martha and Mary cried, at the unfairness, the loss, the pain, the anger.

And then he speaks into grief those amazing words: “Lazarus, come out!”

Come out of the tomb your emotions have locked you in. Come out of the darkness into the light. Remember that while you yet hurt, God still has plans for you, plans of which you are still not aware.

Come and be healed. Come and be made brand new. Come wiser and more caring. But most importantly come. Death cannot hold him, nor can it hold you in the prison of grief.

Remember the tears, but use them now to comfort others. Resurrection power is the key that turns the lock. He is not dead, and neither are we! Instead we see all the possibilities God has for using us!

So, rise up! And be like Lazarus. Amen.