OPEN THE TOMB
Ezekiel 37: 12-14; Romans 8: 8-11; John 11: 3-7, 17, 20-27, 33B-45
His question was simple enough: “I am the resurrection and the life, the one who raises the dead and gives life. Those who put their trust in me will have life, even if they die. Those who live trusting in me, will never succumb to death. Do you believe this?”
Your answer was simple enough too: “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God; the one whose arrival the world has been waiting for.” But answering questions is the easy part. Even when the answer is extraordinary, almost unimaginable. Even when the answer means that the ordinary looking person in front of you is no one less than the God of the universe, the life-giver, the one who creates something out of nothing, life out of death.
“Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord, I believe.” Just a few simple words, really. Nothing to it.
“Roll back the stone. Open the tomb.”
What?! Open the tomb? Don’t be ridiculous. What’s in there is long dead.
Open the tomb.
Come on it is hard enough to view the dead before burial let alone digging up what is half decomposed Don’t make me do this.
I am the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe this?
Yes, Lord. I believe.
Open the tomb.
It’s going to stink to high heaven in there. We’ll all be sick. That stone is in place for a good reason. It is not healthy to expose yourself to what’s in there. Just leave it be.
I am the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe this?
Yes, Lord. I believe.
Open the tomb.
Can we talk about this? Okay, I’ll admit it, it’s not just the stench I’m afraid of. There’s more to it than that. It’s what it would mean for me. Sometimes when things are laid to rest, you’ve just got to let go and move on. It’s not healthy to keep raking over the ashes. Sometimes you have to shut yourself off, sever the emotional ties and stop dwelling on the past to protect yourself against the pain. You’ve got to let go of the “if only”s and accept that those hopes and dreams are gone. That the chapter is closed. That you have to get on with life as it now is, poorer perhaps, but with both feet firmly on the ground. I’ve done my best to move on. I’m coping okay. Don’t ask me to go back.
I am the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe this?
Yes, Lord. I believe.
Open the tomb.
Can’t we just leave it. Can’t we just walk away. Can’t we let the dead rest in peace. Maybe some of what’s dead in there died because I gave up too easily. Maybe it didn’t need to die. Maybe if I’d looked harder or fought longer it wouldn’t have died. Maybe if you’d been here with me it wouldn’t have died. You could have done something. You could have given me the courage and kept me from giving up. If only you’d been here it wouldn’t have died. But it doesn’t matter now. It makes no difference now why it died. It’s dead. Gone. Extinguished. No more for this world. Whether its death was unavoidable or not, it died. Why look on the horror of it all now? Why dredge up the misery, the shattered dreams, the agony of lost hopes? Why?
I am the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe this?
Yes, Lord. I know all that.
Open the tomb.
I can’t. You don’t understand. You don’t realize what it would cost me to go back there. Do you know what it’s like when something within you dies? When you abandon hope? When you give up trying to make something work and just let it go? Some dream. Some hope that kept you going for years, maybe even a lifetime? Some relationship. Some passion. Some ability that others don’t appreciate or maybe even recognize. Some flame of faith. Something that is unique to you. Something that makes you who you are or could make you who you could have been. Do you know what it is like to give up? To watch it slip away? To steel yourself against the pain? To bite your lip and fight the tears? To not let it show? To pretend you’re better off without it because that’s what everyone else thought anyway? Do you know what it costs to close that tomb and to return to life as though nothing had happened? But some things have to die. They don’t fit in the real world. They don’t belong. They cause more pain than they’re worth. They make life difficult. They have to be given up so you can fit in, and go with the flow, and be accepted by those around you.
I am the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe this?
Yes, Lord. I believe it. I’ve got it all down pat.
Open the tomb.
Do you have any idea what you’re asking me? To open it up again? To make myself vulnerable again? What if it just opens up all the old wounds and everything is just as complicated as before? Just as painful? Just as unbearable? What if it undoes all the good progress I’ve made? What if I believe again, trust again, open myself up again, and just get destroyed again? What if I just get my heart torn out and trampled over again? I couldn’t face that. Just let it rest in peace. It can’t do any harm behind that stone. It’s safe. I’m safe! Don’t go stirring it up again. Just let it rest in peace. I can’t take the risk. If you put flesh back on those bones and breathe life into that body, there will be nowhere for me to hide. All that unfinished business will be back on the table. Everything will be raw and vulnerable and terrifyingly alive.
Open the tomb.
For I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I am not the God of the dead but of the living.1 I wound, but I bind up; I shatter, but my hands make whole.2 I will open your graves and have you rise from them. I will put my spirit in you that you may live.3 I will wipe away every tear from your eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have passed away.4 By my stripes, you are healed. 5Trust in me with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.6 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.7 I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land fountains of water.8 Thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised it, and I will do it See! I make all things new!9
I am the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe this?
Open the tomb.
Passim:
1. Matthew 22:32
2. Job 5: 18
3. Ezekiel 37: 12-13
4. Revelation 21: 4
5. Isaiah 53: 5
6. Proverbs 3: 5
7. Isaiah 65: 17
8. Isaiah 41: 18
9. Ezekiel 37: 13-14
