Today’s Gospel reading on the resurrection of Lazarus is one I have found compelling from childhood. It dramatizes so well. Mary and Martha question Jesus’ delay. Christ prays aloud for the benefit of the onlookers. Lazarus, still bound, emerges from the dark cave of death into the light of life. Stop. Just sit with it for a moment. Picture it. Now listen to it. Can you hear the gasps? The shouts of amazement? The joyful weeping?

Then the story of Lazarus stops. We don’t know what Lazarus did with his second chance or how much it changed the way he lived his life. Did he follow Christ? Teach and preach to others? Give up bad habits of thought and action? We don’t know.

Of course, the lessons to be gleaned from this story don’t focus on the follow up. Lazarus is saved by the faith of his sister Martha, by the miraculous powers of God invoked by Christ. Non-believers believe. Christ’s own resurrection and empty tomb are foreshadowed. I know that and I rejoice in it. All of us can be brought from the death and darkness of our own doubt and flawed humanity if we believe.

But I still have to wonder about brother Lazarus and the rest of his life. How did it feel to be revived? Did he remember the experience? Could he tell others what it was like to be dead? How long did he live afterward? This was, after all, a temporary reprieve.

There are no answers, so I guess I will just have to ask those questions about myself and focus on the resurrection of my own spirit, which happens over and over and over again when faith pulls me from the tomb of despair, doubt, and mis-direction. What does it feel like to be “dead”?  Painful beyond words. How does it feel to be revived by faith? Liberating beyond words. What to do with the new life and the second, third, fourth, fifth, infinite number of chances that I am given to be reborn again? Be grateful, and praise, praise, praise.

Wishing you a space for grace in your life today,
Kate