For Sunday
All Saints B
Collect
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that his friend, Lazarus, is dying. He delays his journey to them, but not enough to get there to save him from dying. And his coming to them comes in spite of the opposition from the disciples, who consider this journey too dangerous.
All of this is true. And yet we hear Mary scold Jesus. What a recognizable response. But it isn’t rational. Even if he had hustled, he would have still been two days late. But that isn’t the point, right? Not to the grieving sister. He should have tried. It reminds me of the king’s delusion in The Lord of the Rings when, in the midst of grief over the death of his elder son, he sends his younger son on a death mission. That there is a kind of virtue in trying in an impossible situation, which renders not trying as uncaring.
The strange familiarity of this delusion makes its rationale nearly universal, though never truly rational. And even as she says it, Mary seems to know its stupid. That its the grief talking.
The impossibility of Jesus getting there in time is set against the impossibility of rising from the dead. And it seems this is the sort of impossible thing made possible by God. We aren’t able to teleport like on Star Trek or run really fast like the Flash. But God does seem willing to play with the matter of life and death.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for followers of Jesus to find his way more familiar than Mary’s? That we seek to see God’s place in resurrecting rather than trying to save? Which is not to say that we don’t save lives in general, but that our faith is better served in seeking resurrection than in bemoaning missed opportunities to save the dying? Particularly with our institutions, relationships, and the people who have received all manner of medical interventions. God resurrects. We unbind them and let them go.