Rembrandt: The Raising of Lazarus (1642)
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet
God Enamored
"O mortal, can these dead bones live?"
"O Lord, my God, you know;"
I wonder which came first—the trust
Ezekiel, despite woe,
Embodied? Or—the vision, which
Appeared, and made him brave
Enough he might proclaim the news
That Yahweh yet would save?
And which comes first, belief in Christ,
So, dying, one still lives?
Or—when you've seen the hopeless, change—
Know God enamored gives?
Perhaps it doesn't matter how
From death you might come out,
Just listen to Love's call, who still
By grace, all dying flouts.
Scott L. Barton
(The phrase "God enamored gives" is from a poem by
Robert Louis Stevenson, "Come, My Beloved, Hear from Me.")
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the
spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of
bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and
they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered,
“O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say
to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to
these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay
sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin,
and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the
Lord.”
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I
prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came
together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh
had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the
breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe
upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast
multitude.
Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house
of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut
off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I
am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people;
and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my
people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place
you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and
will act,” says the Lord.
+++
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village
of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with
perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the
sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when
Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for
God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly,
though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that
Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea
again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to
stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not
twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because
they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because
the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus
has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to
him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had
been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to
sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad
I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who
was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may
die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been
in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and
many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their
brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while
Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you
whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the
last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who
believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and
believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes,
Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into
the world.”
When she had said this, she went back and called her sister
Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And
when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet
come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The
Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and
go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb
to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his
feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died.”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping,
he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you
laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the
Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who
opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It
was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the
stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there
is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not
tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took
away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for
having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the
sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The
dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face
wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had
seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
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