This is the first Sunday in the season of Lent….On Wednesday we met to remember our mortality with the mark of ashes on our foreheads – from dust you have come and to dust you shall return.
This morning, our focus is on a dramatic story of death and grief. The resurrection of Lazarus was the final sign in the Gospel of John that Jesus was the Messiah. This incident convinced the leading Jewish authorities that Jesus needed to be arrested. After Lazarus was raised, they wanted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus – to eliminate the threat and evidence of his greatness.
Listen to the story of loss and resurrection in John, chapter 11 verse one through forty-four:
The Scripture John 11:1-44
11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)
3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,
7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light.
10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”
13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,
19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.”
29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.
31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray….
The Message Jesus Raises Lazarus
A few months ago, there started to be more and more media coverage of Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur who is sponsoring research and participating in experiments to prolong his own life by “staying young.” Mr. Johnson spends millions of dollars each year on “Project Blueprint” a medically supervised regimen that is attempting to slow or reverse aging. He famously undergoes regular transfusions of plasma from young donors including his own son. He is committed to living forever, and if not forever then to slow aging as much as possible.
But, there is one certainty in life. And, that certainty is that in order to live, we at some point will die.
In the scripture we read this morning, Jesus received word that his friend Lazarus was very sick….Lazarus was dying. Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha were ardent followers of Jesus. They believed he was the living Messiah. They believed he had the power to perform miracles. They believed that if he had been present, Jesus would have been able to heal Lazarus from his illness…. If Jesus had been there, they believed Lazarus would not have died. But, he did die.
When Jesus and his Disciples arrived, Jesus witnessed the sisters’ grief…. their brother had been dead for 4 days. In response to the sister’s grief, Jesus was moved. We read the shortest verse in the Bible…..some translations say “Jesus wept.” Others say: “Jesus began to shed tears.” Others say, “Jesus sobbed.” Jesus felt empathy for his very sad friends, and in response to the death of their beloved brother, Jesus cried tears of sadness
Jesus then did something amazing. He told Lazarus, a man who had been dead in the tomb for 4 days, to come out. And, Lazarus resurrected from the dead….he walked out of the tomb still swaddled in grave cloths. The Disciples, and Mary and Martha, and the on-lookers were amazed.
This act was the catalyst for the Temple Authorities to diligently seek out a way to arrest Jesus – they wanted to rid themselves of the threat poised by Jesus. In the next chapter, it also says they were searching for a way to arrest and kill Lazarus – he was a living example of Jesus’ power. And his “aliveness” was a threat to their power.
They were horribly uncomfortable with the reality that Jesus was the messiah. They wanted to destroy him, and destroy his message.
Over the next few weeks, as we journey through the 40 days and nights of Lent, we will remember many of the events that led to Jesus’ death. We will remember that despite the best efforts of Jesus’ enemies, Jesus’ death did not lead to the destruction of his message. And, despite all of the wounds they could inflict upon Jesus: betrayal by his dear friend, arrest, trials, physical assaults, being nailed on a cross, death….despite all of the wounds they could inflict upon Jesus, Jesus had the last word: nothing they could do could keep Jesus down. Nothing they could do would silence Jesus’ message.
This season of Lent is the period each year we are called to deepen our faith – to deepen our faith in Jesus’ message. For Jesus’ earliest disciples and witnesses of Jesus’ life, Jesus showed them he was the messiah because of the actions he took and the words he said: Jesus preached riveting sermons, Jesus taught, Jesus’ parables helped his followers understand God’s grace and God’s desires for us, Jesus miracles cured the sick and restored sight to the blind and cast out demons and raised the dead. Jesus’ words echo down to us through the centuries – Jesus wanted us to live lives focused on God, focused on our shared faith, and to do our part to live out the commandments: to love God and to love each other.
Although Jesus was able to restore Lazarus to life, and temporarily soothe Mary and Marth’s grief, our faith in Jesus doesn’t free us from the cycle of life. Despite the efforts of rich men like Bryan Johnson, we will all die. We all experience times of joy and times of sorrow. We all experience wonderful things and terrible things. We all experience grief, and job losses, and broken friendships, and failed relationships. Other people disappoint us. We disappoint ourselves.
Human beings and human bodies are fragile and imperfect. And we are constantly surprised by unexpected challenges. But, there is one thing we can trust: “Our only comfort in life and in death. Is that I am not my own, but belong— body and soul, in life and in death–to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.” These first sentences of the Heidelberg Catechism remind us that we can trust God and that we belong to God…we belong to Jesus.
Lazarus and his sisters belonged to Jesus. And, the people who watched Jesus raise Lazarus also believed in Jesus and committed their lives to him. When we belong to Jesus, when we believe in Jesus, we are comforted that no matter what challenges we face, we are assured that we belong to Jesus during this life, and that our salvation will lie with Jesus eternally. So, even if we don’t live forever in the manner Bryan Johnson wants, we will live forever with Jesus eternally.
This is the Good News of the Gospel. That nothing that we can do is so horrible it will separate us from the love of God – and our lives will extend from this life to the next. We belong to our Savior forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
