John 11: 1-45
A long time ago a coworker came into my office to tell me her cancer had returned after two years.
- Her doctor did not think she could survive surgery to remove her cancerous kidney.
- Because her previous bout of cancer had so compromised her lungs.
- What was there to say?
- Our silence said everything.
Finally…I managed to say: “I am so sorry”… and started to tear up but she said… “Stop it”…so I stopped it.
- After a while she said…‘I’m fine…I believe in the resurrection”.
- Which just about knocked me over.
- We went on to talk about Do Not Resuscitate Orders and other grim topics.
- But my mind kept returning to: “I’m fine…I believe in the resurrection.”
There are ten million miles between me saying that to her and her saying that to me.
- If I say it…it’s a religious platitude offered in an attempt to avoid entering her pain.
- But when she says it…it is a confession of faith.
- Raw and authentic and true and full of courage and hope.
- I don’t know where that kind of faith comes from.
- I don’t know if I have it.
- I thank God she does.
- And I believe she has that kind of faith because of Lazarus in our story today.
So……would not we be confused beyond imagining if we were Lazarus?
- Alive…after being dead for four days.
- Think about it.
- When you are dead time does not exist.
- There is no such thing as time.
- Time…seconds…minutes…hours… days…years…decades…centuries…
are for the living.
- Lyrics from a song by the rock band Chicago come to mind.
- The thoughts they express must have come to the mind of Lazarus…Listen:
- “Does anybody really know what time it is?
- Does anybody really care?”
- And Lazarus must have wondered not just what time it was but what day…what year…what century.
Was not Lazarus a little disappointed that life had gone on without him?
- Even though he had not been dead long.
- Had Martha already rearranged his room.
- Or had she rented out his room to someone else?
- Had she given his dog away?
- Had she given his clothes to charity?
I had a man in a congregation I served in Pittsburgh who was preparing to die.
- He desperately needed a heart transplant but had given up all hope of receiving one.
- He had but a few weeks to live.
- And he had given his most prize possessions to family members.
- Most valued…his skeet shooting side by side shot gun.
- But then at the eleventh hour he got a heart. And fully recovered. He was a new man.
- And now? He asked for his stuff to be returned.
- Well…his family was glad to have him back…and happy to give him his stuff back.
It is important to remember that the Lazarus story led the Sanhedrin…the temple leaders…to decide that Jesus had to die.
- A few verses after what we read today from John 11…it says this about the Sanhedrin:
- “So…from that day on they planned to put him to death.”
The Lazarus experience was also what led Martha to become a more deeply committed follower of Jesus.
- Martha already believes that Jesus is the Messiah…and she says so.
- But Jesus draws Martha into a deeper faith and only then raises Lazarus.
Now listen to this…Lazarus comes forth from the tomb in his burial garments because he will need them again when he dies a second time.
- His being raised is a sign pointing to the resurrection of Jesus.
- Who will leave his burial garments behind in the tomb…never to be needed again.
The Lazarus story was written nearly 60 years after the death of Jesus.
- (John was the final gospel written of the four…between 90 – 100 BC).
- So…it reminds the early community of Christ followers that the Jesus who raised Lazarus is as present to that community…
- And to those in centuries to come.
- Including us…
- As he was to the witnesses who directly experienced him.
- What Jesus did for the community of Judea or for Lazarus…
- Jesus continues to do today through the Holy Spirit…who dwells within us.
- This Jesus…so dear a friend of Lazarus that he wept at his tomb…is our friend…too.
- And that is our assurance that death does not have the final word.
Which means we can quit worrying about our eternal future and get to work fixing what is broken in this life.
- Jesus…after all…began his ministry by promising that people could live in the kingdom of God today.
- Which means that our job is to demonstrate…in small ways…what that kingdom looks like when it comes in full flower.
So…if in the kingdom there will be no poverty…
- We work today to eliminate poverty.
- If in the kingdom there will be no hunger.
- We work today to eliminate hunger.
- If in the kingdom there will be no racism…
- We work today to eliminate racism.
- If in the kingdom there will be no illiteracy.
- We work today to eliminate illiteracy.
- If in the kingdom there will be no homelessness.
- We work today to eliminate homelessness.
- If in the kingdom there will be no human trafficking.
- We work to eliminate human trafficking.
We can be so focused on heaven that we are no earthly good.
- But……that is not what Jesus wants for us.
- Because our eternal future is safe in God’s hands.
When Lazarus came out of the tomb…Jesus looked at his friend and said:
- “Unbind him…and let him go.”
- That is what he is saying to us today…too.
- He desires that we be liberated.
- From whatever enslaves us.
- He desires that we be liberated from death.
- So today…we hear his voice and come out from whatever has entombed us.
We have been liberated to live the generative life Jesus desires for us.
- Thanks be to God.