Fifth
Sunday in Lent
John 11:1- 45
Hopeful
"Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus
of Bethany, the village of Mary and
her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and
wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the
sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when
Jesus heard it he said, "This illness is not unto death; it is for the
glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it."
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard
that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go into Judea again."
The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to
stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there
not twelve hours in the day? If any one walks in the day, he does not
stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if any one walks
in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." Thus he
spoke, and then he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,
but I go to awake him out of sleep." The disciples said to him, "Lord,
if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his
death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus
told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I
was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas,
called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we
may die with him." Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had
already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about
two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to
console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was
coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. Martha said
to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him,
"I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes
in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes,
Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is
coming into the world." When she had said this, she went and called her
sister Mary, saying quietly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for
you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now
Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where
Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house,
consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her,
supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Then Mary, when
she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying 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 deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, "Where have you
laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. 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, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a
stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the
sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be
an odor, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not
tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" So
they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,
"Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest
me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by,
that they may believe that thou didst send 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 bandages, and his face wrapped with 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 he did,
believed in him;" John 11:1-45, RSV.
Grace and peace to you from our Saviour Jesus who is the Christ!!
Our gospel lesson this morning is the familiar story of Lazarus being
raised from the dead. In this story we see the faith of Martha, the
grief
of Jesus, the frankness of Martha as she says there will be and odor.
This story is used at funerals as it gives us a glimpse of the
resurrection that is to come for all those who believe in Jesus as the
Saviour of the world. This is a story of hope as Martha hopes that
Jesus
arrived at the village can do something about Lazarus.
It is the story of hope in the midst of despair.
It is like the woman in the following story:
Ruele Howe tells about growing up with his parents in the country. When
he was 15 years old, the house caught on fire. They escaped with only
the clothes on their backs. There were no close neighbors to help so he
and his father walked to a distant village to get supplies. As they
returned they saw something that stayed with Ruele Howe all those years
after. Beside the charred remains of what had been their house, his
mother had laid out lunch on a log. She had placed a tin can filled
with wildflowers on the log. It was a symbol of hope in the midst of
tragedy.
This is the Christian faith, isn't it? She didn't try to cover up the
disaster with flowers, but in the midst of that gloomy scene she had
placed a symbol of hope. (1)
Martha had the hope that did not cover up the fact that her brother had
died, but she had hope that in her grief, Jesus would act.
Hope does not cover up what has occurred, but it gives a promise of
something better to come. The house was gone, but there was the hope of
rebuilding, or getting the supplies to carry on.
That was Martha. She had the hope that something would happen when
because Jesus came. She says: And
even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Martha
had hope. She did not know exactly what Jesus had planned, but she had
hope that something would happen. Then Jesus gives a glimpse of what
was going to happen as the text says:
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him,
"I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes
in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes,
Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is
coming into the world."
Jesus turns Martha's hope into action. Jesus gives Martha a glimpse of
what is going to happen when he says:
Jesus said to her, "I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet
shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
Martha is thinking about the resurrection at the end of time and
Jesus is talking about the resurrection now through him and for all
those who believe in him.
We use this text at funerals as it gives us the hope of the
resurrection of the body that we proclaim at the Easter event. Jesus to
giving us a glimpse of what is going to happened to all those who
believe that he is the resurrection and the life.
Jesus then asks where they had laid the body. Notice that Martha did
not believe completely as she says there will be a odor when the stone
is removed as Lazarus had been dead for four days. But Jesus asks for
the stone to be removed and then he calls for Lazarus as the ext says: "he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus,
come out."
And then to the surprise of the many who had gathered, Lazarus
walked out of the tomb. They removed the grave clothes around him and
then the text says many believed in Jesus.
This story is a glimpse of what was to come on Easter which is a few
weeks away. This is the prelude to the Easter story, a foreshadowing of
what was to come. For the story of Lazarus is a story of hope, a story
of resurrection, a story of who Jesus really is, the son of God.
"The simplest meaning of Easter is that we are living in a world in
which God has the last word. On Friday night it appeared as if evil
were the master of life. The holiest and most lovable One who had ever
lived was dead and in His tomb, crucified by the order of a tyrant
without either scruples or regrets. He who had raised the highest hopes
among men had died by the most shameful means. A cross, three nails, a
jeering mob of debauched souls, and a quick thrust of a spear had ended
it all.
Those hours when His voice was stilled and His hands were quiet were
the blackest through which the human race has ever lived. If Caesar
could put an end to Jesus, then no man could ever dare aspire or hope
again. Hope, in such a world, could be nothing better than a
mockery.
Then came Easter morning and the glorious word: "He is risen!" And
evils triumph was at an end. Since that hour when Mary in the garden
first discovered the staggering fact of victory, no man whose heart was
pure and whose labors were honest has ever had reason to fear or
despair if he believed in the Resurrection." (2)
This is a story that tells us out of discouragement comes hope. Martha
and May were discouraged as they both told Jesus if you would have been
here our brother would not have died, but even in that discouragement
they saw a hope.
Martha says to Jesus, "If you would
have been here my brother would not have died." And Jesus
responds by saying, "I am the
resurrection and the life, he who believes in me though he die, yet
shall he live. " And eventually, Jesus finds the tomb where his
friend Lazarus is buried, he asks for the stone to be removed, then he
calls, "Lazarus, come out."
And out of death, out of the stench of a body that had been dead for
four days comes Lazarus.
And to us, to you and me as we live with our discouragement, our
despair , our hurts, our pain, Jesus says to us be still and know that
I am God as God said to the psalmist long ago in Psalm 46, "Be
still' and know that I am God. I am exalted among, the nations, I am
exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is
our refuge."
This story of Lazarus is the story of hope a story of the resurrection,
a story that says out of despair comes hope for those who believe in
Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour of their lives.
All of us face discouragement in life, and it is at those times we need
to turn to the Lord and somehow he will act. We must believe that
somehow
he will act.
I have seen this with my own life. When I had to leave the parish
because of this post polio syndrome, I felt discouraged. When it became
apparent that I could not even supply preach any longer, I felt even
more discouraged. When I had to have three surgeries on my vocal chords
just so I could speak, I was really discouraged!
But then, our town received access to the Internet. I learned how to do
HTML, and then I began to write sermons for anyone who would visit my
site. And now, I have around 600 to 800 visitors each week
reading my
sermons and other helps. Out of that despair, came a new ministry, a
ministry of "fingers" and now I have found a "new life" and some real
purpose. I enjoy the challenge of writing a sermon each week, for those
many people whom I don't even know who come and read.
I have received many e-mail messages of encouragement which for me is
another sign that out of my despair, God through Christ brought hope,
and a renewed purpose to my life again.
This story of the raising of Lazarus gives us hope for the future.
Jesus weeps for Lazarus as he shows us that he understand the human
condition of sorrow and grief. But out of the sorrow and grief come
hope for a new life, hope for the courage to go on in the midst of our
grief.
"The German theologian Jurgen Moltmann expresses in a single sentence
the great span from Good Friday to Easter. It is, in fact, a summary of
human history, past, present, and future: "God weeps with us so that we
may someday laugh with him."(3)
God weeps with us as we face all those thing at separate us from the
love of God in the world and then we have the hope that at the end of
our time we will rest in the resurrection and laugh with God and Jesus
about all that has happened to us while we journey on this earth.
This story of Lazarus tells us of the importance of being ready when
the surprise of Easer comes into our lives. have you ever thought of
what the disciples were doing on Saturday after Good Friday and before
Easter Sunday. What did they do? What do you that know the end of the
story do with Saturday?
Max Lucado says this about Saturdays:
"John didn’t know on that Friday what you and I now know. He didn’t
know
that Friday’s tragedy would be Sunday’s triumph. John would later
confess that he “did not yet understand from the Scriptures that Jesus
must rise from the dead” (John 20:9).
That’s why what he did on Saturday is so important.
We don’t know anything about this day; we have no passage to read, no
knowledge to share. All we know is this: When Sunday came, John was
still present. When Mary Magdalene came looking for him, she found him.
Jesus was dead. The Master’s body was lifeless. John’s friend and
future were buried. But John had not left. Why? Was he waiting for the
resurrection? No. As far as he knew, the lips were forever silent and
the hands forever still. He wasn’t expecting a Sunday surprise. Then
why was he here?
You’d think he would have left. Who was to say that the men who
crucified Christ wouldn’t come after him? The crowds were pleased with
one crucifixion; the religious leaders might have called for more. Why
didn’t John get out of town?
Perhaps the answer was pragmatic; perhaps he was taking care of Jesus’
mother. Or perhaps he didn’t have anywhere else to go. Could be he
didn’t have any money or energy or direction... or all of the above.
Or maybe he lingered because he loved Jesus.
To others, Jesus was a miracle worker. To others, Jesus was a master
teacher. To others, Jesus was the hope of Israel. But to John, he was
all of these and more. To John, Jesus was a friend.
You don’t abandon a friend – not even when that friend is dead. John
stayed close to Jesus.
He had a habit of doing this. He was close to Jesus in the upper room.
He was close to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was at the foot
of the cross at the crucifixion, and he was a quick walk from the tomb
at the burial.
Did he understand Jesus? No.
Was he glad Jesus did what he did? No.
But did he leave Jesus? No.
What about you? When you’re in John’s position, what do you do? When
it’s Saturday in your life, how do you react? When you are somewhere
between yesterday’s tragedy and tomorrow’s triumph, what do you do? Do
you leave God – or do you linger near him?
John chose to linger. And because he lingered on Saturday, he was
around on Sunday to see the miracle." (4)
"I am the resurrection and the life" our hope for a new life beyond
this one is assured.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale March 3, 2008
You may freely use this but please give credit. Not for
commercial use
(1) The Daily Encourager
(2) from fWordsOfFaith] Author - Paul Hovey
(3)Philip Yancey in Christianity Today. 1 Cor. 15:54.
from http://www.higherpraise.com/illustrations
(4)from “He Chose the Nails,” © W Publishing Group, 2001, Max
Lucado.from firstIMPRESSIONS - Vol. 7.13 - Friday, March 30, 2007 Rev.
Timothy Satryan