Have you ever noticed life throws you curve balls? Things don’t seem to always go the way you had hoped or planned. Perhaps through no fault of your own, your life seems to be sidetracked, or perhaps you are not where you thought you would be right now at this stage of your life. Some of the big sidetrackers can be an illness, a relationship gone sour, marriage problems, unexpected death of a loved one, job loss, unforeseen bills, just to name a few. These can cause us to worry, be discouraged, lose hope. I hope these two stories we read this morning will change the way you look at life’s curveballs. Because no matter how much life gets off track for us (from our viewpoint), even if we’ve messed up our whole life, there is hope in the resurrection because nothing impossible for God.
In our first story this morning, Jesus’ friends Martha and Mary sent a messenger to let Jesus know their brother Lazarus was very sick. In fact, by the time Jesus received the message Lazarus was probably already dead. However, rather than rushing back to the town of Bethany to be with Martha and Mary, Jesus continued his ministry for two more days before going to see them. By the time he had arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead four days. When Jesus was at the edge of town, Martha heard of Jesus’ arrival and went to greet him. And the first words out of her mouth were, (v. 21) “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” On the one hand her statement indicates her faith in Jesus’ ability to heal. If you were here Jesus, surely you would have healed Lazarus. But also implied in her statement is the question, ‘why didn’t you come when we told you our brother was sick, where were you Jesus?’
Events did not happen the way Martha and her sister Mary anticipated they would. In her mind she must have thought, surely Jesus will show up and save the day. He will make everything better, he will heal my brother. But that isn’t what happened. Jesus didn’t make it to Bethany in time, in fact Jesus purposefully delayed his trip two extra days so he wouldn’t show up until four days after Lazarus’ death. Life was not going the way Martha had hoped. Her brother wasn’t supposed to die, after all he was Jesus’ good friend. How could Jesus allow something like this happen to a friend? Even her expectations of Jesus were shattered because Jesus did not do what Martha thought he would.
I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life when I have wondered, “Jesus or God, why have you allowed this to happen to me.” I thought you were my friend and that you cared about me. Sometimes it feels as though God has let us down. Even if we may have deserved what we received, we still think God would help us out somehow. Yet God doesn’t always respond in the way we expect.
In the second reading we recount the events on the second day after Jesus’ own death. Instead of dying of sickness though, Jesus was intentionally killed. You know the story. Jesus was arrested by the religious leaders while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives, betrayed by one of his own disciples. The religious leaders wanted Jesus dead because he called God his Father, he even made himself equal with God. In their ears this was blasphemy (it was like speaking profanities about God) and they believed he deserved death. After a shame of a trial, they brought Jesus to the Roman Governor Pilate who flogged Jesus thirty-nine times with a lead or ceramic tipped whip. As you can imagine, most people didn’t survive this. Yet it wasn’t enough for the crowd, they wanted Jesus to be sentenced to death, “crucify him, crucify him,” they cried. And so Jesus was sentenced to death. Carrying his own cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgatha he was nailed to it and crucified between two criminals. After six hours (9am - 3pm) of hanging on the cross, Jesus died. Two wealthy followers of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemas, took his body and placed it in a newly cut tomb, never used before, and a huge stone was rolled in place to seal the tomb.
Again a curve ball, only this time it was Jesus’ followers, his friends, who were sidetracked. They expected a king, and got a martyr. Events didn’t go as they planned, Jesus was supposed to become king, he was the Messiah, the Son of God even, but Jesus had died, and their lives were sidetracked. I am sure they were wondering, ‘what are we going to do now?’ In both situations, life was not going as they had planned. From their viewpoint at the time it seemed as through God’s plan had failed, or that it had been derailed?
Fortunately, we know neither of these stories end there, do they? In both cases Jesus did something so incredible no one expected it. They didn’t even see it coming. Jesus brought hope that God had planned something better for their life, God’s plan was not sidetracked at all. God was going to use that situation to reveal his glory.
In the movie the Passion of Christ, my favorite scene is where Jesus is carrying the cross on the way to Golgotha (Calvary) on the Via Delarosa, Jesus stumbles and his mother, Mary, comes before him, and holds him, and they do a flashback to his childhood when Mary picked him up after he had fallen, and he says to his mother, “I make all things new.” This event is not recorded in the Bible, but the words he said are true, Jesus brings hope in even the bleakest situation because he makes all things new.
In the first story, Jesus said to Martha, “You brother will rise again.” Jesus did not see Lazarus’ death as God’s derailed plan, rather Jesus knew God had a better plan all along, there was hope. Unfortunately Martha misunderstood what Jesus was saying. She thought Jesus was saying one of those comforting words you say to people at a funeral like, “we can rejoice because they are with the Lord now.” What Jesus meant was, “you brother will rise today.” We know Martha misunderstood Jesus because she replied, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Martha believe Lazarus would rise again at the day of resurrection but she had no clue that Jesus meant she would see the glory of God that very day.
Jesus said to her, (v. 25) “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
What Martha did not realize at that moment was that not only would there one day be a resurrection of the body, but she was at that moment standing directly in front of resurrection itself. All of the power to resurrect, to bring back to life, to transform and to make new was in the hands of the one with whom she was at that moment talking with. The dark valley of the shadow of death she had entered just four days earlier was about to be visited by the only person on the planet who possessed a power greater than death.
Jesus said there was only one condition to receiving this promise, “believe.” Believe I am the one who gives life even in the midst of death. Believe I am the one who gives eternal life, so you will never die, even though your physical body decays, believe in me.
Martha’s response showed her faith and lack of faith, she said, “I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God.” To us that is quite a statement of faith, something many of us might confess to ourselves, but that isn’t what Jesus asked her to believe. Jesus asked her to believe he is the resurrection and the life. Did she really believe Jesus could do something about her brother who was dead for four days?
When Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus he ordered them to move the stone away from the tomb, and it was Martha who was the first to protest, (v. 39) “But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there for four days.” Even though she believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, she still doubted Jesus had the power to bring life out of death. Sure, Jesus had the power to heal, but this was different. According to early Jewish writings they believed that the soul of a person did not leave their body until three days after their death. After three days were up, the soul left, and they were gone for good, or at least until the day of resurrection. Lazarus was dead how many days? Four. In Martha’s mind, not even Jesus, no act of God could bring her brother back to life. He was too far gone.
Do you think your problems are too far gone for the Son of God? Do you think a curve ball in your life is too far beyond Jesus’ ability? Whether it is a busted relationship, a marriage, a child is too far gone? A job? Your health? Do you think you are too far gone for Jesus to bring back from the dead (not literally of course)? Maybe you think you’ve messed up your life too much, or your past is too dirty for Jesus to clean up. You may even believe, like Martha, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, but do you believe he is the resurrection and the life? Are you limiting Jesus’ work in our life by thinking this situation, this relationship, or this person is too far gone?
Read Jesus’ response to Martha’s protest, (v. 40) “if you believed, you would see the glory of God.” Jesus was saying if you believe I am the resurrection and the life, you will move this stone away from the tomb, and you will witness the power and glory of God. You will allow me to do my thing in your brother’s life. I love what happens next, they move the stone (an act of faith) and Jesus cries out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Out came Lazarus, dead for four days, wrapped in funeral clothes. He emerged from the tomb in full health. Can you imagine the stories Lazarus had to tell?
By raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus proved that nothing is impossible for him, not even death is impossible to overcome because he is resurrection and life. John’s gospel tells us Jesus is even the author of life. He helped God the Father create the world in the beginning, he helped create you. And John 1:14 tells us “In him [Jesus] is life.” It should not surprise us that nothing is impossible for him, he can bring life to the dead.
On a Sunday morning almost two thousand years ago, Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, and John went to the tomb of Jesus and discovered it was empty. Jesus’ body was gone. The only things left behind were the burial clothes which were neatly wrapped where Jesus had lain. Not even death could contain Jesus.
On that day when Jesus rose from the tomb, it was like an exclamation point on Jesus’ statement to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus demonstrated that he didn’t just have the power to bring people back from the dead only to die once again. Lazarus was given life, but eventually he would die again. But in Jesus’ resurrection he proved he had (and has) power over death itself. When Jesus was resurrected he didn’t have a body which would decay and die again. Jesus had a new body, a resurrected body, a new life which death could never conquer again. Amen?
I believe Jesus wants us to realize the very power of resurrection and life is in him, and he is still very much alive today, and this resurrection and life is still available to us today if we believe. Like Jesus’ reply to Martha, “if you only believe you would see God’s glory.” Jesus wants us to know there is hope in any and every situation and for every person because Jesus is alive.
If Jesus, through his own death and resurrection has made this resurrection life available to us today don’t you think Jesus can bring hope into your hopeless situations? Don’t you think that Jesus can resurrect broken relationship, broken marriages, broken bodies? Don’t you think that Jesus can resurrect hopeless situations and hopeless people? And most importantly, do you believe Jesus can resurrect and bring new life to you? He was not just referring to this life, but to eternal life? As Jesus promised, if we believe he is the resurrection and the life, “even though we die, yet shall we live.” He have hope that our lives will not end in death because of the resurrection.
Now I want you to think about the curve balls you have experienced in life, the broken expectations, the lost dreams. Is it possible that God has allowed you to endure these experiences so Jesus can bring you to the tomb and ask you, do you believe? Do you believe I am the Christ, the Son of God? Do you believe I am the resurrection and the life? Will you trust that through Jesus nothing is impossible? No situation, no person, nothing is too far beyond God’s power and grace to save. He can even forgive you and me, and give us new life, and life eternally if we will believe. The question to you this morning is will you believe?
