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
(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
