John 11:1-45
"The Resurrection and The Life"
Right before our Gospel Lesson for this morning, in John Chapter 10, Jesus had been in Jerusalem for a Jewish Festival.
At this festival, we are told in John 10:24, that a mob circled around Him and asked Him, "How long will you test our patience? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
Jesus tells them Who He is, and they pick up stones in order to kill Him.
But, it wasn't Jesus' time yet, so He escaped from them and went back across the Jordan river.
And this mob is out to find Him, arrest Him and kill Him.
Jesus is fully aware of this and Jesus' disciples are fully aware of this.
So, in choosing the time He will go back to Judea again, Jesus is making the decision as to when He will, indeed, finally die.
Jesus is in charge of the entire situation.
God is in control.
Lazarus, Martha and Mary were some of Jesus' best friends.
In verse 5 we are told: "Jesus loved Martha, her sister and Lazarus."
But, "when he heard that Lazarus was [sick], he stayed where he was."
It was only after two days that Jesus finally got up and said to His disciples, "Let's return to Judea again."
And understandably, the disciples are a bit shocked and, indeed, fearful.
They reply to Jesus, but "the Jewish authorities want to stone you..."
And then Jesus says a most unusual thing.
Jesus answered the disciples fears and trepidations about going back to Judea with this, "Aren't there twelve hours in the day?
Whoever walks in the day doesn't stumble because they can see the light of the world.
But whoever walks in the night does stumble because the light isn't in them."
Remember that for the past several weeks we have been discussing how the Gospel of John uses the metaphors of light and darkness in powerful ways.
The darkness represents separation from God.
Walking in the light represents walking in relationship with God, walking "in truth," and living within God's will for our lives.
And since Jesus is "The Light of the world" the only way to know where you are to go is to follow Him.
If we try and steer our own course by our own understanding, we will trip up; we will be lost because we will be in the dark.
How many of us can relate to "tripping up" in life because we weren't following Jesus?
But if we stick close to Jesus, and seek to see the situations we face from Jesus' perspective, even if it means days or even years of puzzlement, wondering why nothing seems to be happening, we will come out at the right place in the end.
And so, despite the danger that presents itself to Him and them, Jesus basically says to His disciples, "I'm heading to Judea to wake up Lazarus, let's hit the road."
And after some more conversation, Thomas says to the other disciples: "Let us go too so that we may die with Jesus."
It's quite astounding that Thomas plays the part of the leader of the disciples in this passage.
After-all, this is the same Thomas from whom we get the saying, "doubting Thomas."
And we get that saying from him because he was the one who, after the Resurrection of Jesus said, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hands into his side, I won't believe."
But here we see that Thomas is loyal, after all.
He may be a bit slow to understand things, but he is determined to go on putting one foot in front of the other, and walking in accordance with God's will.
"Let's go too so that we may die with Jesus."
In other words, if we go with Jesus, even if it is into the jaws of death, we will be walking in the light, we will be living in the will of God.
Do any of you remember who Arthur Blessett is?
He's the guy who carried that large wooden cross to every continent in the world, over a period of 40 years.
He had heard God's call on his life to take that cross, leaving on a certain day, and witnessing to the Good News of Jesus wherever he went.
But before he left, he suffered from an aneurism.
And he lay in the hospital bed completely stunned, puzzled and dismayed.
"Lord," he prayed, "You instructed me to walk with that cross across the world.
And I am supposed to leave in a few days."
The doctors had told Arthur that he would die if he didn't stay in the hospital, but Arthur made a decision.
He decided he would rather die within the will of God than to live outside of it.
So Arthur got out of that hospital bed, went and got his cross, started walking and didn't finish until 40 years later.
I get the feeling that this is the sort of thing Thomas and the other disciples had decided to do in our Gospel Lesson for today.
They were pretty convinced that if they followed Jesus back into that dangerous situation in Judea, that Jesus would be killed, and they would be killed along with Him.
But they decided they would rather die within the will of God than live outside of it.
When Jesus and His disciples finally arrive two miles outside of Jerusalem in the city of Bethany Martha went to Him.
"Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.
Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.'
"Jesus told her, 'Your brother will rise again.'
Martha replied, 'I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.'
Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die.
Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.'"
When Jesus says, "I am..." He is saying that He is God, for "I AM" is God's name.
He's also saying that the Resurrection of the Dead isn't just some far off thing that will happen someday in the future--the Resurrection of the Dead is happening now--for everyone who believes!!!
As one scholar puts it: "The resurrection isn't just a doctrine.
It isn't just a future fact.
It's a person, and here he is standing in front of Martha."
And He comes and He stands in front of you, and He comes and He stands in front of me.
When Jesus declared to Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die.
Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die..."
He finished with a question: "Do you believe this?"
And this is the question that every one of us are called to answer.
"Do you believe this?"
How we answer this question determines how we will live our lives.
How we answer this question determines whether or not we will be resurrected from the dead--and thus transformed and given the new birth which Jesus spoke about with Nicodemus in John Chapter 3.
How we answer this question determines whether or not we will, like the Samaritan Woman at the Well in John Chapter 4, leave our old lives behind and go running with new life to tell others the Good News of God's love in Christ.
How we answer this question determines whether or not we will be like the man born blind in John Chapter 9, who, because of Jesus was able to declare: "I was blind and now I see."
Martha made the confession of faith.
Standing, and looking at the Light of the world, as she stood in the midst of such tragedy, chaos, pain and darkness Martha confidently replied: "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, God's Son, the one who is coming into the world."
And with that, Martha excitedly goes to tell her sister that Jesus has arrived.
And when Jesus sees Mary and the Jews who had come with her crying we are told that Jesus "was deeply disturbed and troubled."
And in verse 35 we are told that Jesus or God began to cry.
Again, Mary, Martha and Lazarus were some of Jesus' closest friends.
And there can be no doubt that it is difficult to see your friends so sad.
But I think there is more to Jesus' reaction here than normal human sadness.
I think that as Jesus looked out over the tomb of Lazarus, and the many, many folks who were crying, sobbing, He was also looking out over the lost-ness, the fallen state of humankind, the dead.
And as Jesus looked at those Whom He created living in such despair, He wept.
Is there any other more beautiful image of our God.
Our God bursts into tears outside the tombs that are our lives.
Perhaps you are a reasonably healthy human being, but deep down inside you feel like a dead person.
Perhaps you recognize that your world and your life are not as they should be.
Something is terribly, horribly wrong.
For everyone, Jesus stands outside the tombs of our lives, and does the very same thing He did that day in Bethany, so long ago.
"Jesus shouted with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!"
Jesus shouts outside the tomb of my life and shouts--"Ken come out!"
Jesus shouts outside the tomb your life, and your neighbor's life, calling and beckoning all to move out of the darkness of the grave, out of the darkness of separation from God and into the Light of relationship with God.
And when we heed Jesus' call on our lives, we come covered in grave clothes...
...grave clothes which come off as we learn to walk with Christ and follow Him.
We are told that "many of the Jews who came with Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him."
But in verse 46, we also learn that "some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done."
And so the Pharisees and Chief Priests called a meeting and said, "What are we to do?
This man is doing many miraculous signs!
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.
Then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our people."
And we are told that Caiaphas, who was high priest said prophetically, "it is better for one man to die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed."
And that, "From that day on they plotted to kill him."
Next Sunday, we will watch as Jesus rides toward His death on the back of a donkey to the shouts of Hosanna and the waiving of palm branches.
Thursday of next week we will come together and recall the Last Supper along with the arrest of our Lord.
On Good Friday we will focus on Jesus' death on the Cross.
And then, and then, on another day, there will be another Mary, weeping at another tomb.
And on that day, the burial clothes will be left in the tomb--the face cloth rolled up in a place by itself--no longer needed for the One Who has Been Raised From the Dead.
On that day, the disciples will see a far greater sign than the raising of Lazarus.
At the tomb of Lazarus, death is denied for a time.
At the tomb of Jesus, death is overcome for good--for all who will walk out of the darkness and into the Light--believing that Jesus is, indeed, the Resurrection and the Life!!!
Do you believe this?
Whoever you are, wherever you are from, we all must decide our answer to this question which is central to everything and will be the deciding factor between new life and death.
