“Lazarus Lives”
John 11:1-3, 17-44
Most all of us want to live lives that matter.
We want to be significant in some way, to make a difference, to have a legacy, to be happy.
Yet overshadowing all these hopes and dreams is the dark cloud of death, and along with it may come a feeling of futility.
Death erases our most important relationships and sweeps away our greatest achievements in a tide of forgetfulness and nonbeing.
And so, human life becomes twisted and distorted by our desperate attempts to escape or deny the pointlessness that is creeping in the background of everything we do.
We cling to idols that offer false security; we try and escape in the materialistic collection of stuff and money.
We trample on our neighbors in desperate attempts to feel worthy and more important than others.
But none of this works.
It only makes matters worse.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, one of Jesus’ close friends, Lazarus, has died.
And Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, also close friends of Jesus, are beside themselves.
They had called Jesus to come, when Lazarus had become sick, but Jesus had taken His time.
And by the time Jesus finally did get there Lazarus had been in the grave for four days.
And because of this, any hope they once had is now gone.
“Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise on the last day.’”
What does it mean that we will rise again?
Does it mean, as Martha says, that we will be resurrected at the end of the world or when Jesus comes again?
Yes, it means that and a whole lot more.
Because Jesus’ response to Martha is amazing.
He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Could it be that all who have faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will find LIFE—right here and now-- and in the next life as well?
Let’s face it.
So many of us walk through this life unhappy.
We may feel dead inside.
We may see no reason to live.
Perhaps you feel this way right now?
I was listening to some folks talking on the radio the other day and they were trying to figure out what is causing people to freak out so much these days.
They were saying that the economy is supposedly in great shape.
The unemployment rate is low.
And yet, we have all these mass shootings all the time.
What in the world is causing people to want to kill as many people as possible?
Why is this happening?
Why is the suicide rate at an all-time high?
What is missing?
What is broken?
What is wrong?
Why are people so unhappy; so hopeless?
Could it be that we have forgotten what is truly important in this life?
Have we gotten off track and forgotten what it means when Jesus says that He came to offer us life and life to the full?
When Jesus talks about eternal life, He is talking about the LIFE that is available to all of us right here and now, whether we live for another 70 years or another 10 minutes.
It’s a fullness of life, it’s transformation.
It’s hope in the midst of despair.
It is light in the darkness of this world.
It is new birth or being born again.
God has great plans for all of us.
God has created us to love, to be kind, the care deeply for one another, to be in community—not to be afraid of one another--where we are shut-off from our neighbors, locked behind doors playing violent video games and becoming suspicious of other people who are, in all reality, just like us.
I mean, why do we have this opioid epidemic?
Why do so many people ruin their lives with Meth., heroine and other drugs?
Jesus comes offering us another way…
…a radically different way.
A way to move from death to life right here and right now!
Remember what Martha said to Jesus when He arrived: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.
But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
In other words, because of her faith, her relationship with Christ, Martha is able to hold on to hope, even in the face of death.
Are you?
Am I?
Let’s face it, we all have rough days.
We have lonely nights.
We endure pain.
There is sorrow and the suffering is real, not a figment of our imagination.
The sting of the death of a loved one hurts, even the death of those who we feel confident that we will see again in eternity.
We all have real struggles to overcome.
We all make mistakes and fail.
And yes, we all fall into sin and have to reap the consequences of our decisions.
We say things we shouldn’t say and we do things we shouldn’t do.
But in the midst of all our bad days, what we have in common as Christians is the hope that we find in Jesus Christ.
His hope is a real hope!
It isn’t superficial.
It is a hope we can depend on.
(pause)
When we think about the history of humanity we see over and over again the unimaginable evil that we are capable of—the unimaginable darkness of it all.
But then, there is something else in there, is there not?
Corrie Ten Boom was arrested at the age of 47 during World War 2, along with her elderly father, her sister and other family members for hiding Jewish people from the Nazis.
They were all sent to a concentration camp.
On the way Corrie’s father died.
When they arrived at the camp Corrie, her sister, and many other women were ordered to undress in front of mocking soldiers and sent to the showers.
While in camp Corrie’s only sister died.
Corrie would later be rescued when the war ended, and would go on to become an evangelist, traveling the world, sharing her personal story.
At one meeting, after preaching on forgiveness a German soldier who had stood guard at the shower room door at her concentration camp came up to her.
She recognized him immediately.
He thrust out his hand and said, “How grateful I am for your message.
To think, that, as you say, Jesus has washed my sins away!”
That’s when all the memories came flooding to Corrie’s mind again—the mocking soldiers, the piles of clothes, her dead father and sister.
She couldn’t raise her hand.
In her book “The Hiding Place” she writes about what happened next, “Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them.
Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more?
Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand.
I could not.
I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity.
And so again I breathed a silent prayer.
Jesus, I cannot forgive him.
Give me Your forgiveness.”
Corrie writes: “As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened.
From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so, I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His.
When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”
In the face of despair Corrie cried out to Jesus and everything changed.
In this life, through faith in Christ, we can be part of the Kingdom of God right here and right now.
Jesus comes to our places of death, and calls us to life!
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
And then He adds: “Do you believe this?”
And what does it mean to believe this?
Does it just mean we read the words on a piece of paper and give ascent that it’s true…going on to live our lives unmoved?
Or is there more to it?
The word Jesus uses for “believe” means to “trust.”
It’s a relational thing.
It means to lean on Jesus when we have no strength of our own.
It means to place our confidence in Jesus as the One Who does battle on our behalf.
It means to entrust ourselves to Jesus, in the legal sense of giving up custody of our life and handing it to Jesus.
Jesus asks Martha and Jesus asks all of us: “Do you believe, do you trust that I am the Resurrection and the Life, that the One who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die?
Do you believe this??? Do you trust me on this???”
When Jesus asks Martha and us this question, Jesus shifts the focus of the story in John 11 away from Lazarus and toward Martha’s and our well-being!
Because, in the end, the question of resurrection and life’s purpose is not a question for someone who has already died—it is a question for those who are still living!!!
With all of us who are dealing with death, despair and hopelessness, Martha is faced with the question of how she will continue to live.
And Jesus’ question is not a test.
Jesus’ question is an invitation: His hand is outstretched to all of us in order to raise us up with Him in this life and the next.
And if we take His hand saying: “Yes, Lord, I believe—I trust You—I place my confidence, my entire life into Your hands” we will experience an enduring hope that lasts all the way to eternity!!!
Do you believe?
Do you trust in Jesus?
Do I?
Have you given up custody of your own life and handed it to Christ?
If not, will you do it today—not just saying the words, but doing it--right here and now, and thus pass from death to life eternal and life to the full?
