Dead Man Walking
John 11:1-45 March 29, 2020
I got my sermon title from that phrase used to describe someone from Death Row heading to their execution. They are called “Dead Man Walking.” It’s an eerie title for someone who is moving invariably toward their death. However, in today’s story, it’s an interesting fit of a title for someone coming back from death to life. It was Danie Defoe who first said, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” And yet, it appears that with God, not even death is certain!
Think about a time when you were facing an impossible obstacle. If you’ve never been there, your day is coming. Now imagine how Martha and Mary felt. They knew Jesus loved their family very much, and they knew he could change the outcome for their brother. But he just didn’t arrive in time. Yet, they had enough faith to believe that, even at this point, Jesus could make a difference. Will you believe that in your life?
From this great story, I’ve distilled three truths. See if these relate to you. First,
1. Trust God’s timing
vv. 5-6, 21, 32
Can we all admit that, at some point in our life, we’ve questioned God’s timing? Maybe it was waiting for a raise. I remember in the Army I felt like I would be a captain forever! Or maybe it was trying to have kids. Or maybe it was trying to get kids to move out of the house! Maybe you’ve been waiting for a healing for a long time. You’ve been waiting so long you don’t even know how to pray anymore.
Today’s story had to make Martha and Mary question God’s timing. They must have been really frustrated with Jesus. Each of them greeted him with the same words, in verses 21 and 32: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” They played what I call the “woulda/coulda/shoulda” game, trying to make sense of tragedy by replaying it in their head. And if you can’t find anyone else to blame, God is an easy target.
So why did Jesus tarry? If you do the math, Lazarus was probably already dead and buried by the time the message was delivered. (Jews buried a body on the same day as death, since they didn’t embalm.) So it’s not like Jesus was intentionally torturing the family. Jesus waited two more days after death, then finally set off for Bethany, arriving at the end of the fourth day.
Jesus had already brought people back to life twice before this. Once he interrupted a funeral procession, told a mother to stop crying, lifted the lid on the casket, and brought back to life her son (Luke 7:11-16)! Another time he raised an official’s daughter back to life (Luke 8:40-56). In both cases, the miracle occurred not long after death. But here—four days later—that period is significant!
The Jews had a belief that a person’s spirit left their body after three days, unable at that point to reunite with the body. What that means is, Lazarus was REALLY dead! Not the timing that Martha or Mary would have preferred, or even poor Lazarus, who had to leave the splendors of heaven to come back to earth, (can you imagine?)! Yet a timing that revealed a Messiah who really is the resurrection and the life.
Trust God’s timing, and #2,
2. Trust God’s heart
vv. 33-36
God gets the timing right every time, and God always has the right motivation: he loves us through and through. Everything God does is out of love, because God is love.
In today’s story, we see God’s heart shine through Jesus’ very human emotions. Jesus had informed his disciples that Lazarus had died but Jesus was going to “wake him up” (v. 11). Jesus knew that a resurrection was imminent. So why did Jesus get so emotional then? If he knew he was going to bring Lazarus back, why did he cry in v. 35? Why did he “quake with tears?” (which is the literal version of the word to “weep”). This is the shortest verse of the Bible, but it’s also one of the largest in terms of impact. What does it mean that God cries? And in verse 38, that Jesus—God in the flesh—is “deeply moved?” Was Jesus just caught up in the heat of the moment, or was there more?
This is just my theory, but I think the answer is both. I think Jesus saw how much his dear friends Mary and Martha were hurting, and how much the others were hurting, and I think Jesus hurt for the hurt that weighs on the whole human race. All of these sons of Adam and daughters of Eve—millions of human beings, ever since the fall—have been caught up in sin and death. If we grieve death, how much more does God grieve death, since he originally created humans to live forever?
Folks, when you grieve, God grieves. When you cry, God cries. We have a God with a big heart. You can trust God’s timing, and you can trust God’s heart. And lastly, you can...
3. Trust God’s might
vv. 43-44
That’s really what the resurrection demonstrates. As I mentioned earlier, with Jesus’ previous resurrection miracles, each was shortly after death had come. This one: not so. Four days had passed. Without embalming, imagine the decomposition that would have taken place. No wonder the practical-minded Martha warned Jesus there would be a bad odor if the stone was removed from the entrance.
After the stone was moved, and after Jesus prayed publicly, he said simply and loudly, in verse 43: “Lazarus, come out!” Now he had to speak loudly, for his command had to reach up to heaven to bring the spirit of Lazarus back down to the body of Lazarus. Each of the cells in Lazarus’ body had to reverse the process of natural decay. In a split second, dead flesh became alive. And in one of the most ironic phrases in the Bible, verse 44, “The dead man came out.” Dead man walking. Literally dead moments before, and yet, now very much alive!
Jesus demonstrated the very power of God in this story. Can you think of a better example of power than to reverse the clenches of death itself, to bring life out of certain death? Jesus’ enemies realized the danger. After Lazarus’ resurrection, they hastened the timetable for Jesus’ capture and death. And they tried to have Lazarus murdered to cover up what had happened.
Lazarus’ story was a foreshadow of Jesus’ story. Just a short time later, Jesus would be arrested, illegally tried, cruelly tortured, and hung on a cross. And through the very power of God, Jesus would be delivered from the tomb of death on that first Easter morning, never to die again. Poor Lazarus would have to die again someday, but not Jesus! He would take the first human resurrection body to heaven, never to age, never to decay. Jesus’ body will last forever. And so will yours! Jesus’ resurrection stopped Satan’s plan in its tracks, and set in motion a course of events that will someday lead to the return of Christ and the end to sickness, sadness, pain, and death forever.
The same God who raised Jesus from death to life, who raised Lazarus from death to life, will raise you from death to life, once you trust your life to him. When you make Jesus Lord and Savior, you belong to God forever and ever. He is your resurrection, but he is also your life, giving you life everyday more abundantly, more filled with meaning and hope. When you die someday, your spirit will go to heaven. And at some point in the future—in a great miracle we don’t fully understand—your spirit and body will be reunited into a new resurrection body that will last forever. Jesus said about Lazarus in verse 4, “This sickness will not end in death,” and he can say it about us as well. The very power of God protects us from death itself!
Trust God’s timing, trust God’s heart, and trust God’s might. If he can take care of the big things—like your resurrection—he can take care of the little things—like your everyday life today. He can carry us through this unprecedented attack of the coronavirus, and he can give you hope and meaning and joy. Let’s pray about it together:
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your perfect timing. Even when we don’t have a clue what you are doing, you are bringing about your wonderful plan. Help us to do our best to cooperate with you so you can use us in it. Thank you for your loving heart. And thank you for the power you display in today’s story and in Jesus’ own death and resurrection, as well as in our daily lives, too. You are a GOOD God and you are a GREAT God. Help us to trust you more. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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John 11:1-45
11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”...
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” ...
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
