Jesus: 1, Death: 0
There is a true story of a chaplain at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. A few years ago an event happened late one night while she was on duty. She was called to the bedside of a woman who had a severe heart attack. By the time she got there the woman had been pronounced dead. All the staff had gone except a doctor and a nurse. She turned to leave, but she felt God telling her to stay. So she entered the room, sat down, and started to pray for the woman and her family. As she prayed she felt the Holy Spirit praying through her. Suddenly, the dead woman bolted straight up and cried, “What’s going on here?” I don’t know who was more frightened, the woman, the staff or the chaplain. Fear is a natural thing. It’s a reaction to the unexpected. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had a dead person sit up on me, and I’m not sure if I want one to! But, if we did, I think we would better understand and sympathize with the women in our gospel story today.
This one particular event in Jesus’ ministry is an event that helps us understand the heart of Jesus for us.
In this story of the death of Jesus’ good friend Lazarus, we see Jesus grieving. Jesus is a close personal friend of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. We know this because Jesus was often found in their home sharing a meal, talking about life, and no doubt having a few laughs.
Jesus is in another town when word of Lazarus’ sickness comes to him. Now, we would think that, upon hearing this Jesus would have dropped everything and come running. But God has his own schedule and plan. Jesus does nothing for 2 days! All He does is make a prophetic statement; "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God." (Vs. 4)
Taken from the perspective of Mary and Martha, Jesus is late and he is possibly even negligent in their eyes. In our eyes, Mary and Martha have a right to be a little ticked off. They had sent word to Jesus: “Lord, the one whom you love is ill.” Interesting wording, isn’t it? You see, love sees with special eyes. The sisters were sure that Jesus loved Lazarus so much that he would hurry there. But He doesn’t. By the time he does get there Mary and Martha have already buried their dead brother. And they’re upset and filled with grief. Can’t you just picture Martha running to Jesus and beating on his chest: "Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died." (v. 21), or Mary in the house grieving over the loss of her brother.
I would venture that most of you here today understand what grief is. Grief is a word all of us know, because death is universal. Even at weddings we say, “until death do us part”. In the NIV, Vs.35, “Jesus wept”, may be just two words long, but I believe it’s one of the biggest verses in the Bible. It shows the heart of God - One who fully understands our situations, who is "deeply moved in spirit and troubled" when He sees our tears. When we cry, He cries with us.
Author and lecturer Leo Buscgalia once judged a contest to find the most caring child. The winner was a 4-year-old child whose elderly neighbor had recently lost his wife. Seeing the man crying, he went and climbed on the old man’s lap and sat there. When his mother asked what he had said to the neighbor he replied, “Nothing. I just helped him cry.” Just like Jesus.
I was at the service for Mary Ellen’s father this past Monday. There was grief. There were tears. But I sensed God’s presence there, as well. Through the grief, when the tears were flowing, He was right there, crying right along with the family and friends, feeling the pain and loss every bit as much as they did. One other thing I remember
about the service was the poem one of the priests read in the first person, as if Dan were speaking to each of his family and friends. Two lines really struck me. He said if they needed him to call and he would be there. They may not be able to see him or sense his presence, but he would be there. I thought to myself, just like Jesus. And when they walk that same journey, he would be there to greet them. Again, just like Jesus. Jesus is always right there when we need him. When we’re happy, He’s happy. When we cry, He cries right along with us.
The sisters believed that, but they did not BELIEVE. "When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days." This is significant because Jewish people believed that the soul remained in the vicinity of the body for three days, hoping to rejoin the body. On the fourth day, the soul would finally face reality and depart. The fact that Lazarus has been in the tomb four days means that there can be no possibility of his soul rejoining his body. Four days means that it’s hopeless. The sisters knew that it was too late. No way would Jesus be able to do anything now.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Note the parallel of the cave and stone with that of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Martha protests because after 4 days the body would have been decomposing and the smell and sight would have been too much suffering. Enough was enough. But now Jesus wants to make it even worse.
"Jesus said to her, ’Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, ’Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ "
Note that Jesus’ prayer does not include a request for Lazarus’ resurrection. It is a prayer of thanksgiving that the Father has heard his prayer. Jesus is confident because his will is "to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work" and “he and the Father are one”. Jesus’ prayer is also a public witness to the crowd, so that they too might believe. He wants to direct the eyes of those gathered at the tomb toward God so God’s glory will be seen in the miracle. He wants everyone to know that everything He does is God’s action in and through Him. And it authenticates Jesus as "the resurrection and the life" as well as confirming the promise that "those who believe in me, though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die".
This scripture reminds me of some true movie classics. The Mummy. The Curse of the Mummy. The Return of the Mummy. They may seem tame by today’s standards, but back then they could really scare you. Those mummy movies made back then, and the one’s made today, carry the common theme that bringing the dead back to life brings curse, horror, and more death. For some reason, those mummies didn’t like being brought back to life! Maybe because they weren’t dressed for it! Whatever the reason, when the dead in those movies come back to life you can be sure there’s going to be trouble. If you only read the last two verses of today’s Scripture reading, you might expect to find the same thing. A man stands in front of a tomb where a dead man named Lazarus had been laid to rest. Jesus, standing outside the tomb calls out in a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out!” And “the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth”. In the Hollywood version Lazarus, coming out of the tomb dressed like a mummy would start attacking and killing innocent bystanders. But that is not what happened at all.
When Lazarus went into that tunnel of death he came out again the same side. He never made it to heaven. I read about a Pastor who would occasionally go on a personal retreat to pray and seek God’s direction for his ministry. During one retreat, someone called the church office and asked to speak with the pastor. The secretary replied, "I’m sorry, he’s gone to be with the Lord." There was a long silence on the other end. When the secretary realized what she had said, she added, "But he’ll be back next week."
Eventually Lazarus got sick again and died again, and people mourned for him again.
His death turned out to be temporary, but so does his life. Martha and Mary will probably, down the road, have to prepare Lazarus’ body for burial again. The physical life that Jesus gives Lazarus (and us) is only a reprieve, but the eternal life that he offers is just that -- eternal.
We are confused about death. Too many people look upon our time here as being in the land of the living and going to the land of the dying or dead. Just the opposite is true. We are in the land of the dying and when we do leave this life we will go to the land of the living. When a death occurs, we think that’s it. Life as we know it has ended, which is true. But life has not ended. In fact, life has just begun.
So let’s think about this. Lazarus was dead 4 days. The widow’s son at Nain was being carried out in a coffin. Jairus’ daughter. All were dead. All were brought back to life by Jesus.
As a young man, D.L. Moody was called upon suddenly to preach a funeral sermon. He hunted all throughout the four Gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons, but the search was fruitless. He found that Christ broke up every funeral he ever attended. Death could not exist where he was. When the dead heard his voice they sprang to life. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life."
Jesus didn’t merely say that there is a resurrection. He claimed that HE IS the resurrection. The fact that He would rise from the dead was the guarantee that others would too.
Christ, man’s greatest friend, defeated man’s greatest enemy, death! Jesus never conducted a funeral because in His presence death fled! He is the resurrection and the life.
Resurrection is a unique belief. Most philosophies (I won’t even call them religions) teach one of three things concerning what happens when we die.
1. When we die, we are dead forever. Once the heart stops beating, we are dead and gone. No after life of any kind. We simply stop being.
2. Some teach that when we die our soul leaves the body, goes back to heaven, and gets in line to be reincarnated. Our soul exists forever, being reincarnated over and over again in anything from insects, to animal, to people.
3. Some believe that when we die we become angels and we have to do good deeds to earn our wings, like Clarence in the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”.
None of those three options are found in the Bible. Instead, the Bible teaches about resurrection. Belief in the resurrection is the Biblical idea that when we die God will give us new life. That means that we die. Our soul does not fly to heaven to get in line. We do not become angels. We cease to exist after we die just as we did not exist before we were conceived in our mother’s womb. We will be resurrected. We will be raised up from the dead, like Lazarus, the widow’s son, and Jairus’ daughter. But more importantly, we will be raised up like Jesus was. God will give us new life complete with mind, soul, and spiritual body.
We don’t know what went on in the tomb from the time Jesus was laid there and His resurrection. The Bible doesn’t give us any indication, so we can only speculate. All we can know for certain is that Jesus was resurrected. But I think there was a mighty war going on in there, a battle between the forces of good and evil. I’m sure Satan thought he had Jesus right where he wanted him. Jesus was dead, the disciples and all the others who had believed were shocked and disillusioned. Satan had the upper hand, and was probably planning his victory party. Satan was probably thinking, “Stick a fork in him, he’s done. Now I’m the man.” I’m sure it was a fierce and wicked battle.
We don’t know how and we don’t know where the fight turned in Jesus’ favor. Again, the Bible doesn’t tell us. But Jesus did deliver the game winning hit, the basket at the buzzer. He got up off the canvas and delivered the knockout blow to defeat death for good, 1-0.
The Bible does tell us that. 1 Cor. 15:54 says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” That battle has won the war for us, we know that because, as one of my favorite songs says, I’ve read the back of the book and we win.
A single battle can determine the outcome of an entire war. Like Gettysburg and the Invasion at Normandy, a telling battle of the future of England had come. General Wellington of the British Army represented the last formidable opposition to the French army under the command of Napoleon. To communicate the outcome of the battle, English towns from Belgium across the English Channel devised a system of flashing lights to be omitted from one church top to another. When the battle ended, England had proved victorious and the message was sent "Wellington Defeated Napoleon." As the message was received and sent by each church towards the island of Great Britain, the fog began to rise. By the time the message reached the island, the fog cut the message short as the church received the message "Wellington Defeated." For hours, the nation feared the eventual overthrow of their country until the fog lifted and they had the complete message. "Wellington Defeated Napoleon." On Good Friday, we are like those in England believing "Jesus Defeated." We must remember that that is not the complete message. When the fog lifts on Sunday, we see the rest of the message, "Jesus Defeated Death." We must not live believing in an incomplete message.
Mary and Martha couldn’t see through the fog. The people at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion couldn’t see through the fog. And sometimes we can’t see through the fog, either. But we can rest easy in the knowledge and assurance that the fog will lift and we will see the complete message of the Easter Resurrection and the final score of Jesus, 1 – Death, 0.
Let us pray: Father God, we know you understand us. The things that are hurting us even now, at this very moment, bring tears to your eyes. You are a God who is Almighty and great, yet you are a God who understands the sorrows of our hearts. Help us to see through the fog to that glorious day when it lifts and we can see the final score of that battle in the tomb was and always will be in your favor. Amen.
