"lazarus Lives"

“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.