John 11:18-44
April 6, 2014
© 2014
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| Raising of Lazarus Giotto |
During Lent the Gospel will be presented in worship as dramatic readings before the sermon.
John 11:18-44
John 11:18-44
Narrator: Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two
miles away, 19and many of
the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met
him, while Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to
Jesus,
Martha: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died.22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you
ask of him.”
Jesus: “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha: “I know that he will rise again in the
resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
Martha: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the
Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
Narrator: 28When she had
said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately,
Martha: “The Teacher is here and is calling for
you.”
Narrator: 29And when she
heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had
not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met
him. 31The Jews who
were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out.
They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep
there. 32When Mary came
where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him,
Mary: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died.”
Narrator: 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with
her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said,
Jesus: “Where have you laid him?”
Mary and
Martha: “Lord, come and see.”
Narrator: 35Jesus began to
weep. 36So the Jews
said,
Jew: “See how he loved him!”
Narrator: 37But some of
them said,
Jew: “Could not he who opened the eyes of
the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Narrator: 38Then Jesus,
again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying
against it. 39Jesus said,
Jesus: “Take away the stone.”
Martha: “Lord, already there is a stench because
he has been dead four days.”
Jesus: “Did I not tell you that if you
believed, you would see the glory of God?”
Narrator: 41So they took
away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said,
Jesus: “Father, I thank you for having heard
me. 42I 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.”
Narrator: 43When he had
said this, he cried with a loud voice,
Jesus: “Lazarus, come out!”
Narrator: 44The dead man
came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped
in a cloth. Jesus said to them,
Jesus: “Unbind him, and let him go.”
I went to get gas at the Stripes station at
42nd Street and Preston Smith Road Wednesday evening March 19. A
multi-car accident blocked all traffic in both directions. Emergency vehicles
were just arriving. A pickup truck had plowed into the back of those waiting at
the red light, flipping one of them over. Three were hospitalized. I breathed a
“thank you” prayer that I hadn’t been waiting at that signal just moments
earlier.
I affirm giving thanks for chance escapes
from disasters, but I have to recognize that someone else was stopped at that
red light and didn’t escape.
A well-meaning friend may give you a
“Footprints in the Sand” bookmark when you ask, “Where were you, Jesus, when I
really needed you?” But the last words, “When you saw only one set of
footprints, it was then that I carried you,” just don’t cut it. You feel
abandoned.
Martha and Mary both asked, “What if Jesus
had been here?” as we would. We also ask a question that would not have
occurred to them. “Where was Lazarus while his body was in the tomb?”
We also meet Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42
when Jesus was their dinner guest on a happier day, though Lazarus was not
mentioned. As different as these two encounters were, the way Luke and John
present the sisters is remarkably consistent. Even the subtle difference in the
way they said to Jesus, “If only you had been here …” matches.
Martha was the practical woman of action. The
Greek word order tells us she emphasized my brother. She was grieving her
personal loss. When Jesus asked for the stone to be removed from the tomb, she
objected that it would stink. I am quite sure that when Lazarus came out alive
he smelled his own rotten stench.
Mary was the emotional woman of
relationships. The Greek word order tells us she emphasized my brother.
She was grieving a loving life cut short.
Once again we see Jesus as the man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). He entered fully into the painful
grief of his friends. He wept with anger at the terror of death. Even those who
asked if he could not have saved his friend are moved by the depth of his love.
When Jesus told Martha, “Your brother will
rise again,” (v. 23), she thought he was giving her a polite condolence
cliché, to which she responded with an affirmation of faith that Lazarus would
rise on the Last Day (v. 24). It would not have crossed her mind to ask Jesus
where Lazarus was while his body was in the tomb. But that is a question that
people of our generation pursue with great intensity.
Like Martha, we in our time have our own
collection of polite condolence clichés with which we express our sympathy and
extend comfort. “He’s in heaven.” “She’s in a better place.” “Mom and Dad are
together again.” “I’m sorry for your loss.” These are expression of love and
faith in times when we know we have nothing to say that changes the present
circumstances. Many first person accounts of near-death or return-from-death
experiences are popular affirmations of faith and hope. I would not question
for a moment these people’s experiences, but I must confess I am not
comfortable with being particularly definitive about how to interpret them. John’s
account of the raising of Lazarus does not include even the slightest clue of
Lazarus reporting what it was like being dead nor of anyone asking him about
it. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Paul gave these words of consolation. “The
Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the
sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will
rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the
clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with
the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (vv.
16-18) Our comfort is that whether we have died or are alive when Jesus
returns, we will be raised to be with him forever!
The New Testament focuses on what Martha
called “the Resurrection on the Last Day” and says very little about what
happens to us immediately after we die. Theologians call this time between
death and the Resurrection on the Last Day “the intermediate state.” The Hebrew
Scriptures say even less. There are some intriguing hints that seem to
stimulate rather than satisfy our curiosity. I have included these passages below.
1 Corinthians 15 is the New Testament’s major
treatise on both the resurrection of Jesus and our hope of sharing with him in
the resurrection to eternal life. While it is still mysterious, and Paul used
analogies and metaphors to communicate the wonder of resurrection, this one
chapter is filled with tantalizing details that are absent in all of the little
hints about the intermediate state in the New Testament. When you want to know
about what happens to us when we die, I strongly urge you to take a leisurely
stroll through 1 Corinthians 15 and savor every detail. With words the Church
has used for centuries, I affirm this hope when I conduct a committal service
for a beloved saint. “We commend to almighty God our brother or sister, and we
commit his or her body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to
dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Though Jesus raised Lazarus to mortal life,
demonstrating his power and authority over death, Lazarus did die again. In his
Gospel, John has positioned the raising of Lazarus as the pivot that turns the
story to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. It is not just chronological,
though it is that, but it is skillful story telling that points directly at the
purpose of Jesus’ ministry.
In the Synoptic Gospels, the religious
leaders and Temple authorities begin to plot how they could kill Jesus after he
drove the merchants out of the Temple. (Matthew 21:12ff; 26:4ff; Mark 11:15ff;
19:1ff; Luke 19:45ff; 22:1ff). John went back just a little earlier to show
that the raising of Lazarus got those religious leaders and Temple authorities
plotting to kill Jesus before he could become a popular threat to them and
bring down Roman military action. (John 11:46-53) Having Lazarus walking around
alive was embarrassing. Too many people had smelled death and seen him come out
of the tomb at Jesus’ command. Rather than be convinced that Jesus was the
promised Messiah, they plotted to kill Lazarus too. (12:9-11)
Jesus responded to Martha’s affirmation of
faith in the Resurrection on the Last Day by saying, “I am the resurrection and
the life.” (v. 25) Reminding grieving people of the resurrection is not a
condolence cliché, not an imaginary crutch to get through the pain of loss, not
a pleasant place to escape to. Jesus himself is the very embodiment of eternal
life. By our intimate relationship with him, we are participants sharing his
resurrection.
Jesus said to Martha, “Those who believe in
me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes
in me will never die.” (vv. 25-26) By believing in Jesus we have already become
participants in the resurrection to eternal life. Even though we will die, we
will live. By believing in Jesus, we will never die. Clearly, believing in
Jesus is not mere ascent to the existence of God, which all too often passes
for good enough. Nor is believing in Jesus just recognizing him as the Christ
and Son of God, though that comes with it. Believing in Jesus is living with
the absolute confidence that even when tragedy prompts us to cry out, “Where
were you, Jesus, when I really needed you?” he has so intrinsically united us
with himself, that we will not die but live as those who will rise again on the
last day. Jesus asks us just what he asked Martha, “Do you believe this?”
1 Corinthians 15 is the New
Testament’s major treatise on both the resurrection of Jesus and our hope of
sharing with him in the resurrection to eternal life. The Bible actually says
very little about what happens between our death and resurrection. The
following passages give a few hints. But when you want to know about what happens
to us when we die, I strongly urge you to take a leisurely stroll through 1
Corinthians 15 and savor every detail.
·
Job
19:25-26 “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand
upon the earth, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I
shall see God.”
·
Mark
12:26-27 “As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses,
in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the
living.” (Matthew 22:32; Luke 20:38 add “for to him all of them are alive.”)
·
Luke
16:22-31 A different Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s side/bosom and the rich
man was in torment in Hades (not exactly the same as hell, but that’s another
topic for another time).
·
John
14:2-3 “In my Father’s house there
are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to
prepare a place for you?
And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that
where I am, there you may be also.”
·
1
Corinthians 15:51-52 “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die,
but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed.”
·
2
Corinthians 5:1-2 “We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we
have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our
heavenly dwelling.”
·
2
Corinthians 5:6 “While we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord”
·
2
Corinthians 5:8 “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the
Lord.”
·
Philippians
1:22-24 “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in
the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer.
I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ,
for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for
you.”
·
1Thessalonians
4:17 “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds
together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the
Lord forever.”
·
Hebrews
12:1 “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay
aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with
perseverance the race that is set before us.”
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