The Next Level

Sermon-5 Lent-April 10, 2011 What a marvel, that I can proclaim your word, the word which saves in its hearing. Lead me, Lord, into a love of your word above all other words that clamor to call to me each day. Fill me with your sacred silence so that I might truly seek your instruction and only yours. Enable me to teach and preach out of such silence so that the people listening may enjoy the fruit of our intimacy, an intimate love contained within and ordered by the church's continual love and protection of your holy word. Amen from Deacon James Keating's new book "A Deacon's Retreat" John 11:1-45 11Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Now 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, “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.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “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?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” 28When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 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, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 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, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “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.” 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 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, “Unbind him, and let him go.” 45Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. In paleontology, the study of prehistoric life, sometimes an organism that was thought to be extinct, “reappears”. This has happened at least 3 times and has a special name-it is called the “Lazarus taxon”(taxon means organism). There is also a term in medicine for a person who spontaneously returns to life (the heart starts beating again) after resuscitation has stopped-it’s called, the “Lazarus phenomenon.” The story of Lazarus is so famous, even paleontologists and doctors use the term with familiarity. This is a long story, the story of the raising of Lazarus. As usual, let me give you a little background to help you understand what was going on. The name Lazarus, is a shortening of the Hebrew name Eleazer, which means, “God helps”. The town Bethany, where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha live, means House of Affliction or Suffering in Hebrew. So, as Alyce MacKenzie points out, “God helps those going through affliction.” In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke the reason why the authorities want Jesus to die is because he overturns the tables in the Temple. But in the gospel of John, if we were to read a little further in the 11th chapter we would hear that the Chief Priests and Pharisees want to put Jesus to death for raising Lazarus-in fact in chapter 12 it says that the Chief priests plan to put Lazarus to death, also! So its today’s story, today’s event, that the authorities will use to indict Jesus. When Jesus goes to Bethany he is a mere 2 miles from Jerusalem, near the city where people want him dead. For him to go this suburb of the capital city is as if he is asking for it. In the gospel of John, I have been telling you each week, every story serves as a metaphor for a spiritual challenge: Nicodemus comes in confusion and doubt; the woman at the well, full of guilt and shame meets Jesus; the man born blind gains his sight, and loses every other relationship; and here, Jesus comes to Bethany to raise the dead. More from Alyce MacKenzie: “Water is a metaphor for the quenching of our spiritual thirst through Jesus' presence; Jesus is the living water (Jn. 4:14). The bread Jesus multiplies to feed the crowd is a metaphor for the satisfaction of our spiritual hunger that Jesus brings; Jesus is the Bread from Heaven (Jn. 6:35). Sight is a metaphor for the spiritual vision and clarity that Jesus brings; Jesus is the light of the world (Jn. 8:12, and [in] chapter 9 where Jesus gives sight to a man born blind). Here, in chapter 11, the restoration of physical life is a metaphor for breaking free from the bonds of spiritual death into the gift of eternal life that Jesus brings. Jesus is the resurrection and the life [(Jn. 11:25-6: "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.")]. Every story is supposed to lead us to something much deeper than what is on the surface. Get it? And then we get to today’s story. This is the climax. Every story has been building to today’s story. In the gospel of John every story has 2 meanings-on one level something is happening, but at a deeper level God is doing something profound-something to change us. Listen to the great preacher Fred Craddock: “… to say this is a sign story is to say that its primary function is revelation. Some truth about the meaning of God’s glory and presence in the world is made known through Jesus’ ministry. ….what is really going on here is not only a family crisis in Bethany but the crisis of the world, not only the raising of a dead man but the giving of life to the world. On one level the story is about the death and resurrection of Lazarus, but on another it is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. The sisters want their brother back, to be sure, but Jesus is also acting to give life to the world.. Jesus declares this truth to Martha at the heart of the narrative: "I am the resurrection and the life." Jesus is aching because his friend has died, but he also understands that he has come for more than just his friend-he has come for you and me, for all of us. Craddock again…. “the passion of Jesus bleeds through the surface of the story. Jesus was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled" (v. 33) , he was "deeply moved again" (v. 38) , and he wept (v. 35) . Why? He had deliberately delayed coming until Lazarus was dead and buried. The crowd said, "See how he loved him!" (v. 36) , but in this Gospel they never understand what is really going on. Jesus is experiencing something like a Gethsemane, for he knows that calling Lazarus out of the tomb means that he must enter it. The narrative will shortly make that fact abundantly clear: the belief in Jesus generated by his raising Lazarus prompts the religious leaders to plot Jesus’ death (vv. 45-53) . But for Jesus there is no other way because only in this act can he be the resurrection and the life for the world. And so the reader sees in and through the Lazarus story the Jesus story. Notice: Jesus is troubled and weeping; the tomb is not far from Jerusalem; the tomb is a cave with a large stone covering the opening; the stone is rolled away; Jesus cries with a loud voice; the grave cloth is left at the tomb. Sound familiar? Let there be no misunderstanding: Martha, Mary and Lazarus are not simply props for a spiritual story. They are real people trapped in death and grief, and Jesus brings comfort and life. Jesus was a real human being ministering among the suffering. This story is supposed to prepare us for Jesus’ own death. And it’s supposed to point us beyond it, too. The story of the raising of Lazarus tells us that Jesus doesn’t just come for his friends in the first century-he comes also for us-in the 21st. The people of Bethany were amazed that Jesus could raise Lazarus-but they couldn’t see beyond this amazing miracle. And neither can we. When there is a death in our lives, all we want is for the person to come back to us. We don’t understand death, we don’t like it, and ultimately we all want to say, “I thought if I believed in Jesus those I love wouldn’t have to die.” Jesus is telling Mary and Martha that he didn’t come just to raise their brother-he came to stop death forever. Like I said, they didn’t understand, and neither do we. Even after all these signs, after all these stories it is still a mystery how one person can change the power of life-and death. So today’s story is not finished. But the story of Jesus is still building, still adding new layers, new meanings, new insights. We will have to hear and experience the rest of this story in the next 2 weeks, for us to understand what death means-and how Jesus is the Life. Amen.