Time with the Children of God
I brought a packet of tissues in today. Tissues remind me of going to a funeral. We take tissues because it is a very sad time when someone we love has died. It was a sad day in our Gospel reading. A man named Lazarus was very sick…and he died. Mary and Martha who were sisters of Lazarus sent for Jesus to come and help. They didn’t understand why Jesus hadn’t come sooner and healed Lazarus so that he wouldn’t have died.
When Jesus got there, he was sad too. He even cried. It is comforting to know that God understands what sadness is like.
But Jesus didn’t just understand what sadness is like. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life after he died. No one can bring a dead person back to life. But Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life”. He simply called Lazarus to come out of the grave, and that is what happened.
This points to Jesus’ own death and resurrection. We are only two weeks away now to remembering that Jesus died on the Cross to take away the sin of the world. [candle] But he didn’t stay in the grave. He rose again, to give us new life and new hope.
When we get to Easter we use the butterfly as a symbol, since a butterfly comes from a caterpillar in a cocoon. When it comes out it is a beautiful new butterfly. The butterfly symbol reminds us that Jesus rose again and came out from the grave to give all those who believe in him new life.
On the day that Jesus went to Martha and Mary who were so sad that their brother Lazarus had died, Jesus was sad too. It is good to know he understands us when we grieve. [take out tissue]. But he did so much more. He turned sadness into hope and joy, [Take out a butterfly tissue] by raising Lazarus from the dead.
Let’s read together: Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Whoever trusts in Jesus shares in his own life, death and resurrection. And so he turns sadness into hope for us too. Jesus promises that if we believe in him, we’ll have life, even when we die. [second butterfly tissue] He will turn our sadness into hope and joy too.
Prayer: Growing in Faith at home bulletin insert
SERMON Episodes in Lent—Episode 5: Who killed death?
In this week’s episodes of Lent the scene before us is one we all have known. There is the unbearable sound of silence, punctuated by some sobbing, and the chilling wailing of heartbroken mourning. It is the episode of drama and trauma: the funeral episode.
The face in front of us is the face of grief, revealing the unseen breaking heart: downcast, trembling lips, red eyes, glazed with tears. It is disturbing to see how Martha looks as she stands before Jesus. Word had come to the house that Jesus had arrived and so Martha leaves the mourners and comforters there and goes out to meet him. Not before time, she thinks. It was ages ago that her dear brother Lazarus needed help. Even now he’s been four days in the tomb.
Martha lifts her head—her face looks so haunting. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus through trembling lips, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” She feels so numb and confused…and a touch angry. Lazarus was Jesus’ own dear friend. Why did he take so long?! Yet she continues: “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Martha holds out hope that, even though Jesus has arrived late, he is still not too late to do something.
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again” and Martha answers, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Then Jesus proclaims himself as the source of that resurrection life to her: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Martha believes alright. Her confident conviction of who Jesus is contrasts starkly to that of the characters in other week’s episodes: there is no confusion, no wondering, no gradual unfolding of the expression of belief in Jesus. There is no question: “How can these things be?” or “Could this be the Christ?” Martha boldly affirms: “Yes, Lord, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
Martha goes back to the house to call her sister Mary: “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Jesus, who was still at the place where Martha had met him. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was, she fell at his feet and said the same thing as her sister: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Are these words a lament of feeling let down by Jesus—or an affirmation of who Jesus really is by what they hoped he might have done? I think it is both. Either way, Mary says this after having first fallen at Jesus’ feet, placing herself in the position of a servant at his mercy.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. And when he saw where they had laid his dear friend Lazarus, Jesus wept. In this we see God’s compassion for his people. Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb—a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. We are reminded of the depth of the situation through Martha’s protest: “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.”
Let’s now put ourselves in the picture. What might this episode have to show us? Are there times when we wonder where Jesus is…does it seem like he takes too long to come and help us? Do we get anxious about where God might be and what he is up to when we need him? What are the situations that seem hopeless—those beyond our capacity in which we need help? At those times, who, or what, do we go to for help and comfort?
Today’s episode shows us that despite their sorrow and hurt, Martha and Mary left their comforters in their house to find true comfort in Jesus and put all their hope in him. As they do, Jesus shows them God’s compassion. God in Christ mourns with those who mourn. When Jesus looks down at Mary who has thrown herself at his feet, weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, Jesus was deeply moved in spirit. He shares in their grief and sorrow, and as they weep for Lazarus, Jesus weeps too. Jesus shows us that precious in the eyes of the Lord are the death of his saints (Psalm 115:16).
Today’s episode shows us that when it seems as if God is absent or distant, he has not forgotten his people, but his way of working and his timing is often different from our expectations. Last week’s episode showed us that Jesus is not limited by the physical world. He is the Saviour with authority and power over all things. Today’s episode shows that not only does Jesus have authority and power that exceed the bounds of nature, he has authority and power even over death itself. He is the Lord of life and death and brings life out of death.
Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” We are reminded of how God created out of nothing in the beginning, simply by speaking. Here God brings a new creation by his powerful word, which brings about what is said. The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
How appropriate Jesus should raise a man with the name ‘Lazarus’; the name which means “God helps”. Yet arguably the most wonderful verse in today’s text is not the calling forth of Lazarus from the grave, but what Jesus says once he is out: “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
The next we hear of Lazarus is in the following chapter of John, where he reclines at the table with Jesus at the feast given in Jesus’ honour. It is here that Mary again takes the place of humility at Jesus’ feet, taking a pint of expensive perfume, anointing Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair. Mary is anointing Jesus’ feet to walk to the Cross. Jesus will be the second Lazarus; the greater Lazarus who will also die and be laid in a tomb, wrapped in strips of linen. He will not die because he is sick; he will die because he was rejected by men, betrayed and handed over, scorned by those who he came to save.
Again, to human eyes, it looks like God is running late, and has failed. But God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus allowed himself to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. Jesus surrenders to his Heavenly Father’s will, and to unjust sinners. He willingly laid down his life to rob sin of its sting, to empty the law of all its accusing power, and to kill the final enemy, death, by his own death. This is how Jesus showed God’s compassion not just to Lazarus, and Mary and Martha, but to the whole world. It is how God showed his compassion to you.
Jesus is not just talking to Martha today. He is also talking to you. He says again today: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus conveys his own life to those who trust in his righteousness and victory over death. Death will not triumph over them either. This is not just his promise to Martha, but it is his promise to you.
You see, you have the name Lazarus. You are the person who God helps! He died to free you from the kingdom of darkness and the power of the devil. The words ‘let him go’ that Jesus spoke at Lazarus’ grave are words he speaks to you: ‘Let him go’…‘Let her go’. The word for ‘let him go’—is the same word meaning ‘to untie’, ‘to cut loose from’—and the same word for “forgive”.
Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” As we confess our sins to our Father in Heaven at the beginning of the service, Jesus hears your confession and calls out “Let him go/let her go.” Your Father in Heaven has compassion on you, and unbinds the bonds of sin we cannot burst asunder ourselves. Just as Jesus commanded that Lazarus be freed from the strips of linen that bound him, giving him new life out of death, the declaration here in the sanctuary that you are loosed from sin, untied, set free―let go―is God’s own declaration for you from heaven.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and he has brought his own resurrection life alive in you. Just as Lazarus reclined with Jesus at the table in the meal given in Jesus’ honour, you recline at a better table in which Jesus hosts you as his guests of honour, serving you his holy and precious body and blood to sustain you for the pilgrimage to your true home—your home in heaven.
At this Table we can rest, with all our fears, grief, burdens, brokenness, just as Martha and Mary went to Jesus. May we be like Martha and Mary who left all earthly comforts behind, and run to Jesus in our time of need, even as Jesus himself welcomes us: “Come, everything is ready”. May we be like Mary who knelt before Jesus in all submission, seeing hope in him in the times in our life where all seems impossible, who gives peace that the world cannot give in this holy meal. May we be like Martha who confessed: “Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” as the Christ confesses to us: “This is my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.”
For all who trust in Christ share in his own resurrection and life, so when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, he will again do what is impossible for human strength to do. The lid of your coffin will be opened for you as wide as the gates of heaven, and having been made brand new in the twinkling of the eye, you will rise again. The old sinful nature of self-centeredness, self-focus self-rule, will stay in the casket, and the lid be nailed shut never to open again. You will see Martha and Mary and Lazarus, and all the other saints as you gather around the Throne with all the angels in heaven. And in the centre you will see Jesus, the resurrection and the life, who will wipe away all tears from your eyes. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Fifth Sunday in Lent, 2023
