This was the sermon last Sunday, for the fifth Sunday in Lent.

Text: John 11.1-45

“WHAT IS TO COME”


Each holiday has symbols associated with it. The ones for Easter are flowers and grass, eggs, rabbits and chickens. They all fit what is happening around us at this time of year. New foliage is springing forth and newborn animals and newly hatched birds appear. I don’t think it is a coincidence that as I left the house to come here, two rabbits ran across my path. It is a time that reminds us of the life that is taking the place around us after the deadness of winter.

New life is the message of the Gospel reading. It is the familiar story of Lazarus who was revived after death. The whole story has, not just a miraculous ending, but stages along the way. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, along with his sisters, Mary and Martha. They send word to Jesus that Lazarus is ill, but rather than come right away, Jesus delays. He intends to go back to Judea but it has become a dangerous trip since the Judeans had just tried to stone him. He tells the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep and he is going to wake him. The disciples misunderstand and say that he will be alright then, but Jesus tells them that Lazarus is dead. They go and arrive four days after Lazarus’ death. Martha went out to meet Jesus. She said that had he come Lazarus would not have died. He reassures her that Lazarus will rise again. He says instead that he is the resurrection and the life and asks her if she believes this. She does. Martha comes out to see Jesus and he weeps with them. Jesus came to the tomb and orders that the stone sealing it be removed. After a prayer, he commanded Lazarus to come out and he did. Those around him believed.

We might wonder, too, why Jesus said that the illness does not lead to death. That is a strange statement when we consider that Lazarus had indeed died. It is as if Jesus has something else in mind than what they call death. Being a friend of Jesus did not prevent Lazarus’ death. There comes a time for the earthly life to end. But there are many kinds of death. There is the end of life, but also hope, love, the things we hold dear. People’s spark of life can die before their bodies do. We can lose our sense of purpose or right and wrong. A person can lose what makes that person a person. But perhaps what Jesus means is that this illness is not going to end in death because it can’t touch Lazarus in a way that brings him to an end.

Martha and Mary express hope that Lazarus will rise when all rise on the last day. It is part of the general rising of the righteous at the end of time. But Jesus’ answer isn’t that. There is more to it than that. It is not some vague hope for some day in the future that things will turn out well. It is real and immediate. They are correct that Lazarus will live again, but it has its basis in Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. Those who have faith in him will live forever. Eternal life is found through him. And what he does shows that. He has power over death. This miracle, like the others, shows us something about God. It is that God has power beyond the ultimate power in our world, power over life and death.

This is for God’s glory. It is also to bring the disciples to faith. That is why they are able to see it. It is why this story and even more so the one we share at Easter is central to our faith. It shows that Jesus is more than a man and his earthly life more than the average earthly life. In this account, some people believe, although incompletely, and some question what Jesus is doing, but in the end, all the doubts are cleared up. We, too, have times when we wonder what is going to happen, what is going to survive in our lives.

Jesus’ miracle first brings faith alive in us. Martha’s hope is our hope, too, that on the last day, all will be made right. We know that beyond this life lays a new existence, not just what we know here extended on infinitely. We will need a whole resurrection, like Lazarus had, from the dead, not just a healing. This is the hope of a completely new existence, one in which we cannot die again. Part of the joy of the resurrection is the end of all that is imperfect.

Spring shows us part of that hope. We see grass and flowers, like last year’s, but they are not last year’s. The new rabbits in the yard are not last year’s; they are their descendants. New life is not the same as old life.

Brenda Wilbee tells a story that show us that hope. She was mourning the loss of her Aunt Grace who had made her Tinsy Winsy, a sock monkey when she was very little. Time came when Tinsy Winsy wore out and lost his stuffing. Aunt Grace suggested she repair the monkey and those of her sisters. The girls were apprehensive that they wouldn’t be the same and Aunt Grace wisely replied that they would keep their button eyes, that it throwing out their bodies, they would keep their souls. She concludes: “How well I remember the summer afternoon she handed me Tinsy Winsy, all plump and new, his limbs fit and fat, his eyes sparkling … And remembering that, I see I’ve not lost Auntie. Because, though we all have to throw out our old bodies sometime, we have a Creator Who never throws away our souls.” The account of Lazarus’ rising from the grave is a story to strengthen our faith. It is to show us again who Jesus is.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he gave us a sign of a greater hope, greater reality. It is a sign of who he is—the Messiah, Son of God, the One who cares for us in this world and into the next. And it gives us a sign of the hope for our lives, that under God’s care we do not come to an end. But it is not a hope only for some day. It is for us today. What in us needs to come alive? What in us is gone? Like with Lazarus, Jesus calls it to come forth, into new life.

Amen.