This is the Pastor’s Blog for the Service on Sunday March 22nd at 10:45AM. Included here is the primary Scripture of this message and the Pastor’s notes. Prior to the service it will include an excerpt of the Pastor’s notes and following the service the complete notes will be added. Also following the service a link will be provided at the bottom to Replay this service. We hope you will join us in Worship on Sunday.
Scripture : John 11:1-45
The Death of Lazarus
11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ 4 But 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.’ 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ 8 The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ 9 Jesus 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. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ 11 After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ 12 The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’
Jesus the Resurrection and the Life
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ 23 Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24 Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ 25 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ 27 She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’
Jesus Weeps
28 When 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.’ 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The 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. 32 When 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.’ 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ 37 But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’
Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus 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 for four days.’ 40 Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I 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.’ 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44 The 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.’
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Pastor’s Message;
We’ve been in John’s gospel the last few weeks, hearing stories that are unique to John. We’ve heard the stories of Nicodemus, the woman Jesus meets at the well in Samaria, and the man born blind. All of these stories – including the one we just heard – have as a common thread the question of Jesus’ identity. Is Jesus the Messiah? How is it that he performs the marvelous works that he performs? Is he sent from God? Each story explores these questions and moves us closer to belief in Jesus as the Christ, which is very important to the writer of John’s gospel.
Martha and Mary grapple with these questions as well. They are in close relationship with Jesus. Mary, Martha and Lazarus have hosted Jesus in their home, they’ve listened to his teachings and have come to believe that he is indeed the Messiah they have been waiting for.
There’s such tenderness in this story. The text says that Jesus “loves” this family. The Greek word here for love is “filios” – the love that is shared between family members and dear friends. It’s a story that tugs on our heart strings. Lazarus falls ill, and the sisters send word to Jesus because they think he will want to know that Lazarus is very sick.
Jesus receives the message but doesn’t make it back to Bethany until Lazarus is already dead and buried. He’s been dead for four days by the time Jesus arrives, and there’s a lot of sadness and mourning swirling around. Martha and Mary both wonder aloud why Jesus didn’t come sooner. If Jesus had come sooner, things might have been different. The neighbors cry with Mary and Martha, and Jesus cries with them.
The story tells us that Jesus is “greatly disturbed” and “deeply moved.” The Greek words here are hard to translate. They convey not only sadness and grief, but anger. We don’t have a sentimental Jesus here. We have a Jesus who publicly acknowledges the bitterness of human suffering and death. At Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus takes seriously the pain of human existence, an existence that is often marked by disease, pain, sometimes trauma, and eventually death.
At Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus lets the reality of being fully human run through him. Jesus’ decisive act – raising Lazarus from the dead – is God’s answer to anger, sadness and grief. For God, death has no power. In raising Lazarus, Jesus allows the glory of God to course through him so that others may see, believe, and experience new life. This is what Jesus has been doing all through John’s gospel: turning the water into wine at the wedding at Cana. Feeding the thousands with five loaves and two fish. Recovering the sight of the man born blind. And raising Lazarus.
Jesus is resurrection and life, and asks that we believe this is so. This isn’t just a yes/no question. Being moved into belief that Jesus Christ is resurrection and life moves us into new life.
This is where this family story turns more political. What Jesus has done in raising Lazarus is the straw that breaks the camel’s back with the religious authorities.
Let’s hear the rest of the story:
Many of the neighbors, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him. But some of them went to the religious leaders and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and leaders called a meeting of the council and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness, and he remained there with the disciples.
The Jewish faith traditions of Jesus’ day had long roots in what had happened to Israel in the past: the Babylonian conquest of Judah, the destruction of the Temple, and the forced deportation of many of the people into exile in another part of the Babylonian Empire. The exiles were far from home with all that “home” implies: routines, patterns of worship and devotion observed with family and friends, familiar surroundings and relationships. All of that was ripped away with the Babylonian conquest.
Even after some of the exiles returned home after a generation, the tiny nation of Israel experienced repeated conquests and occupation by the Syrians, the Greeks, and then the Romans. Home was never completely theirs all the way up to the time of Jesus, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
Based on this history, the religious leaders make a decision for expediency’s sake. In order to keep the Romans from cracking down on a possible insurrection inspired by this wandering rabbi from Galilee, they will let this one man die. What they don’t “see”, however, is how creatively determined God is for new life to burst forth.
Hearing the story of the raising of Lazarus is good preparation for Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter. Accepting new life often comes with pain. To follow a new way, the old way must be left behind with all of its comforts and routine, even if those comforts and routines aren’t life-giving.
Night will fall, but God-in-Christ is active even in the dark. God’s dawn – resurrection and new life – are on the horizon!
Closing prayer
