John 11:1-45

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Lazarus, Come Forth!

 

Let’s take a deep breath and open our hearts, mind, soul and spirit to receive the message that God has for us this morning. As we focus our thoughts on the mystic presence of the Holy One, let us pray: Lord God, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, please let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our Strength, our Rock and our Redeemer. In Jesus’ name, amen.

As we move toward Palm Sunday and Easter, we continue with our study of “what is worship.” We know that worship, like God, is many sided, and that, “worship begins when we realize that our story is God’s work being displayed in our lives.” We also know that “we are to worship Jesus where we find Him. And conversely, we should also worship Jesus where He finds us: AND, when we find ourselves face-to-face with our Risen Lord, worship will DEFINE ITSELF as it happens.

When I think about worship, I also think about the meaning of life itself. Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Dr. Viktor Frankl once wrote that the meaning of life has three aspects; (1) to experience a value; (2) to experience pain; and/or (3) to do a deed. And Pastor Tom Kraeuter, in defining what worship is, has stated that, 1) “worship honors God, (2) worship is directed toward God and (3) worship requires involvement on the

part of you and I, the worshipers.” (Unquote) Even a brief look at the idea of worship in the Bible will show these concepts to be true. Worship honors God. There are occurrences in scripture and real life where people shake their fists at God: there are times when people grieve over God’s seeming lack of involvement with them, like the Holocaust. And there are also places where people weep and mourn, crying out to God in their time of need, and although all these actions are a part of our being in true relationship with God, and may even be prayerful, they are not worship. To truly be called worship, it must honor God. So, (1) Worship Honors God, and (2) worship is also directed toward God (2). Let’s be perfectly clear: unless the act of worship is directed toward God, from a biblical perspective it cannot truly be called worship. Worship has God as its centerpiece, not us. So, it’s pretty obvious that our worship is going to be directed toward God when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. This raising of Lazarus is an Easter story; a story of new life and resurrection; a short break from the story of sacrifice as Jesus walks toward the cross. Yet, we must not forget that every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday, a celebration of Easter, even in Lent. The story of Lazarus is a signpost of things to come, because even though it’s Lent, the season of the cross, Jesus has come to raise the dead. You see, Jesus is on

the side of life, and through Him death shall be and has been defeated; death will not be victorious! Death has lost its sting!

You know, some people say, "I go to church, so I’m a Christian." But that's like saying that if you go to Burger King, you’re a Whopper! So, to believe and follow Jesus is always to have a ringside seat, a balcony box seat in the gold circle, on the drama of the resurrection in Lent. So, let’s put on our crash helmets, as Annie Dillard would say, and get ready to be raised from the dead! Annie Dillard is an American author who wrote “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” and “Teaching a Stone to Talk.” In Teaching a Stone to Talk, she states; “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.” She goes on to say that “we should all be wearing crash helmets! Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake some day and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return." (unquote) And of course, we read in Hebrews 10:31, that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Today, we are eyewitnesses to the fact that with God, all things are possible. We see that Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary and Lazarus, and as we heard last week that, “worship begins when we realize that our story is God’s work being displayed in our lives.” We hear Jesus say from the beginning of the narrative that, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Jesus engages in some word-play with the disciples. He says, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." Jesus had been speaking of his death metaphorically, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So, then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Remember that in the Gospel of John, Jesus makes seven “I AM” statements that indicate what His relationship is to God. He says, "I AM the bread of life", "I AM the light of the world", "I AM the door", "I AM the good shepherd”, “I AM the resurrection and the life”, "I AM the way, the truth, and the life”, and "I AM the true vine.”

“On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their

brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, " I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

“When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" JESUS is one of us, isn’t He? Jesus loved Lazarus like we love our loved ones, and when they die, we weep just like Jesus wept because life will never be the same again without them. Remember Jesus saying, “I AM the resurrection and the life!” In this statement from Jesus, we will soon see that life will never be the same

because of what we are about to witness, scripturally. “Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? Jesus is saying to Martha, and us too, that if we believe and follow Him, something extraordinary will always happen!

Are you dead inside? Have you been entombed by the mistakes in your life and have you been put in a grave and a stone rolled across the entrance to your heart of hearts? Well, if that’s the case, then I suggest that you remember what Annie Dillard said today: “we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.” Are you ready for the next step that Jesus is about to take? Have you got your crash helmet on? “So, they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”’

Have you pictured yourself being there, pictured yourself standing with Jesus, with Mary and Martha, waiting to see what Jesus is about to do? Or do you still have doubts about WHO Jesus is, and WHY Jesus is here,

standing at the door of the tomb of Lazarus? Well, I would say that if Jesus Christ is standing at the tomb of Lazarus, He’s also standing at the tomb of you and I, isn’t He? Because if there’s no hope for Lazarus, there’s certainly no hope for you and I! If Jesus fails here, it’s all over for every one of us; because if there is no life and no hope for Lazarus, then there’s certainly not going to be any real life or hope or resurrection or REASON for us, either IS THERE?! In that sense, all of us are Lazarus!

“So, they took away the stone. Then Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.” “Worshiping God requires involvement on the part of the worshiper?” With God, ALL THINGS are possible, which tells you and I that resurrection is always possible for us on whatever physical, spiritual, emotional or psychological plain of consciousness we find ourselves. We’ve just seen Jesus bringing ALL OF US back from the dead, which requires of us a real-time response! Hallelujah, and Amen! Let us Pray:

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Jan Ekstedt MDiv.