The Reverend John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
March 9, 2008
5 Lent
The sermon for this week is
taken from the Gospel of John, Chapter 11, versus 17-44.
I heard about a man who
explained his absence from work by saying, “I’m having my autopsy but with any
luck I’ll be in tomorrow.” Now, I don’t
know what kind of medical procedure the man was having, but few people are able
to return to work the day after their autopsy.
Perhaps Lazarus, the man Jesus
raised from the dead, came back to work five or six days later, but there is no
indication they did an autopsy on his body.
Now, you know the story of Lazarus and his sisters. Lazarus and Martha and Mary were among Jesus’
closest friends. Jesus stayed in their
home and ate meals with them. So when it
was obvious that Lazarus was seriously ill and showed no signs of getting
better, the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” And when he heard this, Jesus said, “The
sickness will not end in death. No, it
is for God’s glory so that God’s son may be glorified through it.”
Jesus loved Mary and Martha
and Lazarus. Yet notice this: When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he
stayed where he was two more days. That
one sentence would make a good sermon.
God’s timetable is not a power timetable. How many times have you prayed that Jesus
would come and heal a loved one, and Jesus has lingered seemingly somewhere far
off. All you were left with was
silence. That’s what faith is all about
- believing in God and God’s providence during those times when God seems
absent. If we knew that God would heed
our every wish, that would not be faith - that would be something else.
Jesus lingered where he
was. Then he said to his disciples, “Let
us go back to Judea.” And his disciples
were opposed to this idea. It was
already becoming dangerous for Jesus in Judea.
But Jesus would not be deterred.
“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,” Jesus said. “But I’m going there to wake him up.”
And this is the other side of
faith. We will not forever feel
forsaken. Jesus may linger in another
place for a long time, or so it seems, but his absence is temporary. He has not forgotten us.
On his arrival, Jesus found
that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. The fact that Lazarus was in the grave for
four days may be significant. There were
some Jews who believed you should return to the grave for purposes of mourning
for three days after your loved one’s death, because the soul of that person
was thought to stay around the body for three days. But after three days, according to this
tradition, the soul of the dead person would depart. Four days may have been a statement by Jesus
that Lazarus really was dead - there was no life left in him.
It is one thing for people to
be revived through CPR or other forms of resuscitation. That happens with
ever-increasing frequency. It is quite
another for a person to be decomposing in the grave for four days and be
brought back to life, as Lazarus was by the divine command of Jesus.
Now 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.
And then she adds these revealing words:
“But I know that even now God will give whatever you ask.” We see here that Martha was a person of
extraordinary faith.
Those of you who remember the
story of Mary and Martha as told in Luke, chapter 10, remember that it was Mary
who sat at the feet of Jesus while Martha scurried around doing household
chores. And Jesus chided Martha and
praised Mary. Yet this story in the
Gospel of John at the raising of their brother Lazarus seems to indicate that
Martha probably had the more mature faith.
And Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die, even
though he dies, will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never
die. Do you believe this?” “Yes Lord,” Martha told him. “I believe that you are the Christ, Son of
God, who is to come into the world.”
After she said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The
Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” And when Mary heard this she got up quickly
and went to him.
Now Jesus had not yet entered
the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. And when those who had been with Mary in the
house comforting her noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed
her. Supposedly she was going to the
tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached
the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at Jesus’ feet and said the
same thing that Martha said, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not
have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping,
and those who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in
spirit and troubled. “Where have you
laid him?” they asked. “Come and see,
Lord,” they replied. “Jesus wept.”
I love that verse, don’t
you? It saved many of us when we were
asked to recite a Bible verse. “Jesus
wept” is the shortest verse in the Bible; but it is also one of the most powerful. Jesus wept real tears, just like we cry real
tears when we are hurt. To know that
Jesus cares, that he enters into our pain and feels our suffering is at the
heart of our faith.
Now friends standing around
said, “See how he loved him!” But some
of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man had kept this
man from dying?” And 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. Another powerful sentence. “Take away the stone.”
I love the story of Jesus
raising Lazarus from the grave. I find
hope in the idea that you don’t have to stay the way you are. The idea that the stone will be rolled away,
and you can step out into a new life.
“Take way the stone,” Jesus said.
“But Lord,” said Martha, “by this time there is a stench for he’s in
there four days.” And then Jesus said,
“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank
you that you have heard me. I knew that
you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the people standing
here that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come
out!”
I love the country preacher’s
comment about this passage…if Jesus hadn’t limited that command to Lazarus,
every corpse in the graveyard would have come forth!
But Jesus called in a loud
voice, “Lazarus, come out!” and the dead man came out; his hand and feet wrapped
with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. And Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave
clothes and let him go.”
What an amazing story! After four days in the tomb, Jesus raised the
dead man from the grave. But here I
think is the important thing: Do you
understand that this is your story and mine?
We are not one of the bystanders, we are not Mary and Martha. We are Lazarus, and you and I are called to a
new life. “Lazarus, come out!”
There are some important
lessons that I think we need to learn from this story of Lazarus. First of all, this story affirms the idea of
resurrection. That’s important, of
course. You and I have this to look
forward to. The dead in Christ will
arise. We will live beyond the grave
with Jesus and with those we have loved.
The other day I put in a call
to Debra Woodman. I don’t know how many
of you remember her, but her name is Debra Floodberg Woodman, and she was a long-time member of St. John’s and worked
for the Community Bank. She was very
instrumental in helping us during our project here at St. John’s. Her mother died, and I called her to tell her
just how sorry I was; and she began to tell me about a book she had just
read. The book is entitled 90 Minutes
in Heaven. The author’s last name is
Piper. One of things she said helped her
about the book was this person who evidently felt this experience that he had
gone to heaven. He met all of those
loved ones who had come before - they were waiting for him. Those who were ill and crippled back here in
this life all seemed to be standing erect - they were all smiling and waiting
for him as he came. He said it was
really difficult when he was being called back as he was being resuscitated.
It reminded me of a time when
I was visiting a man at Massachusetts General Hospital who was declared dead on
arrival at the hospital. The doctor
decided to resuscitate him anyway. After
fifteen minutes of CPR, the previously dead man began to show signs of life,
and he told me later that he sat up and looked around him and said to the
doctor, “Oh, I wish I was still out there!
It was beautiful!” The man could
not explain to me exactly what he meant, but only repeat that the place he had
been was so beautiful - so beautiful.
Now many explanations have
been given for so-called near death experiences including chemical changes in
the brain. But all explanations aside,
it is amazing how these experiences affirm what the Bible teaches us about life
beyond the grave. There will come a time
when the doctor can’t do more for us, but somewhere on the other side Jesus
will say, “Michael come out; Joseph, come out; Sally, come out.” This is a story that affirms resurrection.
And, you know, the story of
Lazarus also gives us hope for everyday living.
It is a word of encouragement for anyone who needs to make a new
beginning in life. That’s what Jesus
does for us. He gives us the power to
start gain, to live again. He said to
Lazarus, “Come out!” And then to those
who are present, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
The story of Lazarus can be
our story. We too can be turned loose,
untied. This is particularly good news
to someone who is addicted, whether to a chemical substance or to unsavory
habits. “Lazarus, come out!” And this is good news to anyone who has led
an empty, meaningless life. “Lazarus,
come out!” And this is good news for the
tired, the hurting, the person at their wits end. “Lazarus, come out!” And this is good news for all of us. “Lazarus, come out!” This can be the beginning of a new life.
Some of you may have heard
the story of a nurse who before listening to the heart beats of children, would
plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their own
hearts. One day she tucked the stethoscope
into the ears of a four-year-old boy.
Then she placed the disk over his heart.
“Listen,” she said. “What do you
suppose that is? Thump, thump,
thump.” He drew his eyebrows together in
a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of a strange tap, tap
tapping deep in his chest. And then his
face broke out in a wondrous grin. “Is
that Jesus knocking?” he asked. Well,
maybe so. Maybe Jesus is knocking at the
door of your heart this morning. Maybe
Jesus is ordering the door rolled away from your tomb. “Lazarus, come out!”
The story of the raising of
Lazarus ends with these words which are not contained in today’s Gospel passage
but are the last verse in the Gospel of John on the passage from Lazarus. “Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to
visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.”
And how about you? Have you really put your faith in Jesus? Do you trust him? Are you willing to turn your life over to his
guidance and his direction. “Lazarus,
come out!”
Amen