In the story of Jesus Christ, nothing seems to hit us quite as much as the story of Lazarus and his two sisters.
The family owned an inn in Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. Many of the people from Galilee often stayed here on their way to Jerusalem, including Jesus and his disciples.
This was the place where Martha had served dinner and grown frustrated that her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. Reading between the lines, it appears that Jesus had known the three members of the family for quite a while, perhaps decades.
And so, one day, Jesus and his disciples are at the place where John the Baptist did his work on the other side of the Jordan River, down in the Jordan Valley far below Jerusalem. They left Jerusalem a couple of months earlier when a group of Jews were ready to stone Jesus because Jesus had claimed to be God. It is well worth reading the passage in the last half of John Chapter 10. Jesus and the disciples left town because it just wasn’t safe for them. Now, down here in the Valley, word comes from Bethany that Lazarus has fallen sick and is very, very ill.
Now we have to remember that this was a time before antibiotics. It was a time when the average man died in his thirties. It was a time when a good strong sinus infection or an infected cut could kill you over the course of a week or two. You’ll remember that last spring at this time I had pneumonia and it took three courses of different antibiotics to clear me up. If I had been living in the days of Jesus, you’d have a different pastor today.
The sisters are very alarmed and worried about how sick their brother Lazarus is. So they send for Jesus, the one man they know can cure their brother’s sickness. And what does Jesus do?
He takes his time, staying where he was for another two days. But Jesus, who was God walking on the earth, Jesus knows what is happening. He knows that Lazarus is getting weaker and weaker, and Jesus knows that Lazarus has finally died. But he told his disciples: “Don’t worry. This won’t end in Lazarus’ death!
The disciples remind Jesus that the last time they were in the Jerusalem area, the Jews tried to stone him. But Jesus is ready to go. So Thomas the Twin – did you know the name Thomas comes from the Aramaic language and means “Twin” – Thomas says they might as well all go with him and die with him. So they head up the Jericho road that goes up, up, up 3000 feet to Bethany, over three times the climb to the top of Seneca Rocks, and they finally reach Bethany to find a funeral has been held and a bunch of people standing around weeping.
It is hard for us to understand the depths of their grief, for it is a core belief of Christianity that one day the dead will rise and go to be with Jesus again in New Jerusalem. We know we will live again.
But in those days, there was a great debate going on in the land of Israel. It is like the debates you sometimes hear today between different groups of people in America.
The Sadducees, the men who ran the great Temple of God in Jerusalem officially believed that there was no way for people to come back to life. You were born, you lived your life, then you died and that was it. Your existence was over, for, you see, it was very difficult to find passages which clearly point to a resurrection, a new life, in the first five books of the Bible, and that was the only part of the Bible that the Sadducees accepted as true.
The Pharisees, though, believed in the entire Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament. And they had read and heard the great prophecy of the dry bones from Ezekiel 37, our first reading, where Ezekiel sees a valley full of old, dry bones, skeletons that have been laying in the desert sun for years, for decades, for centuries, bones which the vultures and the desert rats have picked every bit of meat off of, bones which the ants have taken every bit of marrow out of. These aren’t the recently killed bodies of a great army – no, this is a valley where the dead have been put for centuries, and the bones are all that remain. Ezekiel appears to speak of a time far, far, far into the future when the Spirit flows back into the dead of Israel. The bones are just lying there and Ezekiel writes that God spoke to him:
Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
Then He said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
The Pharisees saw that those who had died far from home would be returned to Israel in the far future. But to us looking back, thousands of years later, doesn’t the image and the prophecy remind us of the Holocaust of World War II, where 6 million Jews from Europe were killed in the camps, where those who survived looked like walking skeletons, and where many of those who survived came back on ships to the new land of Israel?
But the Pharisees did not know of Germany and Hitler and concentration camps. But they knew that in the far future, the people of Israel would come back to life. But still, there was this great uncertainty for the average person about death, because the average person didn’t know whether the Pharisees were right or the Sadducees were right. And the vision of Ezekiel of a valley filled with dry bones isn’t a very pleasant vision, no matter what, is it?
And so the grief of people when someone died was intense. Even today, when I do a funeral, there is a clear difference between Christian families and families who don’t believe. Christian families weep a bit, they laugh a bit, they miss their loved ones, yes, but they know deep down that they will see their loved one again someday, and that someday is not very long in the scheme of things, for they know that this life is just the appetizer life and the main course to come is in New Jerusalem with Jesus and our believing loved ones one day.
At this funeral, as Jesus came upon the mourners four days after Lazarus' burial, Jesus hated that Lazarus was dead and even Jesus wept. Remember always that Jesus wept when his friend was dead if you feel you shouldn’t cry about death. Even Jesus wept. It is the right thing to do, to weep. It helps us to remember, to process the anger that death exists in this world. Weeping helps us to heal.
But those who don’t believe in Christ go much further in their grief. They cry and wail. They feel sick, they are wracked with guilt, they hurt deeply, they fight, they make sick jokes, they really don’t know what they will do because they have either lost someone on whom they strongly depended - like a good car - or they have come to the funeral because they were expected to be there, and they know they’ll never see this person again. Ever. And it reminds them that their future after death is very uncertain. And so they are frightened. They are frightened of death, for it is also the fear of the unknown darkness that scares them.
Now imagine the grief of all the people who knew Lazarus, before Christ had shown His power over death, for Lazarus had been dead for four entire days and put in a tomb!
But those who don’t believe in Christ go much further in their grief. They cry and wail. They feel sick, they are wracked with guilt, they hurt deeply, they fight, they make sick jokes, they really don’t know what they will do because they have either lost someone on whom they strongly depended - like a good car - or they have come to the funeral because they were expected to be there, and they know they’ll never see this person again. Ever. And it reminds them that their future after death is very uncertain. And so they are frightened. They are frightened of death, for it is also the fear of the unknown darkness that scares them.
Now imagine the grief of all the people who knew Lazarus, before Christ had shown His power over death, for Lazarus had been dead for four entire days and put in a tomb!
When Jesus wants to open up the tomb, Martha feels she has to remind Jesus ("poor fellow must have forgotten in his grief!") that Lazarus’ body is going to stink like a dead deer’s carcass beside the road, since Lazarus has been dead so long. It won’t be pleasant, it won't be sweet, it will be terrible when the men open up that tomb. But Jesus insists on opening the tomb, because He has a point to make and it is an important point. And Jesus IS the highly respected Rabbi whom people follow and listen to.
The men go forward and roll away the stone blocking the entrance out of the way. And Jesus looks up and prays:
"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.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
And there is a pause. Then, someone sees movement in the darkness of the tomb. Everyone draws in their breath and holds it, because there is something moving in there. Something white is moving in there. It is walking towards the doorway upright like a man….
And Lazarus, the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
The men go forward and roll away the stone blocking the entrance out of the way. And Jesus looks up and prays:
"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.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
And there is a pause. Then, someone sees movement in the darkness of the tomb. Everyone draws in their breath and holds it, because there is something moving in there. Something white is moving in there. It is walking towards the doorway upright like a man….
And Lazarus, the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
He wasn’t a zombie, he was simply alive again and everyone was amazed! Everyone just stared, stunned until Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” And then the celebration began!
That day, the fact was that Jesus had taken a man who was truly dead, had been dead for four days, had died in front of his family, and Jesus commanded him to come back to life and walk out of his tomb.
That day, the fact was that Jesus had shown that Jesus was more powerful that any prophet they’d ever seen, Jesus was connected to the same God that had prophesied through Ezekiel and Jesus was more powerful than death itself. No dead bodies were safe with Jesus around!
That day, the fact was that this miracle did not happen in front of a couple of witnesses in an out-of-the-way town, this miracle did not happen in front of picked friends, this miracle happened in broad daylight two miles from one of the largest cities in the world, in front of dozens of witnesses who ran back into Jerusalem and told people about what happened. You see, sometimes the facts are the facts and have to be reported as such.
But that day, the fact was that there were some people who were in power in Jerusalem who were more concerned with their own power than with the facts, and that day, the fact was that several of these men decided that Jesus had to die and soon, and the fact was that later that spring, the assembled people of Jerusalem would chant in front of the Roman governor that they wanted Jesus to die.
And so the fact was that the Roman governor ordered Jesus to die and the fact was that Jesus did die on a cross in front of many witnesses and a Roman soldier who stuck him in the side with a spear to make sure he was dead, and the fact was that he was quickly buried that Friday evening before nightfall in a borrowed tomb and a 2000 pound boulder was rolled into a trench in front of his tomb and a seal was placed on the tomb and soldiers stationed to guard the tomb.
But praise God, the fact was that Sunday morning there was an earthquake and the fact was that the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb was rolled away and the fact was that Jesus was not in the tomb but found Lazarus’ sister Mary that morning in the garden near the tomb and talked with her and the fact was that over the next forty days he appeared at least ten more times to over 500 people and those facts are why we are in church today because it means that death has been defeated and those who choose to follow Jesus will live forever, PRAISE GOD!
That day, the fact was that Jesus had taken a man who was truly dead, had been dead for four days, had died in front of his family, and Jesus commanded him to come back to life and walk out of his tomb.
That day, the fact was that Jesus had shown that Jesus was more powerful that any prophet they’d ever seen, Jesus was connected to the same God that had prophesied through Ezekiel and Jesus was more powerful than death itself. No dead bodies were safe with Jesus around!
That day, the fact was that this miracle did not happen in front of a couple of witnesses in an out-of-the-way town, this miracle did not happen in front of picked friends, this miracle happened in broad daylight two miles from one of the largest cities in the world, in front of dozens of witnesses who ran back into Jerusalem and told people about what happened. You see, sometimes the facts are the facts and have to be reported as such.
But that day, the fact was that there were some people who were in power in Jerusalem who were more concerned with their own power than with the facts, and that day, the fact was that several of these men decided that Jesus had to die and soon, and the fact was that later that spring, the assembled people of Jerusalem would chant in front of the Roman governor that they wanted Jesus to die.
And so the fact was that the Roman governor ordered Jesus to die and the fact was that Jesus did die on a cross in front of many witnesses and a Roman soldier who stuck him in the side with a spear to make sure he was dead, and the fact was that he was quickly buried that Friday evening before nightfall in a borrowed tomb and a 2000 pound boulder was rolled into a trench in front of his tomb and a seal was placed on the tomb and soldiers stationed to guard the tomb.
But praise God, the fact was that Sunday morning there was an earthquake and the fact was that the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb was rolled away and the fact was that Jesus was not in the tomb but found Lazarus’ sister Mary that morning in the garden near the tomb and talked with her and the fact was that over the next forty days he appeared at least ten more times to over 500 people and those facts are why we are in church today because it means that death has been defeated and those who choose to follow Jesus will live forever, PRAISE GOD!
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