Deo Gloria
Sermon for March 29, 2020
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: John 11:17-27,38-45
Theme: Do You Believe in a Life-giving Savior?
- Jesus says he is.
- Jesus proves he is.
There’s nothing like the death of a friend or a loved one to make you stop and think. There’s nothing like a visit to the funeral home to make one pause for a moment and reflect on what he or she believes about life and death and about the life to come. There’s nothing like going to a funeral or making a trip to the cemetery in order to bury a loved one to make you do some serious soul-searching and evaluate once again what you really believe about Jesus. Is he just a nice guy, someone we all wish we could be more like? Is he just a kind and loving friend, someone we can talk to in prayer whenever we’re lonely or hurting? Or is he something more? We call him Savior. But what does that really mean? What can he actually save me from? Can he save me from something like death, for example? Doctors cannot save me from death. Judges cannot save me from death. Lawyers cannot me from death. Can Jesus? Can Jesus actually give me life?
We find the answer to that question this morning in the story we have before us, the familiar story of the death of Lazarus recorded in John ch. 11. In these verses Jesus not only says he is able to give life; he proves it. Jesus is a life-giving Savior. You can believe it.
Jesus and his disciples were on the far side of the Jordan River, the eastern side. They were sort of keeping their distance from Jerusalem because the chief priests and the Pharisees were plotting to get rid of Jesus. But it wasn’t time yet. The Passover was still several months away and the Father’s plan was for Jesus to die during the Passover—not before and not after. So Jesus was keeping a safe distance, waiting until just the right time to go up to Jerusalem, where he would suffer and die for the sins of the world.
But then news came that Lazarus was sick. Lazarus was a good friend of Jesus from the town of Bethany, a small village about 2 miles from Jerusalem. His sisters were good friends too—Mary and Martha. Many times they had opened their home to him and provided him and his disciples with a warm meal and a place to sleep. He couldn’t ignore their call for help. He had to go; but he did wait. He waited for two more days before he made the trip to Bethany. Why we don’t know. All we know is what Jesus said: that in some way it would bring glory to him and to the Father.
When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany four days later, Lazarus was already dead. In fact, he had been in the tomb for 4 days. When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she immediately got up and went to meet him. And what were the very first words out of her mouth? “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”(v. 21). How many times don’t we ask questions like that when someone close to us dies? “If only I had spent more time with her.” “If only I had been nicer to her.” “If only I had gone to the store instead of sending her.” “If only she had gone to doctor right away instead of ignoring the symptoms as long as she did.” “If only….” It’s natural, of course, for us to ask questions like that, but they really don’t help much, because we can’t change the past. What’s done is done. For whatever reason that person is gone now, and we simply have to accept it.
Did you notice something else in Martha’s question? A little disappointment in her voice? Maybe even a little blame? “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” “Lord, you could have helped my brother. You could have healed him. You could have made him well, just like you did so many other sick people.” “If you had been here, Lord, my brother would still be alive.” How often don’t you and I do that as well? When a friend or loved one dies, we try to blame God. “Where were you, Lord? Were you gone on vacation? Were you out to lunch? Were you taking a nap? Where were you? If you had been here, my brother would not have died. That drunk driver would never have hit his car. He never would have gotten cancer. He never would have had that heart attack. He never would have slipped off the dock and hit his head and drown. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” We blame God. It certainly wasn’t our fault. And it certainly wasn’t our brother’s fault. So it must be God’s fault. It’s his fault that our brother got sick and died.
And all of that is just more evidence of our sinfulness. God is not responsible for death, but we like to blame him anyway. God created a perfect world, a world where there was no such thing as sin or sickness or death. Adam and Eve were the ones who messed things up. They were the ones who listened to the devil’s lies and disobeyed God’s command and sinned. And because they were sinful, they died. And that sinfulness has been passed down to you and me, so the same is true of us. We too are sinful. We don’t love God the way we should. We disobey and break his commands each and every day. We don’t love our spouse or our family the way we should. We say mean and hurtful things to them and about them. And we don’t love our neighbors either, not the way we should, because most of the time we’re just so stinking selfish. And if you have any doubt about that, then tell me why you can’t find any toilet paper at the grocery store. There’s no denying that we are sinful. And because we are sinful, we too will die. Sooner or later, in one way or another, each and every one of us is going to die. And there isn’t anything anyone can do about it.
Or is there? Let’s listen again to Jesus. “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus said to Martha.(v. 23).
“I know,” Martha replied, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day”(v. 24). And for you and me that’s where the conversation would have ended. What more could you and I say, even as Christians. We can point people to heaven. We can remind that them they will see their loved one again on the last day, when Jesus brings all the dead back to life. But that’s really all we can say—but not Jesus. Jesus doesn’t stop there. He continues, and in the process he makes some astounding statements.
“I am the resurrection and the life,” he says.(v. 25) “I am the resurrection and the life.” You and I are so used to those words. They’re so familiar to us that they don’t strike us the way they really should. Do you realize how startling they are? How astonishing they are? People have made all kinds of claims over the years. Some have claimed to be the champion of the world. Some have claimed to be the richest person in the world or the fastest or the strongest. Some have claimed that they can help you live a longer life. But no one has ever made this claim—not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Krishna, not the Dahlia Lama, no one. No one has ever claimed to be the resurrection and the life, except Jesus. Jesus does not say that he knows about the resurrection and how it will happen. Jesus does not say that he knows about life and where life comes from. Jesus says he is the resurrection. He is the life. He is the source of those things. Jesus has the power and the ability to raise people up from the dead. Jesus has the power and the ability to give people life, life that even death cannot extinguish, life that on goes forever. “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies”(v. 25) If someone who believes in Jesus happens to die before Jesus comes back, no problem, no worries. Jesus will bring their body back to life on the last day. “And whoever lives and believes in me will never die”(v. 26) Anyone who believes in Jesus will never die. Even if their body does die, their soul will go on living with Jesus in heaven. And then on the last day, he will bring their body back to life, make it a perfect, glorified body like his, and then soul and body together they will live with Jesus forever.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus really is that kind of Savior, a Savior who has more power than death does, a Savior who can actually give life? Do you believe that Jesus will actually bring that friend of yours or loved one that you recently laid in the grave back to life one day? Do you believe that Jesus can give you life that will never end, so that even if your body dies some day, your soul will go on living with him in heaven? That’s what Jesus is saying here, isn’t it? That’s the kind of Savior he is claiming to be, a life-giving Savior. And you can believe what Jesus says, because Jesus never lies.
It’s one thing, though, to say something like that. And it’s another to prove it. Jesus does more than simply say it, he proves it. He proves it beyond the shadow of a doubt, so that like Mary and Martha, we might believe. He proves it in two ways.
The first is by his own resurrection. I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself now. Easter is still a couple of weeks away, but it’s an important part of the story. You and I would always wonder if Jesus really is the resurrection and the life if he were still dead in the tomb. You and I would always wonder if Jesus really could rescue us from death or rescue our loved one from death if he couldn’t rescue himself from death. But he did. After suffering and dying for our sins on the cross and after being laid in the tomb, Jesus came back to life. On the third day he came out of the tomb under his own power, victorious over sin and victorious over death. That’s one reason you and I can be sure that Jesus isn’t pulling our leg, that he really can rescue us from death and give us life. His own resurrection is the proof.
But there’s more proof right here in this story. After talking briefly with Mary and Martha, together they went to the tomb, the cave where Lazarus was buried. And there Jesus made another astonishing statement. He told them to roll the stone away from the entrance. Martha tried to stop him, and for good reason. Lazarus had been in the tomb for 4 days already. By this time there would have been a bad odor. Have you ever had it happen that a mouse died inside one of the walls in your house? Somehow it managed to get in there and then couldn’t get back out. And it scratched and scratched and scratched some more and finally it died. And after a couple of days, what did you notice? Pewwwwww! What an awful odor! It’s hard to believe that a tiny, little mouse could make such a powerful stench. Whew! That’s the stage that Lazarus was at–the stinky stage. His body had been decaying and rotting in the tomb for four days, so by this time there would have been an awful stench.
But that didn’t stop Jesus. “Did I not tell you,” he said, “that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”(v. 40)
So they did what he said. They removed the stone from the entrance to the tomb. And then, after saying a little prayer, not for his own sake but for the benefit of those standing around, Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus came out. He looked kind of like a mummy, didn’t he, his body still wrapped in strips of linen, his head still wrapped in a face cloth? Lazarus came out of the tomb. He was alive again. This was an incredible miracle. This was an awesome display of Jesus’ power as the Son of God. And it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus really is who he said he was, that he really is the resurrection and the life, that he really is a life-giving Savior. Mary and Martha could believe it.
And we can too. Next time our lives are touched by tragedy and heartache like Mary and Martha’s was, we can turn to Jesus for comfort and hope. He is a life-giving Savior. Next time we have to make that trip to the funeral home or to the cemetery and say “Goodbye” to a loved one, we can look to Jesus to wipe away our tears and give us hope. He is a life-giving Savior. Next time you get sick, as Lazarus did, and death seems to be knocking on your door, you can brush your doubts and your fears aside and look to Jesus for comfort and assurance. He is our life-giving Savior. Amen.