Life Speaks Louder (John 11:32-44)

 

Life Speaks Louder (John 11:32-44)

 

Lazarus, come forth!

The angel of death appears before a lawyer and says, "Your time has come." The lawyer starts crying, "But I'm only forty!"

The Angel of death says, "Not according to your billable hours."

 

We’re jumping over to John’s gospel today. Jesus and his disciples came to Jerusalem for Hannukah. The Jewish leaders urged Jesus to tell them if he was the Christ or not. Jesus said, “I’ve already told you,” by the deeds of power he was performing, like restoring the sight of a man born blind or healing a man who was paralyzed for 38 years. Jesus told them they don’t know who he is, because they are not his sheep. His sheep know his voice and follow him. Jesus said John 10:28-30,

 

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

 

At this the Judeans are ready to stone Jesus to death, so they leave Jerusalem to avoid further persecution. They head to the east side of the Jordan, a 2 days walk. It is here, near where Jesus was baptized, that they get the news that Lazarus was deathly ill. When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4)

 

Two days later they head toward Bethany across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. Bethany is located on the southeast slope of the Mount of Olives. Some of the disciples thought it was a bad idea to return to the region near Jerusalem since the Judeans had tried to kill Jesus. But Jesus was determined, knowing that he had important work to perform. Thomas, in his cynicism, quipped to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.” (John 11:16)

 

When they drew near the village, Martha ran to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21)

 

Jesus told her that Lazarus will rise again. Martha gives her Sunday School response. “I know he will rise at the resurrection on the last day.” Martha was repeating what she’d been taught. But what is really revealed here is her unbelief. It doesn’t even enter her mind as a possibility that Jesus might raise Lazarus from the dead that very day.

 

Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

 

Next Mary comes to Jesus. She too exclaims her sad disappointment that Jesus wasn’t there. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32)

 

Now when Jesus saw Mary and the others weeping, he was deeply moved and troubled. Jesus wept with them. The others said, “See how he loved him?” But this observation is ironic. Yes, Jesus loved Lazarus. But Jesus knew full well that Lazarus was to live again, for God had made the miracle known four days prior when Jesus said, “This illness will not lead to death but to God’s glory.”

 

If you look at the meaning of the Greek translated as deeply moved, the emotion Jesus is feeling is not sadness, it’s indignation. It’s anger and frustration. When you’re holding back anger, you huff (sharp breath) and try and calm yourself? That’s what is happening with Jesus.

 

That may seem strange to us. Jesus showed anger and frustration when he was faced with the man who had a demon-possessed son who frothed at the mouth and went rigid when the demon seized him. Jesus said in his indignation, “You unbelieving generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I endure you?” (Mk 9:19)

 

Why do you suppose Jesus felt frustration as Mary, Martha and the others wept? If we look at this from God’s perspective, we know that God’s good creation has been corrupted by human sinfulness. Sin separates us from God, the source of life. Sin ultimately brings death. Sin brings illness, tragedy, violence, suffering and death.

 

Death is speaking loudly in this story. The disciples are afraid to go to Jerusalem. They fear punishment and death from the religious leaders. Thomas said, “Let’s go to Bethany so we can die, too! Martha and Mary cannot conceive that Jesus might undo what death has done. In their minds, Death had spoken and there was nothing to be done but mourn their brother. Death is holding them captive. Jesus is sad, yes, AND he is frustrated with the power sin and death holds over God’s people.

 

But God is bringing new life and new creation to his sin-corrupted world. Jesus instructed them to roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. Martha objected. Lazarus has been dead for four days! The body will stink from decay. Jesus insisted that if she believed she would see the glory of God. Reluctantly, they opened the tomb. Jesus commanded with a loud shout, “Lazarus, Come out!”

 

Jews wrapped their dead like a mummy in linen bandages, from head to toe, and covered their face with a linen shroud. This was done as a means of respect for the dead. As Lazarus stood before them at the entrance of the tomb, bound from head to toe in burial cloth, Jesus instructed those near to unbind him. In other words, remove the cloths associated with death. Jesus set Lazarus free from death, because… where Jesus is, there is life. He is the resurrection. Jesus is life.

 

The thematic irony is thick here! Jesus is surrounded by the power of death. Lazarus died. His family and community weep and mourn. They, too, are victims of death. Jesus’ disciples are afraid to die. Martha and Mary could not hear Jesus’ words of hope and life. Their pain was too great. Their submission to death’s power overshadowed any faith in God’s ability. Death had spoken and that was final.

When Jesus said to unbind Lazarus, it is an invitation to all of us to be set free. It is a foreshadowing of what was coming on Easter Sunday morning, a new world in which death does not have the last word. Death is not the ultimate power. God is. And Jesus is life. Life speaks louder!

 

John’s gospel says, this is eternal life: to know the only true God and His son Jesus Christ, who The Father sent. (John 17:3) To know Jesus is to know life! It’s not simply knowing about God, but it is knowing the lifegiving, death conquering presence of Jesus Christ in our lives.

 

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well,

“Whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14) The Spirit within will become an overflowing spring bubbling up to eternal life!

 

On this All Saints Sunday, we honor our dead. Let us acknowledge that death does not have the last word. Our God has spoken in beautiful, wonderful words of life.

 

John on the Island of Patmos had a vision of the risen Lord Jesus and the Lord spoke to him saying,

 

“Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, and the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive—forever and ever—and I hold the keys of death and of Hades! (Rev 1:17b-18) He told his disciples in the Upper Room, “Because I live you shall live also.” (John 14:19)

 

Life speaks louder.

 

Let us now remember our Lord’s great sacrifice when Death was defeated. The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus entered the true temple, the throne room in heaven, and made atonement for all sins for all time by the shedding of his own blood.

 

Hebrews 2:14-15

Jesus shared in our humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.

 

Hear the good news! We are free, no longer living in fear of death but looking forward in lifegiving hope. Life speaks louder.