29 July 2020
Text: John 11:1-7, 17-44
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
The
three siblings from Bethany: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, were not only our Lord’s
disciples, but also His friends. He
often spent time at their home and dined with them. He once gave Mary and Martha a lesson once
about the “one thing” that is “necessary,” that is the “good portion” amid the
business of life and carrying out the tasks that need to be done, and that one
needful thing is to “[sit] at the Lord’s feet and [listen] to His teaching.” In other words, the most important service of
all is the Service of the Word of God. We
must not allow the busyness of this life to prevent us from hearing the Word of
God.
But
the most memorable incident in the life of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus was
recounted in our Gospel.
It
begins by a cryptic saying and a strange action of our Lord. For Lazarus had fallen sick. His sisters sent word to Jesus that His friend
Lazarus was ill. Our Lord’s response was
weird: “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of
God may be glorified through it.” When Jesus
said, “This illness does not lead to death,” Mary and Martha probably thought that
our Lord was telling them that Lazarus would simply get better in the usual way.
Imagine their shock when he died. And how can an illness – even a death from an
illness – lead to the glory of God?
There
is a prayer that is said by the pastor when anointing a sick person with oil,
that includes this confession: “We firmly believe that this illness is for the
glory of God, and that the Lord will both hear our prayer and work according to
His good and gracious will.”
But
illnesses are not glorious. They are a
manifestation of sin in our world, and they sometimes even lead to death. Suffering is not glorious. But the glory is not in the illness itself or
in death. The glory is in the Lord’s
good and gracious will that overcomes sickness and death. The sick person who has attended to the “one
thing that is necessary” and knows the account of Lazarus understands this.
In
addition to his odd words, the Lord acts in a way that seems strange and even
uncaring. Lazarus is clearly in dire
straits. His sisters are worried. But when Jesus “heard that Lazarus was ill, He
stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”
And
only then do our Lord and His disciples make their way to Bethany. And by the time they arrived, Lazarus had
died, and in fact, had been in the tomb for “four days.” Both Mary and Martha said to Jesus that if He
had come when they summoned Him, Lazarus would not have died.
St.
John doesn’t tell us if Mary and Martha were hurt, angry, or perplexed – but
no-one could blame them if it were the case. They called for their friend to come. He deliberately lingered, and said that the illness
would not lead to death. He said that it
was for God’s glory, and even for the glory of the Son of God. And yet, their beloved brother is dead. What more can be done now?
Interestingly,
our Lord speaks first with Martha, whom He had earlier scolded for being too
busy to pay attention to the Word of God. But notice her confession: “I know that he
will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Even in the midst of her confusion, possibly
her hurt or even anger, she confessed what she heard from Jesus – the great
confession from our creed: “The resurrection of the dead and the life of the
world to come.” She knew that this
promise applied to Lazarus. And on this
day, our Lord teaches Martha the “one thing that is necessary,” the promise of
the resurrection, saying: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though He die, yet
shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Our Lord then asks Martha directly, “Do you
believe this?”
The
answer to this question, dear friends, contains the power of life over death. For one can only say “Yes” with faith. To answer “Yes” to this question is to confess
Christ and His mercy, forgiveness, power, and the goodness of His will. It is to confess that death is temporary, and
to go out on a limb to believe that which sounds ridiculous. And Martha confessed, “Yes, Lord; I believe
that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” She confesses the divinity of Him who just
said, “Your brother will rise again.”
What
happened next, Mary and Martha could not have foreseen. They confessed Christ and the resurrection,
but how could they have known that the resurrection was here and now!
In
the midst of tears of mourning – His own included, Jesus went to the tomb – not
unlike how the other Marys would do on that first Easter morning which was soon
to come. At the tomb, there were
scoffers who said, “Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have
kept this man from dying?”
Our
Lord ignored the scoffers, and “deeply moved again, came to the tomb.” He commanded the stone be removed, in
defiance of the threat of the stench of death. For death has been undone by Him who would die
to destroy death. Jesus offers a prayer
in which He says, “I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this on account
of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent Me.”
And
so, in front of Mary and Martha, in the face of the scoffers, before angels and
archangels, and even in spite of the helpless screams of the demons and of Satan
Himself, the Word by which the universe was created, “cried out with a loud
voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’”
Obedient
to the Word, to the “one thing that is necessary,” the brother of Mary and Martha,
he whose name means “God is my help,” walked out of his own grave, still
wearing his now obsolete grave clothes. Our
Lord also commands, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Indeed,
this illness did not lead to death. It
was for the Father’s glory, the Son’s glory, and the sake of the bystanders –
and of all of us – that our Lord allowed Lazarus to die. He let Lazarus die to prove how impotent death
is in the face of Him who died so that we might live. And with Sts. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, we
confess the “one thing that is necessary, saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You
are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world,” and we too will
joyfully obey our Lord, our Friend, our Savior when He comes to our tombs,
crying out in a loud voice, “Come out,
” commanding that we be unbound and let
go, receiving the “good portion” of being reunited with our loved ones, leaving
behind empty tombs, even unto eternity. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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