Sermon: Sts. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus - 2020

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.