John 11:17-27, 38-45 From the Depths to Life

John 11:17-27, 38-45 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

18Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 19Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.

20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary was sitting in the house.

21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day.”

25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. 26And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish. Do you believe this?”

27“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

38Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39“Take away the stone,” he said.

Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.”

40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone.

Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.”

45Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him.

From the Depths to Life

I.

We sang it not long ago as one of our readings. In hymn form we sang: “From depths of woe, Lord God, I cry; O hear my humble pleading! Listen in mercy to my sigh, my prayer for rescue heeding!” (CW 650 v1). It reads this way from the Psalm itself: “Out of the depths I have called to you, O LORD. 2Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the sound of my cry for mercy” (Psalm 130:1-2, EHV).

Lazarus, a dear friend of Jesus, had been on his deathbed. Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, some other dear friends of Jesus, had sent a messenger informing Jesus of his illness: “Lord, the one you love is sick!” (John 11:3, EHV).

That place Mary and Martha found themselves is not an unusual one, is it? If you haven’t been in such a situation yet, you will be one day. It’s the depths. The depths of woe, as Luther wrote in the hymn that was the Psalm.

There you stand beside a hospital bed, hovering over someone you love, wondering what the outcome will be. The outlook is grim. You know that sometimes people recover from such an illness or injury, but it isn’t a given—it doesn’t even happen all that often with the particular issue your loved one has. You feel helpless. The situation feels hopeless. “From depths of woe, Lord God, I cry.” Your prayers rise to the Lord from the depths of woe.

Though he was far from Mary and Martha and Lazarus in his hospital bed on death’s door, Jesus knew exactly what was going on. But there was an important lesson to be taught. “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed in the place where he was two more days” (John 11:5-6, EHV).

There you stand at your loved one’s bedside, praying. Asking for relief. Asking the Lord to come. “Out of the depths I have called to you, O LORD. 2Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the sound of my cry for mercy” (Psalm 130:1-2, EHV). There doesn’t seem to be any answer to your prayers. You wonder if God even hears you. “Lord, where are you?” That’s the way you feel.

All too often, the depths of woe from serious illness or injury do not lead to recovery. So it is that you find yourself standing at a graveside. The one you love is gone from this life; the one you hovered over in the hospital room is never to be seen on this earth again. You mourn.

“Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you’” (John 11:21-22, EHV). Martha’s grief is raw. “Where were you, Lord?” Or was there something even deeper? Mixed in with the emotions of Jesus not coming in time, perhaps Martha blamed herself for not sending the messenger sooner. If only her message had gone to Jesus earlier, he could have come more quickly to Lazarus’ hospital bed and resolved the whole situation.

Maybe you have stood right there with Martha in that situation, too. “What ifs” flood your thoughts. What if we had learned of the seriousness of the disease sooner? What if we had sought a different course of treatment? What if my prayers had been more fervent, or sooner?

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24Martha replied, ‘I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day’” (John 11:23-24, EHV). Unlike some in their day, Mary and Martha fully understood that they would see their brother again when all of us will be raised to life at the Last Dtay. So it is with you. After the “What ifs” have run their course, you draw at least some comfort from knowing that you will see your loved one again.

II.

“Jesus wept... 38Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it” (John 11:35, 38, EHV). Why? Why did Jesus cry at the death of Lazarus? Why was he deeply moved as he approached the tomb of his friend?

Sin’s curse touches everything. Even the sinless One feels the horror of death. His friend was still subject to death, just as everyone who had ever lived had been.

“‘Take away the stone,’ [Jesus] said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days’” (John 11:39, EHV). Four days—that was the magic number. Or, more appropriately, the tragic number. Jewish tradition said that the soul might linger for three days. At four days there was no loophole. There is no thought that maybe Lazarus was just in a coma and Jesus could bring him back. Lazarus was beyond the tragic number. His body had been prepared and put into the tomb. Mary and Martha were sure that his soul was well and truly gone now—off to wait for the resurrection at the Last Day.

As for now, decomposition surely had set in. Only the separation and the sorrow—and the smell—remain.

I’ve stood at many gravesides. Maybe you have, too. Martha said: “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day” (John 11:24, EHV). We know that, too. But standing there the simple fact of death hits home.

Jesus wept. Jesus was deeply moved as he stood outside that tomb near Bethany. He wept even though he knew what he was about to do. He was deeply moved even though he knew this very tomb would soon be empty. The wages of sin is death. The evidence of it is severe. Severe enough that the Son of God wept at the evidence of the wages of sin.

III.

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. 26And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:25-26, EHV).

He’s standing right beside a dead man’s grave, and he says this? “Whoever lives and believes in me will never perish”?

Look back a little further, to the beginning of these two verses. “I am the resurrection and the life.” Not, “I promise life later.” Not “I can arrange resurrection.” “I am.” Jesus makes you think all the way back to Moses standing next to the burning bush as he was being called into service by God. Moses wondered, who should he say had sent him to the people? What was this God’s Name? “So God replied to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ He also said, ‘You will say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14, EHV).

“I am the resurrection and the life.” The “I AM” God of Moses is exactly what we need. He is the resurrection and the life. He was standing right there with Mary and Martha, and he stands right there with us, saying exactly the same thing to us. The God of Moses is the resurrection and the life, and he is there for you.

Paul says in today’s Second Reading; “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit, who is dwelling in you” (Romans 8:11, EHV). The same Spirit who will make decaying bodies alive again is already living inside believers. It isn’t something far off in our futures, it’s right now.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. 26And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish” (John 11:25-26, EHV).

When you stand next to the grave of loved ones, you know: they still lives, even though they have died. In reality, they have not perished, just passed from this life into eternity with the Lord Jesus, their resurrection and their life.

IV.

“Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:43, EHV). Did some of those standing in the graveyard think Jesus was crazy, calling a dead man to come out of his grave? Maybe.

“The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth” (John 11:44, EHV). I wonder if Jesus hadn’t specified Lazarus by name if every grave in the cemetery would have emptied it’s dead. Only one man was called out of his grave, and immediately he appeared, the grave clothes still clinging to his body.

“Jesus told them, ‘Loose him and let him go’” (John 11:44, EHV). From the depths to life.

“Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him” (John 11:45, EHV). It was only a matter of days until Holy Week began. Some of these same people witnessing Jesus’ miracle would soon shout “Hosanna.” Then, only a few days after that: “Crucify him!”

Jesus knew what was to come, but he went willingly to the cross anyway. His own tears and pain and suffering there making certain our empty tombs.

“Lazarus, come out!” From the depths to life. You have already heard that same call—“come out!” The Holy Spirit has worked faith in your heart. Each week you hear the voice of the Savior in the Absolution in our service, the Great I Am, pronouncing your forgiveness because he has won life for you.

To be sure, for now we still wait with creation for that Last Day Martha mentioned. We still weep over our losses, but not as those with no hope. We know that the shadows of the Lenten season lead to Easter light. Jesus wept so that he could give exactly what you need: life. Life in him. Death’s depths cannot hold what his voice has called forth. Amen.