I Was Dead, Now I Live - Lessons from Lazarus - John 11:1-7,17-44

Sermon Intro slide I Was Dead, Now I Live The Raising of Lazarus from the Dead Slide 1 A story of illness and death seems like a strange pick for times like these. Yes, this story has a happy ending … but Jesus did not raise every person who died within his sphere of influence back to life. All four gospels tell at least one story of Jesus raising someone from the dead, John uses this story of Lazarus to teach us more about life than death … and perhaps how to live in the face of sickness and death. One of the first things Mary and Martha did when their beloved brother fell ill was reach out to their best friend. Bethany is the town outside of Jerusalem where Jesus stayed whenever he came to Judea. John tells us the message the sisters send is that “the one you love is sick.” He speaks of Jesus own love for Martha, her sister and Lazarus. It’s apparent on Jesus’ face when he finally arrives, this family is special to him. In chapter 12, John tells us of a dinner at Mary and Martha’s house where Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet anointing them with oil while Martha prepares the food. The comfortable scene at dinner is one that probably had frequently happened as Jesus travelled through Judea. It was friends like these who sustained his ministry. Caring and providing for him and his disciples. Slide 2 John uses the Greek words philein in verse three and agapan in verse five both translated from the Greek into love. A lot of interpreters focus on the three different words Greeks used which we translate into love. • Eros, or erotic love, • philos or familial love, love of the familiar, family or friends and • agape love, self-sacrificing love, unconditional love, the kind of love we receive from God. There is a tendency sometime to rank them with agape being the most perfect. Slide 3 However, John uses forms of philos and agape interchangeably here and in other places in his gospel. The love of God is both self-sacrificing, as in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world …,” and familiar, as in Jesus words to his disciples “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV) Friendship is the essence of a relationship with Jesus. Slide 4 In the first epistle of John we are reminded; “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” (1 John 3:16). Slide 5 I think the first lesson from this scripture in these trouble times ask the questions • What are we doing for one another? • How are we reaching out? When we are sick, lonely, depressed do we send a message to our friends? That was Mary and Martha’s instinct when Lazarus became ill. They knew Jesus would want to know. I know we can’t get together with our friends in our current world of social distancing, but we can still text them, call them, or do a video chat. Sometimes you’ll hear about a friend who was in the hospital or just home sick for a while and you wish they had called you because you love them and want to be part of their comfort. Jesus and this family from Bethany needed each other. As we do. Now just because it was Mary and Martha that reached out with their need, doesn’t mean the responsibility is all theirs. Philos and agape love are inherently in relationship with each other, as we are. In John’s letter he stresses we are to show each other the kind of love Jesus showed us. Slide 6 Loneliness and depression increase dramatically in isolation and crisis. Our friends, our family, our brothers and sisters need us, and we can’t wait for them to send us a message. For some, that may be too late. Part of laying down our love for one another is giving up our time. On a typical Sunday you can see many friends and grow your relationship both before, during and after Sunday service. You might not see or talk to many of them for the rest of the week, but you are just as close the next Sunday. That fellowship time is no longer available to us. Slide 7 We all must take the time to reach out to each other in whatever ways are most comfortable for both parties, text, phone call, video chat. It’s an investment in our relationships and I know it takes more time to make ten phone calls and have ten conversations than you might typically spend in church on a Sunday morning. Yet, that’s what’s needed right now. With sickness and death growing larger around us day by day, we need each other more now than ever. It’s clear that Jesus, Mary, Martha and Lazarus were fast friends. John records Jesus later telling the disciples that they are his friends; and now we know that friendship is extended to all believers and extended within the family of God. Slide 8 Friendship is a way Jesus reveals God to us. Some of my colleagues are using this time of isolation to make plans for increasing participation in various small groups throughout the church once the social distancing has subsided. Activities we can do together as a church family to grow our friendships. Movie nights, dinner parties, game times, Saturday afternoon at the park, gardening projects and crafts we can work on together. The kind of close personal relationship God wants to have with us, that was exemplified in Jesus, is the kind of relationship God wants us to have with each other. To be friends. Best friends. We need to figure out how to foster this now. Because I fear the worst of this crisis is still to come. Slide 9 But wait there’s more. Jesus has more teaching to do with Martha and Mary and their friends from Bethany. Martha comes out running to greet Jesus as he was approaching town. She’s distraught because she knows Lazarus may not have died if Jesus had arrived sooner. When Jesus assures her that her brother will rise again, she thinks he is talking about the resurrection on the last day. Something most Jews at that time believed in. Slide 10 Jesus goes on teaching with one of his more well knows “I am” statements. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25b-26a NRSV) He then asks her a question that still calls out to us this very day: “Do you believe this?” Martha makes a declaration, much like Peter did when Jesus asked him. “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Slide 11 Who do you believe Jesus is? Lazarus’ being raised from the dead is clearly a precursor to Christ’ own death and resurrection. John says it is precisely this declaration by Jesus as the resurrection and the life, along with the testimony of Lazarus and the people who came to believe in Jesus because of this miracle, that cause the Pharisees to decide it’s time to have Jesus killed. By the way, they plot to kill Lazarus as well. Jesus says he is both the resurrection and the life. Yes, he will be there on the last day. and yes, there will be a resurrection on the last day. Slide 12 But for today Jesus is life. And as if to prove it, he raises Lazarus from the dead. The life Jesus calls us into is not for some distant future in heaven. He calls us into a life full of God’s love and friendship today. A life full of love and friendship with each other, today. Let’s make that happen for each other. Amen.