I am the resurrection and the life

I am the resurrection and the life Isaiah 52: 13-15, John 11: 1-37 How often, I wonder, are people led to turn away from God when they feel that they've been let down in their expectations of him? When in some important situation in their life they've waited for the Lord to act in the way that they were certain he would act if, they reason, he truly were the living God who loves them, and he hasn't. And so we hear them say: "I lost my faith"... We think we know how God should behave... I remember when I was my early twenties attending a bible study which was also attended by a lady who'd proudly declare that her daughter, a young teenager who by the way never attended the bible study, had read the bible from start to finish on three occasions. It was to be understood, of course, that her daughter had got a good grasp on what the Bible, and therefore God, was all about. And I suppose it is tempting to feel, as we grow in our Christian faith, that we've achieved a pretty good understanding of the Lord and his ways. Well this this type of thinking also appears to have been the case for a number of those who we find in our gospel passage this morning. And to an extent they were right in their knowledge of Jesus. But then, as we'll discover, they also had much to learn. First we meet the sisters, Mary and Martha of Bethany. Luke chapter 10 verses 38 - 42 tells us how, when passing through Bethany with his disciples, Jesus had been invited into their home by Martha, the older of the two. And how, whilst he was teaching, Martha busied herself with all the preparations for the meal and became annoyed at her sister Mary who simply sat at Jesus' feet listening carefully to what he said, not helping at all. And you'll remember, perhaps, that Jesus told Martha that her sister had made the right choice. It was this same Mary who, verse 2 of our passage tells us, "was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair." And presumably John's readers are expected to have known about this incident because he doesn't actually record it until the next chapter, chapter 12, of his gospel. These two women, then, were very special to Jesus; underlined by John in verse 5 of our passage where he says: "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Lazarus then was the brother of Mary and Martha and, as Jesus who's with his disciples, is teaching the crowds on the other side of the river Jordan from Jerusalem and Bethany, a messenger comes to him to tell him that Lazarus is ill. It was a very simple message from the sisters: "Lord, the one you love is sick" they say. No, "Lord Lazarus is very ill, please come and heal him as quickly as possible". No, instead they just leave the matter in Jesus' hands ... he'll know the best thing to do, they can trust him. Although, as we read on, we realise that their trust wasn't as complete as it might seem at first to be. Yes they'd clear expectations of Jesus ... they believed implicitly in him. But they're assuming that he ought to respond to their request in a certain way. So that when he eventually gets to Bethany after their brother has been dead for four days they both say to Jesus in effect: "Why weren't you here? If only you had been he wouldn't have died". Jesus wasn't there. Though the fact is that he could never have got there in time anyway. It was most probably the case that Lazarus was dead even before the message of his illness came to Jesus ... and even then he'd have been about a day's walk from Bethany. However the fact remains that he hasn't behave in the way the sisters would have expected ... dropping everything and hurrying to them. No, instead verse 6 tells us that: "when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days." Jesus' disciples also think that they know Jesus' mind by now. They know that the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are out to get Jesus. And so when he stays where he is for those two days, after hearing of Lazarus' illness, well no doubt they feel that he's fully justified in doing so. After all Bethany is less than two miles from Jerusalem so going there will be tantamount to suicide ... A point that they put to Jesus when after those two days he tells them that they're going back to Judea. Oh they believe in him, they trust him, so that when they realise that there's to be no dissuading him Thomas speaks for them all when he says: "Let us also go, that we may die with him". But actually they don't understand, they aren't really convinced, you see, that he knows what he's doing. The last group we meet, who also feel that they've a clear understanding of Jesus, are the people who've gathered at the house of Mary and Martha to help them mourn the loss of Lazarus. They've probably heard that Jesus, the great teacher, has been sent for. So that when he's still on his way word quickly gets around and someone goes and reports the fact to Martha. And there'll have been a buzz amongst the people as he gets near because many of them will have seen his past miracles ... and those who haven't seen will have at least heard about them. Then, as Jesus weeps as he goes to the tomb, they're obviously impressed by his love and compassion, "See how he loved him!" they say. But then there's also disappointment with him. They'd expected more, and he's let them down. Lazarus was dead, so what was the point of this healer even being here? Anyway where's he been all this time? "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" they ask themselves. All three groups then, the sisters, the disciples, the crowd, believed that they knew Jesus and are disappointed that he hasn't acted in the ways that they felt he should in this context of illness, of suffering, of impending death. The sisters, then, say come and Jesus stays, the disciples say stay and Jesus goes, the crowd say, it makes no difference whether you come or go, you're too late anyway to do any good. Jesus' actions, in other words, challenge their understanding ... because he does stay for those extra two days and, as we read verses 5 and 6, we're left wondering, why? We're told that Jesus loves Martha and her sister and Lazarus and yet, as soon as he hears their urgent appeal, he stays where he is . Surely not a loving reaction from the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. A mystery ... until, that is, we look back to verse 4 where Jesus says: "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it." In other words Jesus has a higher purpose in staying for those two days. He's allowing the heart ache, the pain and suffering. Which no doubt he could prevent by simply saying the word and Lazarus will live ... much like he did for the son of the Royal official in John chapter 4, verse 50 for example. But he's allowing it, firstly for the sake of Lazarus and the sisters. So that they can be contributors in the process of God's Son being glorified so that the Father too might receive the glory. They can't see beyond their own immediate need but, in love for all three, Jesus is able to see the whole picture. His intention being to build them up in their faith, to enable them to perceive more clearly who he is, and so for them to have a much clearer understanding of him. Ah but, we say, that sounds a bit harsh. And the people whose understanding of Jesus and of God has never risen beyond the idealists view of the good and kind God whose love always feels wonderful, say "that can't be right". Yet this was how God the Son behaved in love. Because, as the commentator Bruce Milne has said: "Despite the massive propaganda to the contrary, our Lord's purpose for us is not to make us happy, but to make us holy. He loves us too much to leave us part saved, part-remade, part-sanctified." And then Jesus also allows the situation for the sake of his disciples. Saying to them: "Let us go;" as he makes them take a journey that they don't at all want to go on. He'll have realised that they were afraid because of their past experiences and knowledge of what might lie ahead. But, again, it's for their ultimate benefit and God's glory that he demands that they go. As he tells them plainly, verse 14: "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe." Jesus you see is training his disciples for the most important work that has ever been begun. They're to be his apostles, those who will take what they've learned from him to the world ... and they still have so much to understand. And so he waits until Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days, when there's no chance that there'll still be life within him, when the enemy death has assumed its fullest level of power, so that the miracle, when he performs it, will have the greatest impact. So that the greater will be the strengthening of his followers' faith and again, above all, the greater will be the glory going to his Father through it. Lastly Jesus allows the situation for the benefit of the mourners. They're surprised at Jesus' love but sceptical of the power of that love to make any difference to their lives and to the lives of those who they see to be in need ... in this instance Mary and Martha and the now dead Lazarus. And what Jesus goes on to do challenges this attitude. But then he knows, as he weeps there before them, that the truth is that many of them will shortly be calling out for his death in nearby Jerusalem. That what they see now, his raising of Lazarus from the dead, will have no effect at all on their understanding of him. However in verse 25 of chapter 11 Jesus speaks words to Martha that addressed the understanding of all three groups together, when he says: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." What he's saying is "death is so important to all of you, the disciples fear about their own death, Mary and Martha grieve deeply over the death of their brother, the crowd of mourners feel that death is inevitable and that no one can do anything about it". "But the reality", says Jesus in effect, "is that I have the power over death itself, something that I will prove when Lazarus rises from the dead and that I will prove supremely when I myself rise from the tomb." And now this life is offered to all; the life that was intended by God for mankind from the very beginning of time; such that, although our bodies will die and indeed are dying, those who believe, individuals who know the reality of repentance and forgiveness, will in fact never die. Instead, for such, it will be as victor Hugo wrote, "When I go down to the grave, I can say like so many others that I have finished my day's work; but I cannot say that I have finished my life. Another day's work will begin the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley - it is a thoroughfare. It closes with the twilight to open with the dawn." And yet one thing that becomes obvious, as we look at passages such as this one from John's gospel, is the mixture of belief and doubt that we find in Christ's followers there. And the same is the case today, indeed that's how it always will be this side of the grave. Because to paraphrase the 18th century philosopher, Francis Hutcheson "It is no uncommon thing to see men believing great things that are far off, and yet when it comes to dealing with present lesser issues their faith proves weak." So that, for instance, we're faced with God's delays and whilst we believe that he is fully in control of our lives and are sure of his eternal love for us, nevertheless we begin to doubt because things aren't happening in our time scale. Calvin speaks words of wisdom to us here when he says, "let believers learn to suspend their desires if God does not stretch out his hand to help as soon as they think necessity requires. Whatever may be His delays, He never sleeps, and never forgets his people." Or else we suffer and we convince ourselves that God doesn't care or that he's punishing us for some failure on our part forgetting "that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28. That, as JC Ryle has said, "God does not love to make his creatures suffer. But God sees there are lessons which mankind could not learn unless evil were permitted; therefore God permits it." Or perhaps we face a path in life that we don't want to go down, and that we shy away from, convincing ourselves that this isn't actually God's will for us. Or we go down the path, but we do so kicking and screaming, forgetting that God's plan is good and perfect and that in time we will experience his blessings. The fact is that we are imperfect but yet we do believe, as did Martha. Though nevertheless at times our belief wavers along with hers. But that's no reason to give up but rather simply the reason to ask, together with the Father who once pleaded with Jesus for his boy: Lord "help me overcome my unbelief." Because Jesus is indeed "the resurrection and the life;" such that "whoever lives and believes in (him) will never die". What wonderful news this is! So let's seek to treat suffering, treat delays, treat the often difficult paths before us, as did the apostle Paul ... that is by aspiring to the same attitude that he expresses in Philippians chapter 3 verse 10 when he says: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Amen