Easter 2020: The Funeral Where Death Died

Scripture

John 11:25–26 NIV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:38–44 NIV

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Pray.

Introduction

Why do we make such a big deal about Easter? I mean this is a lot. Months of planning.

You all look wonderful by the way, wearing your Easter best.

Butterfly releases, flower crosses, going to the park. family plans centered around it.

Turns out America does not really know what exactly to do with Easter.

Barna research a few years ago do a nationwide study of what people understood of Easter. Religious and non.

67% did tie it to something to do with a God

but only 42% could associate Easter with a belief in Jesus coming back to life

with some associating it with “the birth of Christ”, the “rebirth of Christ,” or “the second coming of Jesus.”

3% believed that it was a spring or pagan holiday.

And the study shows, that even regular church going individuals are unlikely to invite someone to Easter services

Director of the project, David Kinnaman, pointed out that

“most Americans continue to view the Easter holiday as a religious celebration, but many of them are not clear as to the underlying reason for the occasion. Perhaps most concerning, from the standpoint of church leaders, is that those who celebrate Easter because of the resurrection of Christ are not particularly likely to invite non-churched friends to worship, suggesting that their personal beliefs about Jesus have not yet translated into a sense of urgency for having spiritual conversations with their acquaintances.”

This is not to make anyone feel bad about all of this, but simply to acknowledge that the general understanding of Easter is lost. And within the church even among those who would consider Easter a celebration of Resurrection....questions must be asked:

Do we believe in the literal resurrection? Do we believe this is a wonderful story, or metaphor. Do we like this story like a hopeful fairytale. And if we do believe it, how has it shaped us?

The funeral where death died

This is one funeral I would have wanted to be at. Maybe not at first but this is an amazing scene. We have here. But dont miss it. It is a funeral.

grief

anger

sadness

blame

desperation

tears

food

This is a funeral. However, it is a funeral that frames something very important for us. I want you to see the participants…I think we might be able to find ourselves in the story.

Mary and Martha Grieving

First, the family is in desperate grief.

“If you had just been here...”

First Martha in verse 21

John 11:21 NIV

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Then Martha goes and fetches her sister, the teacher is here., 32....

John 11:32 NIV

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Have you ever been here? Almost blaming God? Knowing that your faith instructs one thing but experiences are not aligning.

Jesus has feelings too?

One of the things I love about Holy week is it reminds us that Jesus is human....He gets hurt like we do, he mourns, he weeps, he suffers.

The first thing we see from Jesus is some indignation, some frustration with what is happening.

NIV that we read is pretty watered down “deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” No, this word better denotes deep anger or rage.

Some read this that he is frustrated at the disbelief and the way they are missing what he is saying and the hope that they should have. Other’s say that he is angry at death.

I think it is a bit of both, but the latter grips me this morning. In the face of tragedy, he is angry that that this world is broken…an anger for his friends because look at the order of things here…

John 11:33–34 NIV

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

He is moved in anger and immediately asks…ok where is he?!

Then the very next verse, he cries. Jesus wept.

Jesus is angry at death, then weeping with grief… all because he has love for these friends.

I shared this quote last week....

T. F. Torrence: “There is no unknown God behind the back of Jesus.”

Suffering brings doubt

In the peripheral of the text there are these others that are present. They could be following Jesus around or likely they are people that have come to the funeral, we see that earlier in the text. We see them again in verse 37...

John 11:37 NIV

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

2 things about these people:

at the funerals in your life, at the low moments…there will be people that want to comfort you but do not believe in your God. They will not understand your hope in Jesus.

Some of you are looking for God to do something and he is up to so much more. In the previous chapter Jesus has healed a blind man and there is much dialogue there. They think to themselves…well if this were true, he could have made Lazarus well before he died....the irony is that, yes, in fact he could have spoken a word while many miles away…but he is about to give a mightier word across a much greater distance—between the living and the dead.

Into the doubts Jesus will bring resurrection.

Jesus walks with them to resurrection

With all of the grief, the tears, the doubts, Jesus walks with them to the tomb.

Tell the story:

again angered and determined, he goes to the tomb

take away the stone

they talk about a smell

Then Jesus says those words...

“Lazarus, come out.”

Just the mention of his name and breath fills his lungs:

In one word the distance of death is breached.

In one word the greatest loss is overcome

In one word their weeping turns to joy

In one word their grief turns to dancing

In one word the great “I Am” proclaims the greatest Exodus.

Friends, this is no magic trick. This is not simply a miracle on the level of the blind. This is the final “Sign” in the book of John because it is the one that shines brightest on what is coming. In just a few days Jesus was going to be rolled up in a grave similar to this. There was going to be mourning, grief, fear, desperation, there was going to be doubt.

“I am the resurrection” would not be held by the grave.

Easter is the place, as Ben Witherington puts it, “God’s YES to life is bigger than death’s NO.”

Jesus walking out of the tomb after three days.

This means that no one is bound by a grave any more.

It does not matter if it is 4 days like Lazarus or 40 years. Sin has no hold, death has no sting, a new light has dawned in the darkness. This is why Lazarus is not something to pass over too quickly…it is a promise for you today.

With one word he can bring healing

with one word he can call you to him

with one word he can deliver you from addiction

with one word he can break through your lonliness

with one word he can set you free

With one word he seals eternal life

Lazarus, COME OUT

Julie, Robert, Dan, Mike, Mary, Teresa, Tyrone,

Wherever you are today....come out. take off your grave clothes. you do not need them anymore.

Resurrection changes everything

Can I encourage you with a few things here?

Resurrection defines our identity

Resurrection defines our struggle

Jesus is walking with you

1. Resurrection defines our identity

The future promise that we too will be raised, that we too do not fear death, that we too have been raised, already in Christ… this defines our identity. The new testament, especially with Paul is going to talk about how resurrection hope separates us from the rest of the world. Look at Philippians 3

Philippians 3:18–21 NIV

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

“...left to ourselves we lapse into a kind of collusion with entrophy, acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse but that there's nothing much we can do about them. And we are wrong. Our task in the present...is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.” ― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

2. Resurrection defines our struggle

How we grieve, how we struggle, how we endure is all framed by this eternal promise.

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul distinguishes even the grief of believers and nonbelievers:

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 NIV

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

It is our power to endure and our promise at the other end of the struggle.

We have friends in our church that have a humanitarian and missional organization to Ukraine…providing care for at risk children and humanitarian aide. Obviously this has been trying time full of fear and isolation and the worst evil we could imagine. Still everyweek they receive pictures from their people worshipping and receiving communion together with smiles on their faces.

This week my friends sent me a video of a little girl that memorized Psalm 90 while she was hiding in a bomb shelter:

Psalm 90:1–2 NIV

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

(Picture)

Some say this is religious foolishness or a coping mechanism. No they are standing in the hope of resurrection and in that hope…nothing, not even death, will have the last word. Because they have encountered the funeral where death died.

Finally,

3. Jesus is walking with you

Jesus, the one who says “I am the resurrection” he is walking with you in tears, anger, desperation, doubts. He is walking with you to the resurrection. It is in that tension that we live. But I want you to see that Jesus is crying your tears on the way to your tomb, your anger he feels, your doubts he will embrace, but on this journey there is resurrection. There is life.

Some of us are still in the grave.

Some of us are walking in grave clothes.

Some of us have remained spectators of resurrection and have not given our life fully to this place

Some of us don’t know what to do with this “I am the resurrection.”

But our responses cannot negate the truth

and the funeral of death means life is available today. Hallelujah. He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.