Lent 5 A
He doesn’t Answer to Death
John 11:38ff
6 April 2014 – Redeemer
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Mary, Martha, and Lazarus answered to death. It ordered their lives and numbered their days. When Lazarus fell sick there was nothing they could do. If there would have been a Health Plaza in Jerusalem they would have loaded him on the Gold Cross ox cart and hustled him into the big city. Whatever it costs. Keep him alive.
We all know how sickness and death drive us.. I weigh a $500 decision very thoroughly, except when it comes to my health or my family’s health. If the doctor says , “She needs an MRI.” I say, “Fine.” X-rays? Take all you want. I have never had a doctor ask me if I can afford it or tell me how much the test actually costs. That’s because he knows me well. He knows you well. We’re afraid of death. We don’t want to suffer and we don’t want to die. We’ll spend all we have to live, but when death calls we go, maybe to the hospital, but always to the cemetery.
We answer to death because of sin. St. Paul says so in today’s Epistle, “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die.” (Rom 8:13a). Ezekiel in the Old Testament sees a vision of Israel in which God’s people are a valley of dry bones. God’s children looked for life in places and pleasures instead of in the Lord. They sought life and freedom from sin and death in their own desires, instead of in the Lord’s Word. They ended up in captivity, dying, dry-boned, slain by their own sin. We don’t answer to death because of clogging arteries and cancerous growths. We answer to death because we are born sinful. We answer to death because we we decided to be Lord of our own lives. By sin we took over for the Lord of life and all we can produce apart from Him is death. We don’t want to answer to death, but because of our sin we also don’t want to listen to God’s answer. Therefore we run around looking for real life, until we exhaust ourselves and then expire.
Jesus doesn’t answer to death. Mary and Martha knew there was a way out of death for Lazarus – Jesus. He had been to their house. He loved Lazarus. He was only two miles away in Jerusalem. The sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” (vs. 3) What would Jesus do? He’d come running. Right? Because He loves Lazarus. He cares about this family. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. (vs. 6). We don’t know what Jesus was doing. For all we know Jesus took a couple days off. Maybe he went ice fishing for the last time or went to a new car show. You can bet that didn’t make Mary and Martha too happy. What would they have thought? Aren’t we important to Jesus? Doesn’t He love us? Doesn’t He know that Lazarus is our provider? He’s only two miles away. Why isn’t he coming?
I’m surprised Mary and Martha didn’t start looking for another savior. Learn from Mary and Martha. They believed, even when they didn’t see. They trusted in Jesus, even when it felt like He didn’t care, even when they were staring death in the face. But most importantly, learn from Jesus. Jesus doesn’t answer to death. Death isn’t going to set His schedule or order His days. He doesn’t come running when death calls. He stayed where He was two more days.
When Jesus finally got there Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. (17) Mary and Martha vent, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Lazarus answered to death. Mary and Martha’s lives forever marked by this death. Their income and livelihood died with their brother. Jesus shows up but it’s too late. Lazarus is dead. St. John uses a Greek Word that in English would sound something like, “he died and he was dead.” It doesn’t get much worse than that, but remember Jesus doesn’t answer to death.
Jesus hates death. Jesus wept when He saw the tomb of His friend Lazarus, because He cannot stand to see us die. Death isn’t part of His plan. Enough was enough for the Resurrection and the Life. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But Lord,” said Martha, “by this time there is a bad odor.” In the King James Martha said, “But Lord, he stinketh.” Death stinks. But Jesus doesn’t answer to death. Some stinking corpse isn’t going to stop Him. “Lazarus, come out.” The man who died and was dead 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.” Death didn’t set the course of events that day. Jesus did. The stench of death gave way to the sweetness of life. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus no longer answered to death, because death had to answer to Jesus — the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus now ordered their days and by faith in Him they knew that even though they would die, yet in Christ they would live.
When death answered to Jesus, many people put their faith in Him. That’s the way it should be. People should run a hundred miles to get to Jesus, even in snowstorm, even when there’s a car show, even if the Twins were winning, even on a nice summer morning when the fishing is good. You would think that nothing would stop us from hearing the Word of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. But even as they were unwrapping Lazarus and letting him go, many did not believe. In fact this was the final straw for the chief priests and the Pharisees. This convinced them that the answer to their problem was to put Jesus to death.
Why did they want to put Jesus to death? Why does the hospital have patients willing to drop thousands every visit, while the voice of Jesus draws only a small percentage of people to church? Why? Because we fear death and we try to answer it on our own, with the best of our knowledge, ideas, and tricks. The religious leaders believed life was found in their power and their nation. They thought Jesus was a threat to their way of life so He had to die. What’s your way of life? What has you all wrapped up like Lazarus? What are you afraid to lose like the Pharisees? Your health, Your finances, your control over others, your Minnesota dream of a big house with a three stall garage and all the toys, your health. Where’s all that going to get you? No farther than the hospital and then the cemetery. When death calls you will go – no choice, no detour, you will answer.
Learn from this 11th chapter of Saint John. Everyone answers to death, except Jesus. Death didn’t call the shots with Him. Death didn’t have its way with Jesus. Jesus has His way with death. Lazarus is called out of the tomb and set free from his grave clothes, because shortly, Jesus would be bound up with our sin, die death for us and be placed in our tomb. Death can only hold a sinner. It couldn’t hold Jesus because His death has taken away sin. Three days later He came out, unbound not only from the grave clothes, but from sin and death. By faith in Jesus’, death couldn’t hold Lazarus and it can’t hold you. Are you bound up in yourself? Is the prospect of answering to death suffocating you? Then hear the Word of Jesus, “Come out! Unbind him! Let him go!” Hear the word of Jesus, “Your sins are forgiven.” You don’t have to answer to death, for death answers to Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. Death answers, Death cowers, and Death gives up its dead in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
5 April 2014 anno Domini