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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Much like last week’s lengthy Gospel Reading of John chapter 9 about Jesus’s giving sight to the man blind from birth in order to display the works of God (John 9:1-41), today’s lengthy Gospel Reading from John chapter 11 is about Jesus’s raising Lazarus from the dead so that the Son of God may be glorified. Moreover, “Light” and “day” are featured in both Readings; some of those who observed Lazarus’s resurrection may well have been aware of Jesus’s opening the eyes of the man blind from birth; and Jesus’s Divine origin and His identity as the Christ are central to St. John’s accounts of both miracles. However, this morning, we consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Lazarus’s, Jesus’s, and Our Resurrections”.
To be sure, today’s Gospel Reading as we heard it may have seemed problematic in a number of ways. For example, St. John refers to Mary’s having anointed the Lord with ointment and having wiped His feet with her hair, but, in fact, at this point in St. John’s account, those things had not yet happened, they were still in the future (John 12:1-7), although they certainly were in the past by the time St. John wrote about them. Then, Jesus says Lazarus’s illness would not lead to death, when, in fact, Lazarus did die, at least for a time, although in view of the miracle, the illness did not lead to death. Then, St. John says Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, “so” He stayed two days longer in the place where He was when He heard that Lazarus was ill; if we loved someone who was ill, I think most of us would get to them as soon as we could. Then, the disciples completely misunderstand what Jesus says to them about Lazarus’s “sleeping”. Some of our “problems” with the Reading are more easily resolved than others!
As I this past week studied and meditated on today’s Gospel Reading in preparing to preach on it this morning, and as I shared it with some of our shut-ins at their homes and in the weekly service at the Willows of Kilgore, I especially considered Martha and Mary’s nearly identical initial statements to the Lord that, if He had been there, then their brother would not have died. Martha and Mary certainly had some sort of faith in Jesus. Unlike what St. Luke is taken to report in his account (Luke 10:38-42), perhaps in this case it is Martha who has a greater appreciation of Jesus; for, she does not seem to think that even Lazarus’s death settles the matter, she believes in the resurrection on the Last Day (maybe even on the basis of passages such as today’s Old Testament Reading [Ezekiel 37:1-14]), and, although perhaps only after Jesus’s greater revelation of Himself, Martha makes a confession of faith in Jesus just like Peter’s earlier notable confession in the district of Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13-17). Regardless, Jesus did not have to have “been there” in order to have kept Lazarus from dying, of course, nor did Jesus, Who is Himself God, have to depend on the Father to give Him anything. Moreover, both Martha and Mary essentially blame Jesus for Lazarus’s death, arguably accusing Him of not acting to save Lazarus when He could have.
How like Martha and Mary are we? When something that we perceive as bad happens, do we also not often tell the Lord He could have done things differently if He wanted to (as if He is not well aware of that)? Do we also not often “give” the Lord another opportunity to “fix” what we think He did “wrong” the first time? Do we also not often accuse the Lord of abandoning us if what we think should have happened does not happen eventually? Whether or not we all sin in these ways, we sin in countless other ways, for, like Martha, Mary, and also Lazarus, we are sinful by nature and, on account of our sins, apart from repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, we deserve both death now in time and torment eternally in hell. But, as Jesus gently led Martha to greater faith (Nocent, 2:118), so Jesus calls and so enables us to repentance and faith in Him.
In today’s Gospel Reading, St. John tells us that, as Jesus intended, many of the Jews who saw what He did believed in Him, but, in the verses that follow today’s Gospel Reading (which are an optional expansion of the Reading [John 11:46-53]), St. John goes on to record that others went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. That report caused the council to consider what to do in order to prevent everyone from believing in Him. In that context, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, seemingly unaware of the meaning of his own words, prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation and to gather into one the children of God scattered abroad. Nevertheless, the council made plans to put to death Jesus, Who was God in human flesh, and so Who could weep in sympathy with those grieving and over the sin that ultimately caused their grief. The Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 430) links the Jewish leader’s “rage and spite” to the “sweet injuries” of Jesus’s making the lame to run and giving the blind their sight, and there is obviously some truth in that connection to their motivation. Of course, the reason that Jesus permitted Himself to be crucified on the cross is His love for the world and desire to save all people from their sin, including us. As other Lenten hymns point out, we and our sin caused His crucifixion (for example, LSB 440:3). But, the cross is not where the “story” ends! Lazarus’s resurrection leads not only to Jesus’s crucifixion, but Lazarus’s resurrection also leads to Jesus’s resurrection and to our resurrections! As Jesus told Martha, He is the resurrection and the life (at a minimum, He is the cause of our resurrection and life); all those who believe in Jesus, though they die in this life, will yet live eternally, and those who believe in Jesus and do not die before His return on the Last Day will never die. When we repent of our sin and so believe in Jesus, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our sin of telling Him that He could or should have done things differently; God forgives our sin of giving Him other opportunities to “fix” what we think of as His “mistakes”; God forgives our sin of accusing Him of abandoning us, and God forgives whatever else our sin might be. God forgives all our sin, for Jesus’s sake.
Earlier in St. John’s Gospel account Jesus said, Whoever hears My word and believes Him Who sent Me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but he has passed from death to life (John 5:24). Jesus’s Word in all its forms is the means by which we receive the forgiveness of sins and the life and salvation that come with the forgiveness of sins. Especially through that Word with water in Holy Baptism, we are connected with Jesus’s death and resurrection and so guaranteed our own resurrection like His (Romans 6:1-8; Colossians 2:11‑12). As we at the Font experience our “resurrections” from our spiritual death, we have no more role in our own salvation, than Lazarus had a role in his own resurrection (Pieper, II:472). God similarly works alone with His Word through our pastors’ individually absolving us of the sins that we know and feel in our hearts and so privately confess to them. And, although He does not have to be present in order to bless us, our Lord Jesus nevertheless is really, physically present here with us in the Sacrament of the Altar, in bread that is His Body given for us and in wine that is His Blood shed for us, in order to bless us with the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
Despite what we at first might regard as “problems” with today’s Gospel Reading, we have considered “Lazarus’s, Jesus’s, and Our Resurrections”. We realize that God is always present with us generally and present with us particularly in His Word and Sacraments, through which He creates and sustains faith in us, transforming us as today’s Epistle Reading described (Romans 8:1-11). Repenting and believing in Him Who is so present, we also trust that whatever He permits us to face and endure in this life He ultimately will use for our good. And, we know that, on the Last Day, He will raise us and all the dead and give eternal life to us and to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true! (Small Catechism II:6; confer Yeager, 28.)
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +