Lazarus, Jr.

John 11:1-45 and Acts 20: 7-12

Even though it is the season of Lent, Jesus has come in the stories for today to raise the dead. He is on the side of life and through him, death shall be defeated. Are you ready to be raised from the dead? Does it seem to you that hearing two resurrection stories during this Lenten season of introspection on the suffering of our Lord and Savior, is a bit odd? Remember that the church gathers on the first day of the week, not on the Jewish Sabbath which is from sun down on Friday evening to sun down on Saturday evening. And why does it gather on Sunday? – because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday and you and I are resurrection Christians. Every Sunday should be a celebration of Easter, even when it is during the somber season of Lent.

In our story for today, Lazarus who is one of Jesus’ special friends along with his sisters, Mary and Martha has become very ill, even unto death. Jesus gets word of the impending death of Lazarus, but he cannot or chooses not to go until after he gets the word that Lazarus has died. Then by the time he arrives in Bethany, four days have passed. The Jewish people of Jesus’ time had a saying that the spirit of the dead hung around for three days just in case, it could re-enter the body and live again. However, by the fourth day, the body had so decayed that the spirit could no longer inhabit the body and it would leave. Therefore, after the fourth day, there was no hope. Jesus arrives on the fourth day.

Jesus goes to the tomb and in a voice loud enough to wake the dead, shouts, “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus appears and Jesus says, unbind him and let him go. Our translation says that the Jews were there to mourn with Mary and Martha. Apparently this family which lived only two miles from the Temple had many friends among the Temple priests and leaders of the Sanhedrin, the Council of religious leaders of the Jewish faith. So when you read Jews were there, you should assume that it meant the religious leaders of the Temple, not all the Jewish people. We can imagine that Mary and Martha, once they get over their shock are thrilled to have their brother back. But the religious leaders are not!

The raising of Lazarus is the final “sign” in John’s gospel. We call them miracles – but John refers to them as signs. Think of all Jesus’ miracles as signs pointing to Jesus as the Son of God / Messiah / Savior. In this gospel, his first sign is the turning of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana and his last sign the raising of Lazarus. The first sign brought joy to the wedding and his other signs/ miracles brought new life to those who were healed. However, this sign of the raising of Lazarus who has been dead for four days, doesn’t bring joy to the religious leaders. Ominous clouds begin to gather. Jesus, the giver of life, is marked for death. His disciple Thomas realized that before they started out for Bethany didn’t he? He said, “let us go to Jerusalem, so that we might die with him.” Other gospels suggest that it was Jesus’ anti establishment attitude, his conflicts with the Roman government and the Jewish religious authorities and his advocacy for the poor that landed Jesus in hot water with the religious authorities; but John claims that it was the raising of Lazarus from the dead that really got Jesus nailed to the cross!

In the gospel of Luke, (Luke 16:19-31) Jesus tells a story about a man named Lazarus who dies of poverty, sickness and hunger. A rich man who was never poor, sick or hungry a day of his life, also dies. When the rich man and Lazarus get to the after life, the rich man is surprised that he will be in hell and poor Lazarus is now in heaven even in the arms of Father Abraham. The rich man pleads with Father Abraham to please let Lazarus go back and warn all his brothers – his rich self satisfied rich relatives – warn them that this is the way things work out in the end for those who care only for themselves; change their ways, repent and do right by the poor. Father Abraham says, “forget it. If they won’t listen to the prophets, if they refuse to listen to the laws of Moses, what makes you think they would change even if a man like Lazarus or you came back from the dead!” In other words – you didn’t listen, why would they listen? This was a story that Jesus told, but the truthfulness of the story is verified here in the raising of Lazarus. Lazarus has come back from the dead, he is standing before them, he is a living sign, he is irrefutable proof of the life giving power of Jesus and what do the religious leaders say? Let’s kill Jesus!

One of the times I was in Israel, my son was with me. We were in the village of Bethany walking to a house which has been built over the site where Lazarus was called out of his tomb. I hadn’t noticed that Michael was with the group. As we went down the steps under the house, and gathered in the tiny room, we heard the tour guide say in a loud voice – Lazarus come out! My son, stepped out from behind a wall and there was a gasp in the room. We hadn’t been prepared for this. In our minds, Lazarus has been dead – dead for 2000 years and there isn’t supposed to be a dead man stepping out of the grave! There are many things that bind us – keep us from living a life that is constantly open to God. People sometimes say to me that they are in a desert or wilderness place and they cannot feel God or Jesus presence at all. We aren’t dead, of course, but it feels like we are headed toward a tomb. They express it as “God has left me. Nothing changes! I have no other options! You can’t teach an old dog new tricks! I’m burned out! I’m depressed! I can’t do anything more.” I’ve been there – I understand what they are feeling, but I also know that it isn’t God who has left, because God is steadfast in God’s love for us. It is we who have moved away from God. We, who are not listening. And perhaps, just perhaps, Jesus shouted outside the tomb, because we 21^st century believers, also needed to hear him say, “Lazarus come out! Unbind him or her and set them free!”

The sermon title comes from my noticing that one of the other scriptures for this Sunday is about a young man named Eutychus who falls asleep listening to a sermon by Paul. I read that his name means lucky, but since his name is difficult for me to pronounce, I decided to think of him as Lazarus Junior rather than lucky. This story reminds those who are living in the spirit and those who feel “dead in the spirit” as we gather in the church on any given Sunday; resurrection is the normal ordinary business of the church. We are a fellowship of believers in resurrection. We are people who understand that new life can come from dead lives. That just like the caterpillar who dies so that he can re-emerge as the beautiful butterfly – we can be called out of a life of death into a new life with Jesus.

Wil Willamon tells this great story about himself. He was preparing a special service for Holy Week that would intersperse readings and music by the choir. The organist in that church is in the balcony and although he can hear the preacher, he cannot see him at the pulpit. A couple of days before the service, Wil asked the Associate pastor to participate by alternating the speaking parts. He agreed to do so. Shortly after the Associate pastor began to speak, the organist was heard running down the steps. He came up to Wil, took a deep breath and said, am I glad you are alright. Alright? Asked Wil, whatever made you think I wasn’t. Well, he said, “I didn’t know the associate minister was helping you and so after you spoke and the choir sang, and I heard the associate speak, I assumed that you had collapsed and died and he took over your sermon.” Wil ends his story by saying that the church often expects to hear about death rather than new life.

In our story Paul, the great missionary arrives in Troas. “On the first day of the week – so on Sunday – we came to break bread, which is to share in communion.” They invited Paul to speak. We don’t know exactly what time he started speaking, but Luke says it was near midnight and he was still preaching. People were tired, they probably were hungry, the smoke from the lamps was irritating their eyes and this young man went to an open window to get some fresh air. Didn’t help, he started sinking into sleep again and this time, he fell out of the window and down three stories to the ground. Those who got to him first, said he was dead. Paul stops preaching, runs down to the boy, throws himself over the young man and declares that he is not dead, but still alive. Then he re-climbs the stairs and prepares to serve communion. And since people are still there, he starts preaching again and continues until dawn! Paul’s resurrection of this young boy seems to be just a minor incident in the story. Can’t you hear him? “don’t be alarmed, he is still alive, now as I was saying……..” Can’t you hear someone responding to the question – “how was church last night?” “It was fine; the preacher had some good points to make, but he went on a bit long. Lazarus Jr. died during the service but Paul raised him from the dead and church continued.”

Bishop Willamon tells of a Sunday when he was preaching a really good sermon and he saw lots of heads nodding in agreement as he made his points. The next day he looked at the video and was horrified to find that right when he was making what he thought was his strongest point, the camera person had the camera on a member of the choir who had fallen asleep! Willamon said it wouldn’t have been so bad, but she had her pillow and teddy bear with her!

Do you come here on Sunday expecting resurrection/ new life? You should. This Sunday, the Old Testament reading is the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of bones that came back to life as God’s spirit breathed new life into them. I’m preaching on that at 11:00 if you want to hang around or come back. If not, go home and read the 37^th chapter of Ezekiel and reflect on these three scriptures. God is shouting your name come out! God is calling you out of sin which leads to death into new life! God has sent his Son to say, “follow me” and his Holy Spirit to give you the courage to do just that. I can’t think of anything better to do than follow the one who brings me out of death and into new life. Amen!