The text for this meditation is written in the 11th Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1 - 53:
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of lMary and her sister Martha. 2 was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, v“Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb bfour days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to eJesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection Andy the life.Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, t“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was ba cave, and ca stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this ion account of the people standing around, jthat they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
Our experience as human beings deals in a world of measurement. A house has so many square metres of living space … it has so many rooms. A refrigerator has so many cubic feet of storage. A person is a certain height … has a certain eye colour … hair colour … weight. We even measure time. The house was built in 1945. The refrigerator was manufactured in 2015. The person was born in 1987. We are used to the idea that we can measure both things and people.
Measurements mean limits. In fact, measurements tell us where the limits are. If we say a box is 24cm x 24cm x 12cm we cannot put something that is 36cm long into that box. 36cm is beyond the limits of that box. We know the limits of the box because we have measured them.
We live in a world where we can measure everything … everything has limits. That is one of the challenges we have when God reveals Himself as one who has no limits … One who cannot be measured. It is very difficult to understand that when we say God is eternal, we mean that from God’s perspective, all time is “now.” When we say that God is omnipresent, we mean that, from God’s perspective, all places are “here.” God has no limits and that is very hard for our limited, human minds to understand.
Then, as though that weren’t enough, that limitless God decided to save us by taking on humanity into Himself. Now we have the one person, Jesus Christ, who is both 100 % God and 100% man. I, for one, am very thankful that God does not ask me to understand how this all works. Instead He asks me to believe that it is so, and He sends the Holy Spirit to give that belief to me.
Today’s Gospel tells us about people who placed limits on Jesus. Martha placed limits on Jesus. She said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Mary fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Some of the visitors who came to comfort Mary and Martha also said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Every one of these people put a limit on Jesus. They all believed that Jesus could have cured Lazarus when Lazarus was still alive, but, now that Lazarus is dead, there is no hope. They all believed that death was the limit. They all believed that death was the line where the power of Jesus came to an end. In a world of measurements … in a world of limits, they believed that Jesus could not overcome death.
Death is a universal experience. Different cultures have different ways of coping with death, but all cultures must deal with death in some way. Human experience teaches us that dead is dead. Once you are dead, there is nothing that can be done.
There can be any number of reasons that death comes. The immediate cause of death can be anything from accidental trauma to the failures of old age. In spite of the many different causes of death listed on death certificates, there is only one ultimate cause of death. The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, [Romans 5:12] Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Death spreads through sin. Do you want to know if someone is a sinner? Then wait around to see if they die. You would probably say to me 'oh come on', “Everyone dies!” Exactly! That is what the Holy Spirit teaches us through the words of the Apostle Paul.
The message faithfully preached from pulpits across the world focuses on law & gospel … repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The exception to this is the address at a funeral. This is a time to announce the good news that even though it was sin that ultimately was the cause of death, the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ reminds us that He was crucified for the forgiveness of our personal sins, and because he's rose from the grave and overcame death forever, we can rejoice, even in our personal grief, that the one for whom we grieve is with their Saviour even as we state sadly at the casket
The only proclamation that can overcome the human condition that ultimately leads to physical death is the proclamation of the man who stood at the entrance to the open tomb and cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” This is the proclamation of the man who calls out to the dead and the dead come back to life. This is the proclamation of the man who is also God and who has no limits. This is the proclamation of Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.
The one who called Lazarus from the grave tells us about Himself with these words: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” These are words that can overcome the proclamation of that dead body in that casket. These are words that give comfort in the face of death.
Sadly, not everyone trusts the proclamation of the one who raised Lazarus from the dead. Near the end of today’s Gospel, we heard that there were some who rejected Jesus and His message. Instead of rejoicing that Jesus even has the power to raise the dead, they were terrified. Their terror drove them to plot the death of the Lord of Life.
Yet, the Lord used even this evil group for His own purposes. As the Holy Spirit inspired John the Evangelist to describe this evil conspiracy, we hear these amazing words: Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. The God who has no limits put the very words of prophecy into the mouth of the leader of these evil conspirators.
The powers of evil thought they could conquer Jesus by putting Him to death. Instead, Jesus allowed them to kill Him and He used His death to conquer sin, death, and the power of the devil. He then demonstrated His victory by rising from the dead. Jesus demonstrated the ultimate power over death by allowing death to take Him and then returning life to His own lifeless body. That resurrection assures us that our death is not the end. Jesus has promised to return and raise all the dead. His resurrection assures us that He will keep that promise. Whether we are dead for four days, four years, or four thousand years, Jesus will raise us from the dead.
There is one great difference between the resurrection in today’s Gospel and the resurrection of the Last Day. Lazarus is no longer with us. He had to die again. When Jesus calls our bodies back to life on the Last Day, we shall never die again. On that day, all people shall rise with eternal bodies. We must be concerned for those who reject the gifts Jesus Christ gracefully bestows on us, we know that the Holy Scriptures condemn them, we can only commend them into God's loving hands with prayer for mercy. We can be sure however that those who have the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith will rise to live with Christ in eternal joy.
Each of us will face death many times in our lives. There will be the deaths of those we love, and, eventually, we will all face our own death. Take comfort in the confession of our loved ones that, before they died, they confessed their sin and their faith in the salvation earned by Jesus Christ on the cross. Take courage at the time of your own death that Jesus is the one who conquered death with His death and resurrection and He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. He has promised to raise us to eternal life. And He can keep His promises because He is the God without limits. Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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