St John's UCC Boonville
The church, like a lot of churches, was in desperate need of funds. So the pastor decided to hold a series of sermons on how God still works miracles even today, to try to pump the people up and encourage them to give more. He went to his deacons with the plans, and one of them was skeptical. After the meeting, he went home and told his wife, “Yeah, that preacher claimed that if I gave him a $1000 for the church, he’d show me a miracle. So I gave it to him, and he said, ‘There it is!’”
Today we want to talk about the story of Lazarus. Why? Because it’s a miracle story that applies to us today.
Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus, along with his sisters Martha and Mary. He could relax with them. He stopped by their home a lot when He was traveling through that region. He was so close to them, that when Lazarus fell ill, the only message that was sent to Jesus was a simple, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” That’s all they needed to say. By the time the message arrived, Jesus knew that Lazarus was already dead. So He stayed where He was for two more days, then He headed on down the road to Bethany to meet with the family. He wasn’t in danger of missing the funeral, because in those days, Jewish funerals lasted ten days. You had three days of just excruciating mourning, followed by four days of relatively intense mourning, and then followed by three days of more moderate mourning. So, Jesus knew if He got there the third or fourth day, the funeral would still be in full swing.
As He got close to the village, Martha got word that He was coming and she went out to the edge of town to meet Him. And she comes to Jesus the same way that most of us come to Him. She comes with her “if onlys.” “Jesus, if only you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” And Jesus says, “Martha, your brother will live.” And Martha says, “Oh, I know ... I know he’s going to live at that last day when the resurrection takes place.” Jesus says, “Martha, the resurrection is not an event. The resurrection is a Person. I’m the Resurrection and the Life! Anybody who believes in me, even though he dies, will live! In fact, he’ll never really die at all! Do you believe this?” And Jesus’ words spark something in Martha and she says, “Yeah, I do believe that. I believe that You are the One who came from God.” That’s all the faith Jesus wanted to work His miracle. But He wanted to talk to Mary, too.
Mary gets word that Jesus wants to see her. She comes out, and she is followed by a whole crowd of mourners. This is an interesting group of people. Some of them are family and friends who are legitimately grieving the death of Lazarus. Others of them are just the kind of people who jump on the bandwagon whenever there’s a funeral, kind of professional mourners. Mary goes up to Jesus, and she’s a little more demonstrative than her sister ... she falls down at Jesus’ feet, and weeps, and says the same words as Martha, “Jesus, if only You had been here, my brother wouldn’t be dead.”
Now, catch this. When Martha came to Jesus, Jesus struck some sort of spark within her; a little bit of faith. But when Mary came to Jesus with her “if only”, she struck a spark in Jesus. Because when she fell down weeping with her “if only” and Jesus saw the mob of mourners following her, something broke lose inside of Him. The Bible says He was deeply moved, and troubled in His spirit. Something broke lose inside of Him and He shuddered to the core of His soul. And the Bible says that Jesus wept. Tears come pouring down His face. And He says, “Show me where he is. Where’s the tomb?”
And they take Him to the tomb, with its big boulder blocking the entrance. And He calls out, “Take that stone away!” The people object, at first, but with a little prodding they roll the stone away, and Jesus calls out, “Lazarus! Come forth!” And the mummy appears at the door. Then Jesus says, “Loosen, and let him go.”
How does Jesus deal with dead things? Jesus embraces them with tears. There’s a verse in the Bible that goes like this: “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) That’s all there is to it. Some of you may have already memorized that verse. Because you know that out of the 31,173 verses of the Bible, that’s the shortest. What you really want to know is this: Jesus weeping is not a trivial matter. There’s something very significant about the fact that Jesus wept.
I’m amazed by it. First I’m amazed at the depth of the weeping, because the Bible says that something broke lose in Jesus’ soul and He was deeply moved and troubled in His spirit. The words carry with them the added meaning of anger and rage. Something inside of Jesus flared up when He saw His close friend weeping and this crowd of mourners wailing. He said, “This is not the way it’s supposed to be! These people are in despair, they’re grieving, and this is not the way I made life to be!” He raged against that grief. He raged against that loss. But on the outside, He breaks into tears. He enters into the pain of these people. He feels it ... knowing full well that not five minutes into the future He’s going to raise this guy to life, and the funeral is going to turn into a party! And yet Jesus, not with the false pietistic grief that these other mourners are showing, but with true, legitimate tears, enters into the sisters’ grief. That’s amazing!
Years ago I went down to my little church early one Sunday morning to get ready for the worship service. As I walked through the basement checking the toilets and sinks, I was surprised by a church member looking for me. He and his wife lived right across the street from the church. I said in my typically joyful fashion, “Hey, Kevin! You scared the you know what out of me! What’s up?” He looked at me with red and swollen eyes, and said quietly, “My baby’s dead.” His 22 year old daughter had just been killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver.
If you’ve ever been a part of sharing grief with a person like that, you see the total person just ... break down. You just see the life run right out of the person. And there was rage and anger and pain. This is not how life is supposed to be!
As I went through that experience with him and his family ... helping him pick out a coffin ... gathering her belongings out of the crushed car ... standing before the many family and friends who came for the funeral ... the thing that bothered me the most, was that I didn’t know how to really enter into that. I hurt for them ... but I didn’t rage. I suffered with them ... but I didn’t know how to truly weep as they did. But Jesus does. And He embraces it with the same anger and the same anguish that you feel.
For some of you ... that’s all you need to hear today. You came in here with a whole truckload of dead things in your life, and you wonder, “Is there any person, anywhere, God included, who cares about what I’m going through?” Let me tell you ... there is. Jesus embraces those dead things with the same anger and the same anguish that you feel. And the Good News is that He doesn’t stop there.
How does Jesus deal with dead things? Jesus exposes them for a purpose. He exposes them for a purpose. He says, “Take away the stone!”
Now when Jesus gives that command, Martha’s sense of propriety kicks in, and she says, “Hey, wait a second. He’s been in there four days.” Now, that’s significant because Jewish folk lore said that when a person died, the spirit hovered around the body for up to three days. If there’s going to be any kind of miracle ... any kind of resurrection ... it’s going to take place inside of three days. After three days, forget it! The spirit moves on, and it’s gone forever. And besides that, you know that if you leave a dead body lying around it starts to smell. And that’s what she’s concerned about. “Jesus, bear in mind that he’s been in there four days.” In the King James it says, “Lord, he stinketh!” Yuck! You don’t pull the stone away from old dead things like that! But Jesus understands that for dead things to be exposed to light, they’ve got to be opened up. You’ve got to take the stone away and face them for what they are. Then they can be dealt with. That’s what Christian counseling is all about. Taking all those old hurts and failures and frustrations that are festering within us and making life stink; bringing those old dead things out and exposing them and facing them and dealing with them. Jesus exposes the dead things in our lives for a purpose; so we can face them, and deal with them.
How does Jesus deal with dead things? Jesus exhibits His glory in them. This is the purpose of the entire situation. When the news first came to Jesus of Lazarus’ illness, He said, “This sickness will not end in death.” He didn’t say it wouldn’t go through death; He said it wouldn’t end there. He said, “This is all happening for the glory of God. This whole situation is taking place so that the glory of God can be displayed.”
When He approached the tomb, He said, “Take the stone away.” Martha objected. He said this: “Martha, didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you’d see the glory of God? Take the stone away.” Then He calls out, “Lazarus, come forth!” He actually doesn’t say that. What He really says is, “Lazarus, here!” Exhibit A to the glory of God! The dead man lives!
Now, often, Jesus loves to exhibit His glory by resurrecting things; by healing things. He loves to resurrect dying relationships and dead hopes and dreams. He loves to heal people physically and emotionally. But He doesn’t always do that. We want to understand this. One of the things that Jesus is guaranteed to do when we bring Him our dead things, He’s guaranteed to exhibit His glory in them. But, it’s His prerogative on how He does it. And just as often, Jesus chooses to exhibit His glory by giving us the strength and the perseverance and the courage to bear the load of that dead thing and live with it, deal with it, to bear up under it. Either way, it’s His choice.
There was a young man, living in Rumania , named Petrasure. Petrasure who suffered from an inexplicable affliction that slowly destroyed the muscle actions of his body. It started in his feet, moved up to his legs, leaving him paralyzed from the waste down. Then it moved up his chest and afflicted his diaphragm, making it impossible for him to breath on his own. His parents and friends in the tiny village managed to scrap together $10,000 to buy an iron lung from England . But when it arrived, they discovered that the Rumanian soldiers had stripped it of all its usable parts. So his parents took shifts, 22 hours a day, pressing on his chest so that he could breath.
For two hours a day, Petrasure was strong enough and awake enough to sit up on his own, and while he did, he pressed his belly against a metal bar, forcing his diaphragm to work. And he prayed. Not for himself and for a cure of his affliction, but for his parents, his church, his village. And the love of God was huge in his life! The people of the village were inspired by Petrasure and his family. They came to his house at least once a week to pray with him; not so much for him, but just to pray with him. Because they loved to hear him pray. He could only get out about two or three words at a time as he rocked back and forth. But they loved to hear him pray. And they said, “The glory of God just flows through this man’s broken body and the words of his prayers.” Jesus Christ has proven Himself huge and weighty in this family. Nobody’s seen this kind of love before, this kind of perseverance and endurance, this kind of grace and selflessness that enables a person to pray for the two hours a day that he’s awake, and not wallow in self pity.
That’s what Jesus does when we bring Him our dead things. He either resurrects them, or He gives us the perseverance to bear up under them.
What Jesus does with our dead things; He engulfs them with love. Those are sweet words to me, when that mummy appears at the opening of the cave, and Jesus says, “Loosen and let him go.” Unwrap that guy. Let’s remove anything that reminds us of the death that was here. Let’s fully restore this man. And it’s instructive here that Jesus Himself doesn’t loose and let Lazarus go. And He doesn’t say to Lazarus, “Loose yourself and let yourself go.” He says to the people around Him, “Loosen and let him go.”
This illustrates a principle of the Kingdom. Restoration takes place in relationship. You get people around you to restore you and to bring you back to wholeness. We were never meant to be restored through self-help. It’s not a personal individual kind of thing ... it’s a community thing.
You see, what Jesus wants to do with your dead things ... He wants to engulf them with love. He wants to fill you with His presence on the inside and surround you with His people on the outside. And then, you are really living! Then you are restored.
Finally, what Jesus does with our dead things ...
Jesus expects them to really live. He expects them to really live. When He’s gone to all this trouble to embrace them and expose them and to exhibit His glory in them and to engulf them with His love ... He expects them to really live.
John 20:31 says, “I have written these things so that you may believe in Jesus, and by believing in Him, have life.” The words “believe” and “live” are used in the Gospel of John more than any other book of the Bible. Here's a few examples.
“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)
“Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it.” (John 5:21)
“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48)
“Whoever believes in Me, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:38)
“I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10
“I am the resurrection and the life ... do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
Back in 1983, Al Michaels screamed through our TV sets, “Do you believe in miracles?” And we did. Because we had just watched a scrub group of US college kids defeat the mighty, powerful, unbeatable Soviet hockey team in the Olympics. Who would have “thunk” it? Nobody. That’s why Al screamed out, “Do you believe in miracles?” And we did, because we saw one right before our very eyes.
Today, Jesus asks, “Do you believe in miracles?” And, more importantly, do you believe in the Miracle Worker? If you do, believe ... and live! That’s what He wants you to do. Maybe you’ve come here with the deepest kind of dead thing ... a dead soul. Jesus invites you to put your faith and belief in Him ... and live.
Let’s pray:
Jesus, it’s such a wonder that You know how to weep with us, that You know how to embrace our pains. And I wonder, with awe, at your hugeness; your glory fills my heart and the lives of these, your people. You engulf us with your love, and you show us how to live a brand new life. I want to pray for those who come with a dead heart and soul. May they hear your voice inviting them to put their trust and faith in you, and belief ... and then live that new life you give us. Lord, resurrect our hearts. And those of us who deal with the dead things of discouragement and pain, help us to roll the stone away and expose them to you, that you may bring them back to life again, and give us hope. All for your glory and honor.
And the people said, “Amen.”
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