Emptying Tombs

So there was this little boy who brought his pet turtle to his dad. (By the way, I have it from a reliable source (the Internet), that this is a true story.) A little boy brought his pet turtle to his dad with tears streaming down his face and said, “Dad, my turtle died.”

The father looked down at the turtle and, sure enough, it looked dead. He saw his son’s tears and he tried to console him. “Well, Tommy.” (I don’t know what the little boy’s name was but most reliable stories on the Internet have little boys named Tommy.) “Well, Tommy, maybe we can give him a funeral.”

“What’s that?” said Tommy.

“A funeral. When someone dies there’s often a funeral. It’s a time to give thanks for the person or pet that’s died and to pray to God for comfort and for the one who has died. We could invite all of your friends over and then afterwards maybe we could have a reception.”

“What’s that?” said Tommy.

“A reception. It’s kind of like a party. We could have ice cream and tell stories.”

Tommy’s tears were beginning to dry. He kind of liked the idea of doing a funeral for the turtle. Then something totally unexpected happened. While both of them were looking at the turtle, it started to move. It wasn’t dead at all. Tommy looked up at his dad and said, in all sincerity, “Let’s kill it.”

What I want to say to you today is that I’m afraid that we’re afraid of living. It’s not that we’re afraid of dying. Anybody could tell you about how we approach death. What I want to talk about today is how we’re afraid of living. And if you don’t leave here today convicted that we’ve got some life-giving, tomb-emptying work to do, then I haven’t done my job. We’re going to go meet Jesus again in our gospel story today and the Jesus we’re going to meet has no patience for death and for those who accept it as the last word. The Jesus we’re going to meet today is all about life.

So let me take you back to the Bible…back to the story of Lazarus. This is a story of death and life. It’s the story of people who love Jesus, who follow Jesus, who claim to know what he’s about and where he’s headed, but who really don’t get it. Because it’s also the story of people who in the end think that death is stronger than Jesus. Even those who follow Jesus have a hard time believing that he really does bring life in the midst of the death. So what happens is totally unexpected.

Lazarus was sick. That’s where the story starts. Lazarus was deathly ill. He lived in Bethany with Mary and Martha, his sisters. Evidently they had a very close relationship with Jesus. They sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is ill.” “Surely,” they must have thought, “Jesus can do something.” He had fed the thousands. He had given sight to the blind. Surely he could heal his friend.

But when he gets the word, Jesus doesn’t drop everything and go. He and the disciples had fled from Jerusalem when a crowd had threatened to stone him for blasphemy. Going back to Jerusalem now, or even near it, was inviting death.

There were plenty of reasons for Jesus not to answer the appeal and go back to help his friend, Lazarus, but none of them were the reason he didn’t go. Jesus doesn’t go back because he knows what God is going to do. God is going to bring Lazarus out of the tomb and the purpose of this resuscitation is to reveal God’s glory so that people may believe.

So Jesus stays where he is two more days, long enough for Lazarus to die. Then he tells the disciples. “Come on, we’re going back.”

The disciples look at him in disbelief. “They want to stone you there and you’re going back?”

Then Jesus answers with this cryptic saying about light and darkness. “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day?” he asks. “If a person walks in the day, that one doesn’t stumble because that person sees the light of this world. But anyone who walks around in the night stumbles because the light is not in that person.”

We’ve been listening to these stories from the gospel of John for four weeks now so maybe you hear what Jesus is trying to say here. Nicodemus came when? In the dark. What did Jesus tell the disciples and the blind man before giving him sight? “As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.” [John 9:5]. The disciples still don’t get it. Jesus is the light of the world. There is work to be done while the light is present. The darkness cannot overcome the light. If the disciples keep doubting they will be like those who stumble around in the dark.

Finally it’s Thomas, the one who eventually gets the nickname Doubting Thomas, who gets the disciples geared up to go back. “Let’s go, too,” he says, “so that we can die with him.” The disciples are not expecting life. They are expecting death.

So Jesus comes and he has the same kinds of conversations with Martha and Mary. Martha meets him on the road in and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. But I know even now that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus says to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha is polite. She says, “Yes, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day.” In other words she is saying, “Yes, I know. Down the road. In the sweet bye and bye. When we all get to heaven. Yes, my brother will rise again, but not now. I shouldn’t expect that.

But for once Jesus is speaking plainly. He really means that Lazarus will rise again on this day. He knows this because he knows who God is and who he is. “I am the resurrection and the life,” he says to Martha. “The one who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” This is the verse we use to start most of our funeral services. It is an affirmation of life in the face of death. Something is going to happen here. Jesus is going to do something unexpected.

Martha runs back to tell her sister Mary. She runs back and it doesn’t seem that Jesus has gone anywhere. He’s still standing there in the same place where he met Martha. Mary falls at his feet, which is just where we see Mary throughout the gospels. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus as he teaches, much to the annoyance of Martha who’s trying to get dinner on the table. Mary wipes Jesus feet with her hair and her tears, scandalizing the other table guests. Here she throws herself at his feet and says the same thing Martha said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Now Jesus is stirred up. Your translation may say something like, “Jesus was disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” But there is a hint of anger here. The Greek words have that connotation, too. And when Jesus weeps here, there is a sense that he is not so much moved by sorrow but by frustration that the people around him cannot yet see what is going on. Jesus has come to transform the world and the world can’t accept it. Jesus has come to bring life and they are captivated by death. Jesus is coming to change everything and they’re lingering in the tombs.

So, there’s some righteous anger in Jesus’ stride as he goes to the tomb. It’s a cave with a heavy stone rolled in front of it. The same kind of tomb that Jesus is going to vacate in a short time. “Lift off the stone,” he commands.

Martha protests, “Lord, by this time he will stink because he has been buried for four days.” She says this because by Jewish tradition, after three days a person was considered well and truly dead. There was no chance for resuscitation. Decomposition was starting to take hold.

Jesus turns and says, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” This is what’s really important. It’s not just a man walking out of his own tomb that he wants them to see; it’s the glory of God. He wants them to see life. He wants them to know who he is and why he has come.

So he prays to God. “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me but I speak for the sake of the surrounding crowd so that they may believe that it was you who sent me.” Then he turns to the tomb and says, in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

Deep in the tomb something stirred. Something moved. Something was alive in the place of death. Someone was walking toward the light. Someone was coming out of the cave. Someone was walking. Someone was yearning to be free.

There he was! Lazarus come forth from the grave. His feet and his hands wrapped up. His face covered with cloth strips. Jesus has one more command, “Set him free and release him to go.” And the people believed.

Now what you need to know is that for John, the writer of the gospel, this was the most dangerous thing that Jesus ever did. It was right after this that the religious leaders started plotting to bring him down in a spectacular way. In fact, the Bible says that they also started making plans to kill Lazarus, which is pretty funny if you think about it. Jesus has already shown that he has power over death and that’s the only thing they can think to do to him and the one he raised.

Now here’s the thing I think I need to say: What’s the tomb you’re living in? Because this is not a story about life after death. Martha tried to make this that kind of story. She tried to rationalize the fact that her brother was dead and in the tomb and that Jesus was standing there telling her he would rise again. The only way she could deal with that was to push off the expectation of life to a time when it was reasonable to think it might happen. But Jesus rejected that interpretation. When he said that Lazarus would rise again he meant that Lazarus would rise again that day.

So I started to think: What are the ways that we are letting death determine our lives? How are we wandering around the tombs? How are we refusing to believe that life is what God really intends for us, not just down the road, but in the here and now? How are we expressing our disbelief in life before death?

This week we have been hearing some very discouraging news about the economy. In February we lost 63,000 jobs. You probably got your new tax assessment this week. The housing market is still tumbling. There are some reasons to feel a bit gloomy, aren’t there? There are some tombs we’ve been wandering around.

Our county faces some very big challenges. The state budget looks like it may be cut drastically. We have been praying for our schools steadily for a number of reasons. Our hospital is strained and Dr. Lingle got on the cover of USA Today because of the challenges of keeping medical staff. Those who have been living on the edge are in danger of being pushed over the edge. We see the growing needs every month at our food bank.

We’ve been here before. This is not the first time that we have faced crises like these. But how we respond depends entirely on the stories we build our future on. If we expect the tomb we have no way of seeing the new things that God has for us. But if we expect life…what a different place this world can be.

I wonder what we will say as Christians. Will we build our lives on the narratives the world has to tell us, or will we say that the future is assured because we know the one who said “I am the resurrection and the life”? Will we have a word of hope for our neighbor and a hand of help? Will we look into the darkness of despair, into the caves of desolation, into the tombs of despondency, and say with Jesus, “Lazarus, come out!”? And then we will pause at the door of the tomb and listen?

Something is stirring in the darkness. Something is moving in there. Something is alive in there. And it is coming forth because God commands it. Lazarus is coming to life and he is a bigger threat than the mummy. He’s a public danger because he refuses to accept the narratives of death and decay. He’s a wanted man because he looks into the face of the devil and says, “You cannot win. Jesus will always be the man.”

Jars of Clay, a rock group with Christian roots, has a song called “Dead Man” that came out a couple of years ago. In the song they say, “January 1, I've got a lot of things on my mind/ I'm looking at my body through a new spy satellite/ Try to lift a finger, but I don't think I can make the call/ So tell me if I move, 'cause I don't feel anything at all.”

That’s a great description of modern life. We can go on the computer to Google Earth and see our bodies from space but where’s the evidence of life? We want to believe that there is more to life than that. We want to believe there is life at all because the effect of so much of life is to make us feel dead. The chorus of the song says, “Carry Me,/ I'm just a dead man/ Lying on the carpet/ Can't find a heartbeat/ Make me breathe,/ I want to be a new man/ Tired of the old one/ Out with the old plan.”

Who are they asking to ‘carry me’? It’s Jesus. The man who makes all things new. Who brings the dead to life. Who stands at the door of the tomb and calls out, “Come out.” How long are you going to stay in the tomb? When are you going to stop being afraid of life? What have you got to lose except your grave clothes?

Thanks be to God.

John 11:1-45
Now a certain man was ill - Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha, her sister. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus that was ill. So the sisters sent word to him saying, "Lord, look, the one you love is ill."

But when Jesus heard, he said, "This illness will not lead to death but rather to the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through him." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet, having heard that he was ill, he remained where he was for two more days. Then after this he says to the disciples, "Let's go to Judea once again."

The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews are looking to stone you and you want to go there again?"

Jesus answered, "Aren't there twelve hours in the day? If a person walks in the day, that one doesn't stumble because that person sees the light of this world.

But anyone who walks around in the night stumbles because the light is not in that one."

He said this and along with this said, "Lazarus, our friend, has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him."

His disciples said, "Lord, if he's only asleep, he will be all right."

Jesus was speaking of his death, but they thought he was referring to actual sleep. So then Jesus said plainly, "Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe. But let's go to him."

Then Thomas, the one called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us go, too, so we can die with him."

Jesus arrived and found him already four days in the tomb. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, less than two miles away. Many of the Jews had come to be with Martha and Mary in order to console them about their brother. Now when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary was sitting at home.

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. But I know even now that God will give you whatever you ask."

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who comes into the world." Having said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, "The Teacher has arrived and has called for you." Hearing this she rose up quickly and went to him.

Now Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where he had met Martha. When the Jews who were in the house consoling the sisters saw Mary get up quickly and leave, they followed her, think she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she threw herself at his feet saying, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, too, he was stirred to anger in his spirit and troubled within himself.

Then he said, "Where have you laid him?"

They said to him, "Come and see."

And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "Look how he loved him." But some of them said, "Couldn't the man who opened the eyes of the blind man have prevented this man's death?"

So Jesus, stirred again to anger within himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave and the stone was laid across it. Jesus said, "Lift off the stone."

Martha, the sister of the one who had died, said to him, "Lord, by this time he will stink for he has been buried four days."

Jesus said to her, "Didn't I tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"

So they lifted off the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me but I speak for the sake of the surrounding crowd so that they may believe that it was you who sent me."

Having said this, he called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come outside!"

Then the dead man came out, bound feet and hands with wrappings and his face wrapped in cloth. Jesus said to them, "Set him free and release him to go." Then many of the Jews, who had come to Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.