The Resurrection Is Freedom
Sermon
PREPARATION AND MANIFESTATION
Sermons For Lent And Easter
We have all lived through the death of a loved one. We have all ached when someone we dearly love has passed away. We have all wondered about what comes next, and fretted about our own death. In our gospel story for today we find Jesus dealing with those experiences. And together with Lazarus, Jesus (along with our other Bible lessons) shows us what comes next after sin and death. He does not just show it; he gives it. What he gives is freedom given through love. That is what comes next when the new life is given, when death and sin are conquered. Freedom given through love is what awaits us on the other side of death. Let us hear the story.
Jesus certainly loved the dying man and his family. When Mary and Martha (Lazarus' sisters) first came to tell Jesus about their brother's illness, they did it by telling Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill (John 11:3)." Jesus did indeed love Lazarus. The Bible tells us about the close bond he had with the whole family. Thus the writer of this story, John (11:5), writes: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Jesus loved them.
Jesus' love for that family was not just a matter of words, a kind of polite sentiment we sometimes express concerning acquaintances. This was a passionate love. Thus after learning that Lazarus was severely ill, Jesus concluded his business in the region of Perea (Jesus always conducts his business deliberately in John's gospel; also see John 2:4, 24; 12:1) and he went back to Judea to be with his friends. He loved Lazarus and his sisters that much that he changed his plans for them. In fact, Jesus loved them so much that he was willing to risk his life for Lazarus, because the disciples thought it would be better for Jesus to stay out of Lazarus' home region. The Jews who lived there, you see, were very hostile to Jesus (John 11 :8ff). But Jesus did not care; he loved Lazarus that much.
It is a little easier to love Jesus when we recognize how he has walked in our shoes. A little easier to love him when we see how much and how deeply he loves. Martin Luther said it so well in a sermon that he preached in 1518 on this very gospel story. About the love that Jesus showed Lazarus, Lazarus' family, and us, Luther said: "Let us therefore learn to know from the gospel how kindly Christ deals with us; then we shall without a doubt love him and avoid sinning and so see everything in a different light."
Experiencing the love of Christ like we can in this gospel story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead makes you love Christ all the more. Luther says that it helps us to avoid sin and see everything in a new light. What is that new light in which we see things?
Of course, on the surface the answer to that question is obvious. We Christians see both death and life in light of the resurrection. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life from death. And not just Lazarus. Death will not have the final word with you and me. We have Jesus' word on it: "I am the resurrection and the life ; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26)." The promise of the resurrection and the new life that goes with it are ours.
Of course, when we talk this way about the resurrection we are inclined to think of it as something that lies ahead of us somewhere in the distant future. The story of the raising of Lazarus throws new light on that matter. After all, Lazarus' resurrection was not far off in the future. It happened that very day that Jesus came to him - just four days after his death. Resurrection and the new life that comes with it is a present reality!
Think about that point for a moment. This idea that the new life given in the resurrection is already available to the faithful is a central (though too often overlooked) theme in Jesus' preaching. Think how often in the first three (synoptic) gospels Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God (the new order of things) "is at hand (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 11:20; 17:21)."2 John seems to make the same point in his representation of Jesus in our gospel story today. When Jesus finally got to Bethany (Lazarus' hometown) and learned from Lazarus' sister Martha that Lazarus was dead, then (according to John) Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again (John 11:23)." Martha responded (sort of like we would), "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day (John 11:24)."
Martha sounds like us modern Christians; we believe in the resurrection, in the new life, but we think of it as something far off in the future. However, Jesus responded to her and to us (in our thinking about the resurrection being far off in the future), "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26)."
The resurrection is already present in Jesus. We already have the resurrection (the new life) when we have him present among us. In fact, when Jesus is present, in an ultimate or final sense, death is no more! The new life is given! If Jesus is the resurrection and the life, then to have him present is to have the resurrection and the new life now in the present. And then to make his point that the resurrection is already present (that we do not have to wait for it at some far off point in the future) Jesus proceeds to raise Lazarus from the dead. (It all pointed to his resurrection on Easter which would not be far off.)
Our gospel story to this point answers the question with which we began this sermon - the question of what comes next after death. The resurrection and the new life come immediately for those who are in Christ. We do not have to wait for them. (In a real sense death has not ultimately separated us from our loved ones. They are still with us in the sense that God is caring for them now, like he is caring for us. Consequently, whenever Jesus comes to us he brings our loved ones with him.) That is the different light in which we can view the sufferings, sins and the evil that are in the world. Suffering, sin and evil do not have the final word in our lives, or even in the lives of our loved ones who are gone. Sin, suffering, and even death, do not have the final word.
What is the nature of the new life, of the resurrection, that is already ours? All three of our Bible lessons for today give us some clues. First, we have some hints about the nature of the new life of resurrection right there in our story about Lazarus.
Jesus had gone to the tomb of Lazarus, a cave with a stone on it. And Jesus commanded that the stone be removed. (We have another reminder of Jesus' own resurrection, of the stone that the angels rolled away on that first Easter [John 20:1; Luke 24:2; Mark 16:4; Matthew 28:2].) Lazarus' sister Martha noted how after four days the body would smell if they removed the stone (John 11:39). But after the stone was rolled away (Jesus had promised that they would see the glory of God if they believed [John 11:40]), then Jesus proceeded to thank the Father, explained to him his aims, and then he called out with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come out (John 11:41-43)." John tells us what happened next: "The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.' (John 11:44)."
Back to our gospel story, John says that Lazarus came out of the tomb bound with bandages and wrapped with a cloth. (This seems to have been the embalming practice of the day.) Yet Jesus wanted him loosened, unbound. In view of the connotation of the use of this term in Greek, the connotation that unbinding or loosening from something was an unbinding from sin, does John want us to understand the bandages and cloth wrapped around Lazarus in death as symbolizing sin? In raising Lazarus from the dead, in giving him new life, Jesus was unbinding or loosening Lazarus from sin! Lazarus really could not begin to live that new life Jesus had given him until Lazarus was first loosened and freed from sin.
It makes sense, does it not? The Bible (especially Paul) clearly associates death with sin (Romans 6:23; 5:12, 17). The conquest of one is the conquest of the other. Jesus conquered death that day when he raised Lazarus from the dead. He also loosed Lazarus from sin.
Lazarus was given a new life that day at the tomb. It is rather like the new life that God gave you in your baptism (Romans 6:4-11). The new life that Jesus gave Lazarus was a life loosed from bondage, loosed from the bandages and the cloth that bound him in death, loosed from the sin that trapped him and us.
All of our Bible lessons for today make this point. In our first lesson, God used the prophet Ezekiel to bring the people of Israel back to life from the dead. God gives the people and us new life, returns them to their own land (delivering them and us from the exile and bondage we were under). He promises to put his Spirit within them and us (Ezekiel 37:14). Earlier God made it clear that this giving of the Spirit, this new life that he gives Israel and us, involves a cleansing from sin, the infusion of a new heart in the faithful (Ezekiel 36:25-29). The new life that God gives us sets us free from sin and the fear of death, free to serve him anew.
Our second lesson from Paul's letter to the Romans makes the same point. Paul says it explicitly at the beginning of the chapter from which we are reading. He claims to be talking about the new life which Christ has given the faithful. Here is what he says: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2)."
Free from sin and death. That is what the new life is all about. Paul makes the same point in our lesson. He writes: "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you (Romans 8:11)."
God has given us life. This new life is tied to the resurrection of Christ. As we have seen, this new life is a life of freedom - freedom from sin and evil, freedom from being anxious and troubled about our death and the death of our loved ones.
Paul in our second lesson, Ezekiel in our first lesson, and our gospel story about the raising of Lazarus add one more item to our reflections on the resurrection and the new life. Resurrection, new life and freedom are not just realities still to be manifested in the distant future. The new life and resurrection are happening now. They happen whenever Jesus Christ is present among us, because, as he said to Martha in our gospel story for today, "I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)." Whenever you believe in him, the new life, the reality of the resurrection, is yours. Hear Jesus' words again to Martha: "... he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26)."
When you believe in Jesus, you have the assurance that death, sin, evil and temptation will never have the final word in your life. You and I have been set free from such anxieties! The resurrection and the new life are a life of freedom from sin and from all the anxieties about what comes next (cf. Matthew 6:25-34; Luke 12:22-28). Thanks to the love that he had for Lazarus and his family, God is giving us new life, the reality of the resurrection, which sets us free.
Lent is a season of preparation - a time to get ready for Easter. The message of this fifth Sunday in Lent is that we are wise to be prepared for this new life of the resurrection all of the time. It is well for us to be on our guard every moment, for at any time the new life and the freedom that goes with it could be entering your life.
Ever feel like you had a new lease on life? Ever feel like all the cares, anxieties, and temptations you were facing had been lifted, that you were free? Ever feel like the loved ones you had lost really had not finally been taken from you? Ever feel like you had a chance for a fresh start? In those cases, you were experiencing a resurrection no less dramatic and miraculous than what happened to Lazarus. Those moments when you had a fresh start, when you were truly freed, were God's gifts of love to you.
Heads up, people, those wonderful, freeing moments of the new life given by God out of his love for you are offered so often by our Lord, often in the most unexpected places. Heads up, or you will miss them! Be prepared for the miracle of the resurrection! That miracle, the miracle of the new life that God wants to give you, is always at hand!
Jesus certainly loved the dying man and his family. When Mary and Martha (Lazarus' sisters) first came to tell Jesus about their brother's illness, they did it by telling Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill (John 11:3)." Jesus did indeed love Lazarus. The Bible tells us about the close bond he had with the whole family. Thus the writer of this story, John (11:5), writes: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Jesus loved them.
Jesus' love for that family was not just a matter of words, a kind of polite sentiment we sometimes express concerning acquaintances. This was a passionate love. Thus after learning that Lazarus was severely ill, Jesus concluded his business in the region of Perea (Jesus always conducts his business deliberately in John's gospel; also see John 2:4, 24; 12:1) and he went back to Judea to be with his friends. He loved Lazarus and his sisters that much that he changed his plans for them. In fact, Jesus loved them so much that he was willing to risk his life for Lazarus, because the disciples thought it would be better for Jesus to stay out of Lazarus' home region. The Jews who lived there, you see, were very hostile to Jesus (John 11 :8ff). But Jesus did not care; he loved Lazarus that much.
It is a little easier to love Jesus when we recognize how he has walked in our shoes. A little easier to love him when we see how much and how deeply he loves. Martin Luther said it so well in a sermon that he preached in 1518 on this very gospel story. About the love that Jesus showed Lazarus, Lazarus' family, and us, Luther said: "Let us therefore learn to know from the gospel how kindly Christ deals with us; then we shall without a doubt love him and avoid sinning and so see everything in a different light."
Experiencing the love of Christ like we can in this gospel story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead makes you love Christ all the more. Luther says that it helps us to avoid sin and see everything in a new light. What is that new light in which we see things?
Of course, on the surface the answer to that question is obvious. We Christians see both death and life in light of the resurrection. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life from death. And not just Lazarus. Death will not have the final word with you and me. We have Jesus' word on it: "I am the resurrection and the life ; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26)." The promise of the resurrection and the new life that goes with it are ours.
Of course, when we talk this way about the resurrection we are inclined to think of it as something that lies ahead of us somewhere in the distant future. The story of the raising of Lazarus throws new light on that matter. After all, Lazarus' resurrection was not far off in the future. It happened that very day that Jesus came to him - just four days after his death. Resurrection and the new life that comes with it is a present reality!
Think about that point for a moment. This idea that the new life given in the resurrection is already available to the faithful is a central (though too often overlooked) theme in Jesus' preaching. Think how often in the first three (synoptic) gospels Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God (the new order of things) "is at hand (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 11:20; 17:21)."2 John seems to make the same point in his representation of Jesus in our gospel story today. When Jesus finally got to Bethany (Lazarus' hometown) and learned from Lazarus' sister Martha that Lazarus was dead, then (according to John) Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again (John 11:23)." Martha responded (sort of like we would), "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day (John 11:24)."
Martha sounds like us modern Christians; we believe in the resurrection, in the new life, but we think of it as something far off in the future. However, Jesus responded to her and to us (in our thinking about the resurrection being far off in the future), "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26)."
The resurrection is already present in Jesus. We already have the resurrection (the new life) when we have him present among us. In fact, when Jesus is present, in an ultimate or final sense, death is no more! The new life is given! If Jesus is the resurrection and the life, then to have him present is to have the resurrection and the new life now in the present. And then to make his point that the resurrection is already present (that we do not have to wait for it at some far off point in the future) Jesus proceeds to raise Lazarus from the dead. (It all pointed to his resurrection on Easter which would not be far off.)
Our gospel story to this point answers the question with which we began this sermon - the question of what comes next after death. The resurrection and the new life come immediately for those who are in Christ. We do not have to wait for them. (In a real sense death has not ultimately separated us from our loved ones. They are still with us in the sense that God is caring for them now, like he is caring for us. Consequently, whenever Jesus comes to us he brings our loved ones with him.) That is the different light in which we can view the sufferings, sins and the evil that are in the world. Suffering, sin and evil do not have the final word in our lives, or even in the lives of our loved ones who are gone. Sin, suffering, and even death, do not have the final word.
What is the nature of the new life, of the resurrection, that is already ours? All three of our Bible lessons for today give us some clues. First, we have some hints about the nature of the new life of resurrection right there in our story about Lazarus.
Jesus had gone to the tomb of Lazarus, a cave with a stone on it. And Jesus commanded that the stone be removed. (We have another reminder of Jesus' own resurrection, of the stone that the angels rolled away on that first Easter [John 20:1; Luke 24:2; Mark 16:4; Matthew 28:2].) Lazarus' sister Martha noted how after four days the body would smell if they removed the stone (John 11:39). But after the stone was rolled away (Jesus had promised that they would see the glory of God if they believed [John 11:40]), then Jesus proceeded to thank the Father, explained to him his aims, and then he called out with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come out (John 11:41-43)." John tells us what happened next: "The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.' (John 11:44)."
Back to our gospel story, John says that Lazarus came out of the tomb bound with bandages and wrapped with a cloth. (This seems to have been the embalming practice of the day.) Yet Jesus wanted him loosened, unbound. In view of the connotation of the use of this term in Greek, the connotation that unbinding or loosening from something was an unbinding from sin, does John want us to understand the bandages and cloth wrapped around Lazarus in death as symbolizing sin? In raising Lazarus from the dead, in giving him new life, Jesus was unbinding or loosening Lazarus from sin! Lazarus really could not begin to live that new life Jesus had given him until Lazarus was first loosened and freed from sin.
It makes sense, does it not? The Bible (especially Paul) clearly associates death with sin (Romans 6:23; 5:12, 17). The conquest of one is the conquest of the other. Jesus conquered death that day when he raised Lazarus from the dead. He also loosed Lazarus from sin.
Lazarus was given a new life that day at the tomb. It is rather like the new life that God gave you in your baptism (Romans 6:4-11). The new life that Jesus gave Lazarus was a life loosed from bondage, loosed from the bandages and the cloth that bound him in death, loosed from the sin that trapped him and us.
All of our Bible lessons for today make this point. In our first lesson, God used the prophet Ezekiel to bring the people of Israel back to life from the dead. God gives the people and us new life, returns them to their own land (delivering them and us from the exile and bondage we were under). He promises to put his Spirit within them and us (Ezekiel 37:14). Earlier God made it clear that this giving of the Spirit, this new life that he gives Israel and us, involves a cleansing from sin, the infusion of a new heart in the faithful (Ezekiel 36:25-29). The new life that God gives us sets us free from sin and the fear of death, free to serve him anew.
Our second lesson from Paul's letter to the Romans makes the same point. Paul says it explicitly at the beginning of the chapter from which we are reading. He claims to be talking about the new life which Christ has given the faithful. Here is what he says: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2)."
Free from sin and death. That is what the new life is all about. Paul makes the same point in our lesson. He writes: "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you (Romans 8:11)."
God has given us life. This new life is tied to the resurrection of Christ. As we have seen, this new life is a life of freedom - freedom from sin and evil, freedom from being anxious and troubled about our death and the death of our loved ones.
Paul in our second lesson, Ezekiel in our first lesson, and our gospel story about the raising of Lazarus add one more item to our reflections on the resurrection and the new life. Resurrection, new life and freedom are not just realities still to be manifested in the distant future. The new life and resurrection are happening now. They happen whenever Jesus Christ is present among us, because, as he said to Martha in our gospel story for today, "I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)." Whenever you believe in him, the new life, the reality of the resurrection, is yours. Hear Jesus' words again to Martha: "... he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26)."
When you believe in Jesus, you have the assurance that death, sin, evil and temptation will never have the final word in your life. You and I have been set free from such anxieties! The resurrection and the new life are a life of freedom from sin and from all the anxieties about what comes next (cf. Matthew 6:25-34; Luke 12:22-28). Thanks to the love that he had for Lazarus and his family, God is giving us new life, the reality of the resurrection, which sets us free.
Lent is a season of preparation - a time to get ready for Easter. The message of this fifth Sunday in Lent is that we are wise to be prepared for this new life of the resurrection all of the time. It is well for us to be on our guard every moment, for at any time the new life and the freedom that goes with it could be entering your life.
Ever feel like you had a new lease on life? Ever feel like all the cares, anxieties, and temptations you were facing had been lifted, that you were free? Ever feel like the loved ones you had lost really had not finally been taken from you? Ever feel like you had a chance for a fresh start? In those cases, you were experiencing a resurrection no less dramatic and miraculous than what happened to Lazarus. Those moments when you had a fresh start, when you were truly freed, were God's gifts of love to you.
Heads up, people, those wonderful, freeing moments of the new life given by God out of his love for you are offered so often by our Lord, often in the most unexpected places. Heads up, or you will miss them! Be prepared for the miracle of the resurrection! That miracle, the miracle of the new life that God wants to give you, is always at hand!
