Upon Those In The Tombs Bestowing Life
Sermon
The Lord Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed! He Really Is!
Gospel Sermons For Lent/Easter
In the Orthodox Church, Easter worship includes the singing of a hymn that goes:
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.1
I thought of those words this week as I was driving north to Michigan to attend the funeral of a long-time friend -- something that seems to happen with increasing frequency as I grow older. Some of you know what I mean. Once I got past the ice and snow on Route 30 going toward Fort Wayne, and onto a dry interstate highway north and could relax and think a bit about where I was going and why, those ancient words came to mind:
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
In our Presbyterian tradition, we call the funeral "A Service of Witness to the Resurrection" (Book of Common Worship). Because we Presbyterians believe, as do our Orthodox brothers and sisters, that
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by (his) death,
and upon those in the tombs
(the tombs where we lay our dead,
and the tombs where we too often live)
bestowing life.
The one in the tomb on Thursday was my friend. The one in the tomb in the Gospel lesson from John this morning was Jesus' friend. Jesus' friend was named Lazarus. Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha, had sent word to Jesus earlier, saying: "Lord, he whom you love is ill" (John 11:3 NRSV). Apparently with the expectation that Jesus, who had a growing reputation as a healer, would come and heal his friend.
But Jesus didn't come. And Lazarus died. So Jesus set out, as I did on Thursday, but by the time he got there Lazarus had been dead four days. That little detail intends to tell us that Lazarus was really dead. Lazarus was not in a coma. Lazarus was not just critically ill. Lazarus was dead.The details demand it. He had been dead four days. Jewish tradition at the time had it that "... the soul lingered near the body for three days, so that death was truly final on the fourth day."2 It had been four days. So medically and traditionally, Lazarus was dead.
Jesus' response to that reality was first to reassure Mary and Martha. He said to Martha, who was clearly put out that Jesus had arrived too late to heal Lazarus, "Your brother will rise again" (Luke 11:23 NRSV). That is the sort of thing you or I might say to comfort a family at the funeral home. She took that to mean what you and I mean: that in the end those we love will live again -- someday.
Not all Jews believed that. Martha did. But Martha also clearly understood -- probably better than we do -- that death undoes what God has done; unmakes what God has made, destroys what God has created. It's not a transition. It's an end. But Martha also believed that what God had made God would remake. God made Lazarus and gave him life. God would remake Lazarus and give him life again "... in the resurrection on the last day." What the creed calls "the resurrection of the body."
When all is said and done, Lazarus will live. But for now Lazarus is dead. That is underlined for you and me by the writer of John, who reports that when Jesus got to the tomb and asked that it be opened, Martha responded, inelegantly, "Lord, already there is a stench, because he has been dead four days" (John 11:39 NRSV).
The Bible never flinches in face of the reality of death, but the Bible is also reassuring as Jesus was for Mary and Martha. Death is real. But those who die will not be dead forever. Jesus reassured Mary and Martha of the reality of their faith in the resurrection of the dead.
Then Jesus reacted as all of us do at the death of someone we love. "Jesus wept" (John 11:35 KJV). We all do, one way or another, when death comes close. Some of us cry our tears -- others of us swallow our tears, a few of us try to deny them, or we are denied them by the way we've been taught. But inside or out, consciously or not, we weep. It's a normal, physiological response to the pain of death. To the separation from someone who in some way is part of ourselves.
"Jesus wept," has often been called the shortest verse in the Bible. A favorite of the children who pick it to memorize. And it is. At least in King James English. But those two words, "Jesus wept," contain within them all kinds of feelings of frustration, and sorrow, and even anger. And as Granger Westburg notes, in his book Good Grief, "... these feelings are normal for every human."3 It was normal and natural and very human for Jesus to grieve at the death of his friend; for Jesus to weep. As those around him observed rightly, his weeping was a measure of his loving. "See how he loved him!" they said (John 11:36 NRSV).
But they also said something else that caused Jesus to be "greatly disturbed" (John 11:37 NRSV). "... Some of them said, 'Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?' " (John 11:38 NRSV). Why is he here now? Where was he, when we needed him? The fact that Jesus didn't do what they wanted him to do led them to blaming him for what happened.
So it was with tears in his eyes, and hurtful words in his ears, "... that, Jesus ... greatly disturbed, came to the tomb" (John 1:38 NRSV). Jesus had responded to his close friends Mary and Martha with loving reassurance. Jesus had responded to his own grief with his tears. Now Jesus responded to death itself with his words: "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43 NRSV). And Lazarus did. And "Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go' " (John 11:44 NRSV). Take off those grave clothes and let him live.
In my own life I have been reassured, and have tried to be reassuring when death has come. I have cried, and grieved, and encouraged the crying and grieving of others. I have learned the hard way, which is the only way, how to do that. And so have you. I've been there. We've been there -- many times. So, I cannot begin to imagine the shock, the dismay, the incredulous reaction of those around Jesus that day, when they heard his words. "Lazarus, come out! Lazarus, come back to life! Lazarus, be alive! Lazarus, live!"
If Lazarus hadn't walked out about then, they'd have written Jesus off as a lunatic. As having lost his mind. But they couldn't do that. Lazarus was alive. Instead, some of them called a meeting and plotted to put Jesus to death.
It's an interesting omission that there is not one word in the story about rejoicing that Lazarus had rejoined the living. Rather there is no word from Lazarus, and only a word or two about some of them believing in Jesus, and a meeting at which some of them plotted to kill Jesus, because whatever he was doing and however he did it, it threatened the way they wanted things done. The giving of life was perceived as a threat to be met with death.
Charles Cousar writes, "There is not much rejoicing at the raising of Lazarus. Since the giving of life projects a future full of surprises, it turns out to be a menace to those who think they control the future. They respond the only way they know, with violence. They even plot to do away with Lazarus (12:9-10).
"But the larger story confirms that life will not be overcome by death. What remains beyond the raising of Lazarus is not only Jesus' death, but his resurrection and his persistent giving of life."4
What remains beyond the raising of Lazarus is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And those two things are different. Lazarus was raised to live and die again. Jesus was resurrected to live and reign forever. A friend of mine says it's the difference between "resuscitation" and "resurrection." At most, "resuscitation" means a return to life still limited by death. "Resurrection" means return to life unlimited. Life forever. Life where there is no death. Life where death does not control the way we live. Life which is the joyful thing God made it to be.
The promise of the Bible is not simply being brought back to life to face death, but being given life forever so we can face death unafraid.
I said Lazarus didn't have much to say on being raised back to life. He didn't get a book contract or talk show appearances, the way some who claim to have been there and back do in our day. I surmise he was the same old Lazarus, but maybe with a new sense of the wonder of life and the joy to be found in it, because the next time we hear about Lazarus, he's at a party (John 12:1-2), enjoying the company of another party-goer, his good friend Jesus, and heeding, perhaps, as we all should, some old words of wisdom from the rabbis: that God will hold us most responsible after death for the good things in life we refused to enjoy.
Too many of us live by the dictum that if I live a worthy life now, I'll get a life worth living -- later. But it's a lie to call that the whole truth. The truth is life now is forever, and it's worth living now, in a way you'd want to live forever. Says the song:
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
The tombs where we lay the dead, and the tombs where we live daily, are opened by Jesus Christ who says to you and me -- come out AND LIVE! The life he bestowed on Lazarus is the same life he has bestowed on you and me. Life now. And living it well is living as though we will live it forever. Without fear. With full assurance, even in grief, of the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Some of you need to stop there. You may. But I'm not done.
As I was traveling north on Thursday I listened a lot to the news about life in our world. Four-and-a-half hours each way with news every half-hour. I was thinking about the story of Lazarus and why Jesus raised him, brought him back to this life. And in the context of that, while I was thinking about that, I heard no less than fifteen or twenty times in nine hours of driving, the story about congressional attempts this past week, to repeal the ban on certain types of assault weapons.
I don't make political comments often up here. So bear with me. And if you disagree with me, forgive me. But I need to say this. The contrast between the giving of life in the story from the Gospel, and the dealing in death in the story on the news was jarring.
Assault weapons have one use: deliberate, deadly, assault -- on life. On the lives of human beings, like you and me -- and Lazarus. I'm no pacifist. And I'm not all that naive. I know those weapons have their place, albeit it a limited one, as the lesser of evils in a too often evil and threatening world. But for the life of me, as I was driving along and listening to the radio, I could not imagine Jesus holding an assault rifle out to Lazarus as he came out of that tomb. Saying, here Lazarus. Welcome back to life as it really is. Where ordinary people need an AK47 or an UZI in the family room. I pictured Lazarus looking wide-eyed at Jesus and saying, "Been there, done that." And heading back for his grave.
Life is not meant to be such that anyone needs an assault weapon, much less wants one. And for the life of me I cannot understand why politics means that's the way it could be again for you and me and our children and our grandchildren. The congress and the National Rifle Association should be ashamed of what they are trying to do. The story of Lazarus says it's wrong. As dead wrong as death itself. That God calls forth life, not death. But the story in the Lima News recently calling the vote a "conservative curtsy to the NRA,"5 said that's the way life is.
It won't be always.
Because
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by (his) death,
and upon those in the tombs
(be they literal or just the places where we hide, upon us
all)
bestowing life.
____________
1. The Divine Liturgy according to St. John Chrysostom, copyright 1967 by the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America, second edition (South Canaan, Pennsylvania: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 1977), p. 179.
2. The Harper Collins Study Bible, Luke 11:17 note.
3. Granger E. Westberg, Good Grief (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fortress Press, 1971), p. 50.
4. W. Brueggemann, et al., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV -- Year A (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1995), p. 227.
5. The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, 3/23/96.
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.1
I thought of those words this week as I was driving north to Michigan to attend the funeral of a long-time friend -- something that seems to happen with increasing frequency as I grow older. Some of you know what I mean. Once I got past the ice and snow on Route 30 going toward Fort Wayne, and onto a dry interstate highway north and could relax and think a bit about where I was going and why, those ancient words came to mind:
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
In our Presbyterian tradition, we call the funeral "A Service of Witness to the Resurrection" (Book of Common Worship). Because we Presbyterians believe, as do our Orthodox brothers and sisters, that
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by (his) death,
and upon those in the tombs
(the tombs where we lay our dead,
and the tombs where we too often live)
bestowing life.
The one in the tomb on Thursday was my friend. The one in the tomb in the Gospel lesson from John this morning was Jesus' friend. Jesus' friend was named Lazarus. Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha, had sent word to Jesus earlier, saying: "Lord, he whom you love is ill" (John 11:3 NRSV). Apparently with the expectation that Jesus, who had a growing reputation as a healer, would come and heal his friend.
But Jesus didn't come. And Lazarus died. So Jesus set out, as I did on Thursday, but by the time he got there Lazarus had been dead four days. That little detail intends to tell us that Lazarus was really dead. Lazarus was not in a coma. Lazarus was not just critically ill. Lazarus was dead.The details demand it. He had been dead four days. Jewish tradition at the time had it that "... the soul lingered near the body for three days, so that death was truly final on the fourth day."2 It had been four days. So medically and traditionally, Lazarus was dead.
Jesus' response to that reality was first to reassure Mary and Martha. He said to Martha, who was clearly put out that Jesus had arrived too late to heal Lazarus, "Your brother will rise again" (Luke 11:23 NRSV). That is the sort of thing you or I might say to comfort a family at the funeral home. She took that to mean what you and I mean: that in the end those we love will live again -- someday.
Not all Jews believed that. Martha did. But Martha also clearly understood -- probably better than we do -- that death undoes what God has done; unmakes what God has made, destroys what God has created. It's not a transition. It's an end. But Martha also believed that what God had made God would remake. God made Lazarus and gave him life. God would remake Lazarus and give him life again "... in the resurrection on the last day." What the creed calls "the resurrection of the body."
When all is said and done, Lazarus will live. But for now Lazarus is dead. That is underlined for you and me by the writer of John, who reports that when Jesus got to the tomb and asked that it be opened, Martha responded, inelegantly, "Lord, already there is a stench, because he has been dead four days" (John 11:39 NRSV).
The Bible never flinches in face of the reality of death, but the Bible is also reassuring as Jesus was for Mary and Martha. Death is real. But those who die will not be dead forever. Jesus reassured Mary and Martha of the reality of their faith in the resurrection of the dead.
Then Jesus reacted as all of us do at the death of someone we love. "Jesus wept" (John 11:35 KJV). We all do, one way or another, when death comes close. Some of us cry our tears -- others of us swallow our tears, a few of us try to deny them, or we are denied them by the way we've been taught. But inside or out, consciously or not, we weep. It's a normal, physiological response to the pain of death. To the separation from someone who in some way is part of ourselves.
"Jesus wept," has often been called the shortest verse in the Bible. A favorite of the children who pick it to memorize. And it is. At least in King James English. But those two words, "Jesus wept," contain within them all kinds of feelings of frustration, and sorrow, and even anger. And as Granger Westburg notes, in his book Good Grief, "... these feelings are normal for every human."3 It was normal and natural and very human for Jesus to grieve at the death of his friend; for Jesus to weep. As those around him observed rightly, his weeping was a measure of his loving. "See how he loved him!" they said (John 11:36 NRSV).
But they also said something else that caused Jesus to be "greatly disturbed" (John 11:37 NRSV). "... Some of them said, 'Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?' " (John 11:38 NRSV). Why is he here now? Where was he, when we needed him? The fact that Jesus didn't do what they wanted him to do led them to blaming him for what happened.
So it was with tears in his eyes, and hurtful words in his ears, "... that, Jesus ... greatly disturbed, came to the tomb" (John 1:38 NRSV). Jesus had responded to his close friends Mary and Martha with loving reassurance. Jesus had responded to his own grief with his tears. Now Jesus responded to death itself with his words: "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43 NRSV). And Lazarus did. And "Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go' " (John 11:44 NRSV). Take off those grave clothes and let him live.
In my own life I have been reassured, and have tried to be reassuring when death has come. I have cried, and grieved, and encouraged the crying and grieving of others. I have learned the hard way, which is the only way, how to do that. And so have you. I've been there. We've been there -- many times. So, I cannot begin to imagine the shock, the dismay, the incredulous reaction of those around Jesus that day, when they heard his words. "Lazarus, come out! Lazarus, come back to life! Lazarus, be alive! Lazarus, live!"
If Lazarus hadn't walked out about then, they'd have written Jesus off as a lunatic. As having lost his mind. But they couldn't do that. Lazarus was alive. Instead, some of them called a meeting and plotted to put Jesus to death.
It's an interesting omission that there is not one word in the story about rejoicing that Lazarus had rejoined the living. Rather there is no word from Lazarus, and only a word or two about some of them believing in Jesus, and a meeting at which some of them plotted to kill Jesus, because whatever he was doing and however he did it, it threatened the way they wanted things done. The giving of life was perceived as a threat to be met with death.
Charles Cousar writes, "There is not much rejoicing at the raising of Lazarus. Since the giving of life projects a future full of surprises, it turns out to be a menace to those who think they control the future. They respond the only way they know, with violence. They even plot to do away with Lazarus (12:9-10).
"But the larger story confirms that life will not be overcome by death. What remains beyond the raising of Lazarus is not only Jesus' death, but his resurrection and his persistent giving of life."4
What remains beyond the raising of Lazarus is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And those two things are different. Lazarus was raised to live and die again. Jesus was resurrected to live and reign forever. A friend of mine says it's the difference between "resuscitation" and "resurrection." At most, "resuscitation" means a return to life still limited by death. "Resurrection" means return to life unlimited. Life forever. Life where there is no death. Life where death does not control the way we live. Life which is the joyful thing God made it to be.
The promise of the Bible is not simply being brought back to life to face death, but being given life forever so we can face death unafraid.
I said Lazarus didn't have much to say on being raised back to life. He didn't get a book contract or talk show appearances, the way some who claim to have been there and back do in our day. I surmise he was the same old Lazarus, but maybe with a new sense of the wonder of life and the joy to be found in it, because the next time we hear about Lazarus, he's at a party (John 12:1-2), enjoying the company of another party-goer, his good friend Jesus, and heeding, perhaps, as we all should, some old words of wisdom from the rabbis: that God will hold us most responsible after death for the good things in life we refused to enjoy.
Too many of us live by the dictum that if I live a worthy life now, I'll get a life worth living -- later. But it's a lie to call that the whole truth. The truth is life now is forever, and it's worth living now, in a way you'd want to live forever. Says the song:
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
The tombs where we lay the dead, and the tombs where we live daily, are opened by Jesus Christ who says to you and me -- come out AND LIVE! The life he bestowed on Lazarus is the same life he has bestowed on you and me. Life now. And living it well is living as though we will live it forever. Without fear. With full assurance, even in grief, of the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Some of you need to stop there. You may. But I'm not done.
As I was traveling north on Thursday I listened a lot to the news about life in our world. Four-and-a-half hours each way with news every half-hour. I was thinking about the story of Lazarus and why Jesus raised him, brought him back to this life. And in the context of that, while I was thinking about that, I heard no less than fifteen or twenty times in nine hours of driving, the story about congressional attempts this past week, to repeal the ban on certain types of assault weapons.
I don't make political comments often up here. So bear with me. And if you disagree with me, forgive me. But I need to say this. The contrast between the giving of life in the story from the Gospel, and the dealing in death in the story on the news was jarring.
Assault weapons have one use: deliberate, deadly, assault -- on life. On the lives of human beings, like you and me -- and Lazarus. I'm no pacifist. And I'm not all that naive. I know those weapons have their place, albeit it a limited one, as the lesser of evils in a too often evil and threatening world. But for the life of me, as I was driving along and listening to the radio, I could not imagine Jesus holding an assault rifle out to Lazarus as he came out of that tomb. Saying, here Lazarus. Welcome back to life as it really is. Where ordinary people need an AK47 or an UZI in the family room. I pictured Lazarus looking wide-eyed at Jesus and saying, "Been there, done that." And heading back for his grave.
Life is not meant to be such that anyone needs an assault weapon, much less wants one. And for the life of me I cannot understand why politics means that's the way it could be again for you and me and our children and our grandchildren. The congress and the National Rifle Association should be ashamed of what they are trying to do. The story of Lazarus says it's wrong. As dead wrong as death itself. That God calls forth life, not death. But the story in the Lima News recently calling the vote a "conservative curtsy to the NRA,"5 said that's the way life is.
It won't be always.
Because
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by (his) death,
and upon those in the tombs
(be they literal or just the places where we hide, upon us
all)
bestowing life.
____________
1. The Divine Liturgy according to St. John Chrysostom, copyright 1967 by the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America, second edition (South Canaan, Pennsylvania: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 1977), p. 179.
2. The Harper Collins Study Bible, Luke 11:17 note.
3. Granger E. Westberg, Good Grief (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fortress Press, 1971), p. 50.
4. W. Brueggemann, et al., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV -- Year A (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1995), p. 227.
5. The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, 3/23/96.
