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SERMONS

The Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 17, 2002

By David Christian

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." This is the statement with which both Mary and Martha greet Jesus. They had sent word to him almost a week earlier that Lazarus, their brother, was sick. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were all close to Jesus. Surely they had been with him on other occasions when he had healed sick people. If only he had arrived sooner, he would have been able to heal Lazarus also.

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Mary and Martha do not realize something that we know. Jesus could have been there sooner. Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying. He could have spared Mary, Martha, and their friends this grief. Yet he had deliberately stayed away. He had not come to them until he was sure that Lazarus was already dead.

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." This is a simple statement, but it is also something more. It is also a question; a question of the deepest kind; a question forced by grief and loss.

"Lord, where were you? Why were you not here? Why did Lazarus have to die? Why could you not spare us this agony? What good is all your talk about bread from heaven and living water? Why did you not do something?"

And Jesus replies to Martha, "Your brother will live again." Martha says, "Yes, yes, I know all that. I learned it in Bible class. I was a good student. He will rise in the resurrection on the last day. But that doesn't help much now."

Then Jesus says, "Look at me Martha. I am not talking about some future life. I am talking about this life; life here and now. I am life. I am resurrection. Believe in me."

Jesus came to raise the dead. He did not come to raise the almost dead. He had healed many who were sick but his followers did not understand. This time it would be so obvious that no one could miss it. He came to raise the dead. And he had stayed away until Lazarus was good and dead, all the way dead, four days dead in the tomb. We are not talking about a bad cough; we are talking about real, actual, in-the-grave death. "Don't move that stone away, it's going to stink." Death to the point where the gospel tells us twice that Jesus was greatly disturbed, that he was deeply moved, and that he wept.

Then he went to the tomb. And he called out to Lazarus. And Lazarus came walking out. Alive, free. It was that simple. And that painful.

"Suffering and death belong to the narrow road of Jesus. Jesus does not glorify them, or call them beautiful, good, or something to be desired. Jesus does not call for heroism or suicidal self-sacrifice. Jesus invites us to look at the reality of our existence and reveals this harsh reality as the way to new life. The core message of Jesus is that real joy and peace can never be reached while bypassing suffering and death, but only by going right through them.

"We could say: We really have no choice. Indeed, who escapes suffering and death? Yet there is still a choice. We can deny the reality of life, or we can face it. When we face it not in despair, but with the eyes of Jesus, we discover that where we least expect it, something is hidden that holds a promise stronger than death itself. Jesus lived his life with the trust that God's love is stronger than death and that death does not have the last word. He invites us to face the painful reality of our existence with the same trust."

Jesus came to raise the dead. He came to give life to the lifeless. He came to save those who cannot save themselves; not through wealth, not through busyness, not through good works, not through positive thinking. But first it is necessary that we recognize our need of salvation. Lent calls us to recognize the reality of pain, of suffering, of death in life and in our own lives. And Lent calls us to recognize that death is not the final word.

The victory of Easter is the victory of life over death, of light over darkness, of joy over sorrow. But the only way to the resurrection is the way of the cross.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Ezekiel 37.1-3(4-10)11-14
Romans 6.16-23
John 11.(1-16)17-44