10 April 11 Being Raised John 11:1-45

10 April 11 Being Raised John 11:1-45

It is not difficult to recognize these stories of death and resurrection as a foretelling of what is coming for Jesus, death then resurrection. We should not be surprised I expect, this being Lent and our anticipating Easter.

What we know from the eye witness reports of Lazarus’ illness and death is this. His sisters, Martha and Mary, send word to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” We know Jesus’ response to Martha and Mary will surprise them. Jesus knows Lazarus’ illness is not leading to the sort of death expected, but to an intervention by Jesus to restore Lazarus’ life, and to glorify God. So he waits.

Then knowing that Lazarus has died, Jesus goes to the place where he is. Even knowing that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days Jesus says, “take away the stone”. Then he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus come out!” and Lazarus came out, alive.

Martha and Mary felt sure that with Jesus present when their brother was ill, he would be healed and would certainly not die. They base their plea on the Lord’s love for their brother and their love for him. Jesus, as we will discover, is looking beyond death. Jesus says death will not be the final outcome of this illness. When the dust settles we will all see the glory of God in action, but Lazarus must die first.

There are deep emotions at play in this story. Martha meets Jesus when he finally comes to Bethany where they live. Her soul is overcome by grief over the death of a brother whom she loved. But, she is also a disciple of Jesus, so her heart and soul are filled with reverence for her Lord. Hers is a heart stirred to its very depths, and swaying between grief and hope.

Jesus tells Martha even though Lazarus has died he will rise again. He assures her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Then he asked Martha if she believed this. She did not waver as she says, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Martha is right, Jesus is the resurrection and the life in person. Because he lives, we too shall live. With him present, resurrection and life is assured. He is always the conqueror of death.

At the tomb he assures us once again, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” If we would only believe, if we would have even the faintest faith, by that faith alone, these great truths become ours. As a result of who Jesus is, the resurrection and the life, the life of one who believes always conquers death.

Then his proof, Jesus says, “Lazarus, come out.” And Lazarus does. You see, the dead respond to Jesus’ call. The glory of God, the revelation of his wonderful attributes of power and love, grace and forgiveness were there for all to see in Lazarus emergence alive from the tomb.

Having shown God’s glory in Lazarus’ death and resurrection Jesus has set the table for his own glorification in his approaching death and resurrection. The stage is also set for us and for our calling to glorify God as we live our life as a disciple and he raises us too to glorify God.

We know what this life requires, faith, deep love and trust, allowing our worldly life to die in order for our glorified life to begin. It’s just a lot to ask, to believe and have faith and be sure about this born again promise.

In Lazarus’ story is the assurance we need. We are Martha and Mary and our loved ones have died. We are Lazarus sure to die some day. We love Jesus and we know he loves us. We do have a believer’s faith. We are sure about ourselves. This morning’s gospel assures us about Jesus, about what Jesus will do for us. For in saving us from ourselves, Jesus glorifies not just himself or us for that matter, he also glorifies God.

He glorifies God in his life and, miracle of all miracles; even in our lives we will glorify God. When we join our lives with God’s, we glorify God. We dear ones are called by Jesus to join our lives to God’s. God’s stream of life flows naturally down and around and through all life. Our life is naturally drawn to flow into God’s. It is to this natural state our lives are drawn if we will live honestly to who we are and who we are to be. This is the only life that wants to be alive in us that matters.

The Quaker’s have a saying, “Let your life speak.” “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.”

Before we can tell our life what we want to do with it, we must listen to our life telling us who we are. That is if we believe.

If we believe and have faith this is the truth that will collect us and direct us to God’s truth, to God’s grace, known through the action of Jesus Christ and known through our own lives if we live this authentic truth. Cultivating that life truth becomes our authentic way to live and show the world God’s grace.

That cultivation of life begins for us here in church this morning. It is as if there is a purpose and an intention that God has woven into church that we must listen to. God has a purpose and an intention for our life that we might not know of if we don’t listen. Truth and values are being revealed in God’s holy Word each Sunday and the voice of our life will speak in these stories being told even from this pulpit.

Lazarus’ story isn’t the only one telling us about our life. In 20:7-12, we read.

“A young man named Eutychus, who as sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead.”

I know church can be a place where the preacher talks longer and longer. And I know how easy it is to be overcome by sleep. I too have sat in the pews on Sunday morning. Church, for some, is a favorite place for sleeping.

I recently read of a preacher who tells about the Sunday he had divided up parts of the sermon with the liturgist for effect and to give broader participation. Following the service the organist, who couldn’t see the pulpit from the organ said to the pastor, “I didn’t know that the liturgist was helping you out with the sermon so after you spoke and then I heard the liturgist speak I assumed that you had collapsed and died and that he had to take over the sermon.”

Church can become a place of slumber, a place where a death of sorts is expected. Sad – it ought to be a place of resurrection and awakening.

Eutycus’ story is a strange story; Paul arrives with Luke in Troas. On Sunday they join other Christians for worship. Sunday of course is the first day of the week when Jesus rose from the dead. Every Sunday is supposed to be Easter all over again.

Paul was preaching and he was on a roll and this young man, Eutychus is mentioned. This is where we come in to live the gospel if we are like a 16 year old who has trouble staying alive during a sermon. He falls asleep toppling three stories to his death. Scripture then tells us.

“But Paul went down and bending over him took him in his arms and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” Meanwhile, they had taken the boy away alive.”

In a mere two verses we are told that Paul has paused just long enough in his sermon to raise a young man from the dead and then church goes on as if nothing happened. First Lazarus, now Eutykus. Who, I wonder, is next?

Maybe Luke is saying that this is the way church is supposed to be. Somebody seated in the third pew from the back, once was dead, and is now alive. Somebody near the cross in the choir is awakened from a coma.

This is the point of today’s Gospel lesson in the raising of Lazarus. The resurrection of Jesus means not only that Jesus is loose and on the move among us, but it also means that we can get loose. We can be raised and be on the move.

Things like this do happen here on Sunday mornings. Visitors may not notice it but those of us who are regulars, well we know the possibilities. To be raised from our malaise, our dread, our life of turmoil and pain to then be on the move, on the move to a new way of living.

There are a number of us named Eutychus or Lazarus who on some particular Sunday stumbled into this place, sleepy and slow to move only to be shocked awake. We were just praying our prayers, or saying the words of a hymn not really singing, receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ perhaps, hearing the blessing of peace from our pew mates, when we sat straight up in our pew, our eyes flew open, our hearts leapt within us, like we were raised from the dead.

Born again, to the life we were meant to live, a life we wouldn’t have had if we had not come in here on the first day of the week. And resurrection happened. Just like it did in Jesus’ life, just like it does in ours these first days of the week.

This is the true life that speaks in us. Saying, I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

This is the life death and resurrection may bring. This is the life that is possible for us when we believe in the seemingly impossible. Jesus Christ died for us. Jesus Christ rose for us. Jesus Christ lives in each one of us.

That, dear friends, should startle each one of us to be wide awake. There will be no sleeping today, there will be no falling to our death today.

Jesus Christ is coming to us. Do you hear him now calling our name, “Lazarus, come out.”


In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Additional resources:
Christian Century, February 26, 2008, pg. 21.
Pulpit Resource, Volume 37, No. 1, Pgs. 41-44.