Anticipation – March 27, The Sixth Saturday of Lent

John 11:1-44 NIV

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

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

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

There are so many things we could discuss with this passage of scripture.  So many wonderful truths contained therein, but there is one that jumps in front of them all as we approach Easter – we are like Lazarus.  We are like Lazarus in that we will die.  Death has come into the world because of the fall of Adam and we will surely die.  “But Lazarus was raised,” you may interject.  Yes, but even in his risen state he was still to die again.

I think this might be the reason Jesus wept.  Yes, his friend Lazarus had died, but he knew ahead of time that he was going to raise him from the dead, or “wake him up” as Jesus says.  I think one of the reasons Jesus wept is because he saw the pain that the decay of sin brought into the world.  He saw the havoc that death brought and his love for Lazarus (and also for us) caused him to weep.

But a reminder of our death is not the reason that this scripture is before us today.  Today, this scripture reminds us of the all-encompassing nature of Christ’s work.  Today we look at Lazarus not as a man who died, was raised, and the died again, but as a prequel or anticipation to the resurrection.

In just a short week (and a day) we will celebrate Easter.  We will celebrate the fact that Christ is risen from the dead and that by conquering death he has given us life.  We will joyously sing and proclaim that death could not hold Christ and that he has defeated sin and death.  We will remember that Christ is not like Lazarus, he will not die again.  No, he is risen indeed!

What Lazarus reminds us of today during Lent is the greatness of Christ’s resurrection. It gives us an anticipation of the resurrection.  Christ has conquered death and sin, therefore death and sin no longer have a hold on us.  Yes, we will die like Lazarus, but we will rise again.  Just as we say in the Apostles Creed every Sunday – “I believe…in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”  What Jesus has done for Lazarus he will do for all of us!

I am also stuck by the thought that even as Lazarus hears the voice of Christ and exits the tomb he is still in his grave-clothes.  In order to fully respond to Christ he must remove these grave-clothes that bind him.  So it is with us.  In order to fully follow Christ we must hear his voice and strip ourselves of the clothes of our sin and death.  Lazarus also reminds us this day that we must cast aside everything which hinders us and follow Christ.

Today we catch yet another glimpse of the fullness that is to come.  Today we are reminded that our place is not in the tomb, but with Christ our life.  Today, we are reminded that if we hear Christ’s voice we must respond and “come out” and remove the clothes of sin and death that bind us.

Let us be attentive to the voice of God that calls us from our death in sin to life in Christ Jesus.

Closing Prayer:

O Lord and master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.  But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.  O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother or sister for blessed are you always.  Amen

– The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem