Sunday 3rd November – All Saints – Pastor Adrian Kitson
32 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.’
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked.
‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’
37 But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 ‘Take away the stone,’ he said.
‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’
40 Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 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.’
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face.
Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’
On this All Saints Day we are always confronted with the reality of death. You may have experienced death up close and person this year in your own body or mind. You may have lost someone loved and, that hurts. You may just lament the deaths of so many in the wars of which you hear in other places like Middle East or Africa or Ukraine and Russia …
Unlike so many now, who seemed to have taken on the American custom of Halloween, which seems to embrace death or laugh at death by creating figures and stories and merchandise that somehow marks death with ghosts and goblins and skeletons and witch’s hats etc, we Christians see death as no friend. In Scripture, death is never a friend. It is an unwanted and unwelcome intruder.
But I do notice that many people who have some awareness of Christian faith in their background somewhere but have left it behind seem to befriend death.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been with families preparing for the funeral of a loved one who would not say they are Christians saying that their loved one is now ‘reunited with Mum’ and is ‘in a better place’ and ‘we will all be together again’ one day and etc.
It is like death is nothing. It seems to be trying to deal with the sadness and sorrow by dismissing it and covering with some nice ideas and hope they are true?
That is a lot of faith! Especially when there is nothing of this Jesus, who raises dead people from death and sin in the words or the heart.
The people around Lazarus certainly seemed to receive his death as an enemy; as a very unwelcome and pain-filled thing. This seems more real. This is paying death its due. It is dark and it is final, and it pulls us apart and we feel every part of it. We are human!
But thankfully, they were in for a real shock. Jesus was going to show them the only way to deal with death that is true and lasting and good. It certainly was not by dismissing it, escaping it (as if you could) or sugar coating it. It was dealing directly with it, and of course, soon after this, entering it for us.
Jesus would eventually show us all that death is no friend, and it will hurt but that it does end well when he is in it.
There was long build up to this penultimate sign of Jesus’ kingdom of new life coming. This is the seventh sign of life around which John bears his witness to all that they saw and heard in this Jesus of Nazareth.
This last sign was a pointer to the final sign – the eternal sign – the eighth sign – beyond. That was the resurrection of himself still yet to come. Here we are at seven.
Eventually, in all the sadness and mild anger of Mary and Martha, because Jesus did not come straight away, Lazarus’ sisters and the weeping and wailing of the Lazarus community, unknowingly arrive at the unexpected and unprecedented moment. Jesus the Resurrection and Life is now to give both to this dead man.
But there are still tears – his tears. I have often taken it that Jesus weeping is a sure sign of his compassion and his willingness to identify with all of our human frailty and fear and grief. I still think that is so. But I heard someone say this week that, actually, Jesus tears are more likely to be for the people.
Jesus is weeping because no one, not even Mary and Martha, his close friends, seem to be able to trust that Jesus is life and hope and future in death and beyond; that this last enemy will be defeated.
Jesus is like a frustrated and upset star of stage and screen who cannot get people to ‘understand the real me’…
I often feel like that as a Christian. I find myself in conversations and places where I really wish I could get them or him or her to see how full and complete and good Jesus is and how good this new life that he has given me really is … But alas, the shadow of death; of pride, of fear, of false belief, of shame or whatever else is there. There is no getting through … yet.
Jesus walks on further into this scene. He makes it very clear what is going on.
‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 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.’
This resurrection is all about faith – helping them believe; helping them receive all he has to give – which is life and hope and future with him, even in this dark death business.
In that same word that brought those first humans and this magnificent universe into being, Jesus only needs to speak.
He does not need any of Merlin’s magic, special mystical formulas or supernatural and spectacular lightning rods coming out of his fingers or hidden technology to push back death. He just needs words. His words. No one else’s words. His words of life from this Word of life sends new life to that corpse and we all know what happens.
The dead man walks. Death has been pushed back temporarily. Lazarus would go on to have to go through it again … but not today.
Friends, in the normal hum-drum of your day and in the sadness that often comes your way, does your and my faith lack imagination?
Are we like the Lazarus community who are lost in their own scene and cannot see and receive what is and can be in a new scene where death is defeated?
I suspect I am like that a lot.
But All Saints Day is a day to pull us back to what Jesus has done and still does.
He would go on from this rather good day in the end to re-create a whole new day; a whole new life that wins over death even though it is still here with us.
This ‘last great enemy’, as St Paul names it in 1 Corinthians 15, is still with us but mortally wounded. Like a wounded snake in a death roll, it is only a matter of time until we can walk right on past it and keep enjoying what’s up ahead without fear of its bite in the new day when the lion will lay along-side the lamb and our hands down viper’s nests will be unbitten!
Friend, there is somewhere, or should we say, someone in whom your sin, your despair, your brokenness and your separation can go.
So far can their sting be removed that you can not only keep on walking away from your coffin but serving others as pure gift as you keep walking.
That is how it was for this resurrected Lazarus. He is raised and straight away he is back in the business of hosting a feast with his sisters for his friends!
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.
Friend, if your faith is lacking imagination today; if you are struggling to trust the future you already have up ahead in this Saviour in whose name you have been baptised, then ponder this Lazarus and his sisters.
And when we are reclining at this table hosted by the resurrected Jesus himself in our midst, please know that he did not do all of this just so you can ‘go to heaven when you die’ at the end, but go with him into this heaven on earth right now!
He has raised you for today. His Word speaks new imagination of life into you so you can feast with him now and serve all the world as sign of this future secure that is on offer for all.
So, we ‘living dead’ go to the stenchy places and we mix with the smelly people in all their lostness or pridefulness; in all their loss and pain; in all their dependency or their self-sufficiency; in all their difference and bluff, or their weakness and shame.
With his Word on our lips we go – His words in our words as we with hands and feet serve a feast of life that pushes back death wherever we go.
Yes, Death is still here. Yes, it is still a formidable enemy that can rob us of so much, but the Saviour is in it and if he is in it, he will get us through it.
Just ask Lazarus!
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