Not Sleeping

Not Sleeping, But Dead, Not Dead but Alive!

5^th Sunday of Lent (March 9, 2008)

Rev. Steven D. Spencer – Pastor Messiah Lutheran Church

John 11:35

Grace, peace and mercy from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, Amen!

Our text for today is the Gospel as previously read, but I want to go back and read just a portion of it to you once again. John 8:35 Jesus wept! That’s it! So far the text!

Just two short words, “Jesus wept!” Yet for centuries theologians have been trying understand the significance of this passage. Did John write it to show us Jesus humanity? Possibly! But the two questions that keep coming up are:

1. Why did Jesus weep? 2. And for whom did Jesus weep?

The answer is not as obvious as we might think. Let’s start with a timeline. The raising of Lazarus is within a few weeks of Jesus own death. The place was in front of Lazarus tomb. Did Jesus weep for Lazarus? I doubt it. Jesus knew that He would raise Lazarus. The death of a believer, one like Lazarus wasn’t an event to be sorrowful over. In reality it might have been a lot easier for Lazarus if he hadn’t been raised from the dead. He would have been spared the pain, suffering, death and burial of his friend Jesus. So I doubt it was Lazarus that caused Jesus weeping.

What about the disciples? When the news came to the disciples and Jesus that Lazarus was ill Jesus wanted to go immediately to Judea. But the disciples wanted to dissuade Him for the Pharisees wished to stone Him. “Wait awhile Lord we can travel by night in stealth. “ But Jesus says to them “if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him"(John 11:10). After saying that, Jesus says to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him"(John 11:11).

I find it interesting that our Lord uses a euphemism, “Lazarus has fallen asleep.” Isn’t it interesting how many ways we can say someone is dead or has died. When we lived in Wisconsin we had wonderful neighbor named Alice. She was advanced in years and often needed help with small chores around her house. I was more than willing to help when I could, cleaning gutters, changing light bulbs, blowing snow off her sidewalk the type of things neighbors do. One early spring day she yelled across the street to get my attention. Yeehoo, yeehoo, although it was much louder and higher pitched than that. I walked across the street to visit with her. She was hard to understand at times because she spoke with a Pomeranian Plattdeutsch ascent and she spoke very fast. Quite often she would break into German in the middle of a sentence. As we were visiting, another neighbor joined us.

The neighbor had just lost her husband to a long struggle with cancer. So she wanted to let Alice know that her husband was gone. Alice she said, “I want to let you know I lost my husband last month.” Alice replied, “Oh he’ll show up!” No Alice you don’t understand she said, “He’s no longer with us.” To which Alice responded, “Oh men are that way but they always come back.” Finally in frustration, “He bought the farm!” To which Alice responded, “I hope its bottom land, that’s the best kind of soil.” No Alice, you just aren’t getting it, “HE DIED LAST MONTH, HE’S DEAD!” Oh Alice says, “you mean he kicked the bucket!”

Oh how we try to avoid using the word death and how that sometimes causes confusion as it did with the disciples. The disciples in verse 12 say: "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." They just don’t get it. Jesus spoke of death but they thought He was just talking of sleep. After all, Lazarus was well loved by the Lord and the disciples. If he had been sick Jesus would have certainly headed to Judea right away to heal him. Jesus would never be so cruel as to let their friend die. That’s just not conceivable in the disciples’ minds. So Jesus needs to open their eyes to the facts, “Lazarus has died.” He’s kicked the bucket as Alice would say.

So maybe Jesus wept due to the disciples’ ignorance? No, I doubt it. They had been ignorant so often, He would have been in tears all the time if that were it. And we see in verse 15 that Jesus was glad He was not there so that the disciples might go with Him and see what was going to happen and believe.

Maybe the weeping was due to Lazarus sisters Mary and Martha. Lazarus had been in the tomb 4 days by the time Jesus got to Judea. The Jewish community was consoling the sisters, in their home, over the death of their brother. Everyone knew Lazarus was dead. Never had anyone been raised from the dead after 4 days.

When Mary and Martha heard that Jesus was coming Martha went to meet Jesus but Mary remained behind. Martha plays the blame game. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). But she knows Jesus can do something. So Martha says: “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you"(John 11:22). So Jesus tells her, “You brother will rise again!” But Martha doesn’t get it! Sure Jesus I know that, on the resurrection of the last day. What good is that to me right now?

And then there’s Mary. Jesus sends for Mary. Mary leaves those consoling her thinking she will weep with Jesus at the tomb. Mary comes to Jesus and falling at His feet says: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died"(John 11:32). Mary also plays the blame game. It’s Jesus fault that Lazarus is dead. Maybe Jesus is weeping for them? But I don’t think so. Jesus is preparing to turn their tears of sorrow into tears of joy.

So if Jesus tears were not for Lazarus, not for the disciples, not for Mary and Martha then who is left? Verses 36 and 37 tell us who is left. So the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" And Jesus spoke out in a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out!” And He did! Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

No doubt Mary and Martha rejoiced as did the disciples. Such an incredible feat! Was there anything that Jesus could not do? But not all people rejoiced. Verses 45 & 46: “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.” How many times had Jesus reached out to His people to call them into faith? How many times had they rejected Him especially the Pharisees? The Pharisees the ones that had once preserved the Jewish faith from corruption now were the corruption.

Time and time again Jesus reached out to the Pharisees calling them to repentance and faith. But they continued to reject the truth. Even this miracle, a verifiable miracle would not change their minds. You see Jesus had raised other from the dead, but that wasn’t in Judea. It was in the Northern Realm. The Northern Realm was considered to be a land of hillbillies. You don’t have to believe what happened there. But this miracle was within 2 miles of Jerusalem. It was within a Sabbath days walk. This was an area directly under the hand of the mighty Sanhedrin. Jesus was doing mighty miracles close to Jerusalem verifiable miracles. But rather than believe they chose to reject. They hardened their hearts and rejected the Messiah.

We see this even more clearly in Luke’s Gospel account of Palm Sunday. Luke 19:35-41 And they brought a colt to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near--already on the way down the Mount of Olives--the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out." And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.

How Jesus would have gathered Israel to faith. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!

Time and time again Jesus came to the Pharisees and offered them faith and salvation. Time and time again they rejected the gift. This account of Lazarus serves as 2 important lessons for us.

1. It gives us a shadow of what is to come: “The resurrection of the flesh!” More about that in a couple weeks.

2. It shows us how salvation works. Lazarus couldn’t raise himself from the dead. He was dead, buried and done with a 4 day stink. No options!

We are dead, buried and done in sin. We have no options. Salvation needs to come from outside of us. To be called upon us, declared over us. Not by something we do but solely by the Son of God and His actions. It is God who declares faith in us. By the waters of baptism God pours His living Word upon us. Through the Sacrament of the Altar God pours His life giving Word into us. We who were dead are made alive. And we share the promise that Christ gives in verse 25: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” In Jesus name, amen and amen!