Lament & Hope: Death Can Give Way to Life (John 11:21-27)

Hello, friends, this is Pastor Creighton.

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The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.

Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this?

She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

O dark, dark, dark, they all go into the dark, writes the poet T.

S.

Eliot.

The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant, the captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters, the generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers, distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees, industrial lords, and petty contractors, they all go into the dark.

Boy, Creighton, you've started your sermons on more positive notes.

See, Elliot recognizes the stark reality that we know all too well.

The reality among everything else, pardon me, the reality that among everything else, a pandemic, a war in Ukraine, fires and floods and hurricanes have reminded us to be all too true.

There is a covering that is cast over all peoples, a veil that is spread over all nations.

That veil is death.

It doesn't discriminate, it is patient and powerful.

The world we live in, work in, build and love in is a world in which deterioration, decay, disintegration, and darkness always seem to outpace us.

Life gives way to death.

And we are powerless to change it.

And so we lament.

This is true for Mary and Martha in John 11.

The question in this passage is this Does Jesus have an answer for death?

I think our passage in John 11 puts on display three things.

It puts on display the problem, a promise, and a person.

And these three things answer, lament with hope.

So in John 11, Jesus receives word that his beloved friend Lazarus has died, and he makes his way to Bethany, which is outside of Jerusalem, where Lazarus lived with his sisters Mary and Martha, all of whom John the author tells us, Jesus loved.

Mary meets Jesus on the road first, and then Martha meets Jesus as he makes his way into the town, and both sisters say much the same to Jesus.

Verse 21.

Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother, Lazarus, would not have died.

See, the problem here is death.

Jesus, you've healed the sick, even the seemingly hopeless cases.

If only you had been here, you could have made the difference between death and life for my brother.

Have you ever used the phrase if only with God?

I remember the year I graduated from high school.

Maybe we remember the year we graduated from high school.

For me, it was two years ago.

So my friends and I were starry-eyed.

We were eager to begin this next exciting chapter in our life and launch into space from there.

Off to trade school for some, off to university for others, some taking time to travel the world, and some even ready to start planning their family.

The future looked bright and infinite.

And it was in early June that year when my friend and classmate JJ was killed in a car accident.

Late at night, I stopped at a red light, T-boned by a drunk driver.

It's like Mary and Martha, I don't understand it.

And sometimes I still run through the if-onlies with God.

But even now, Martha says, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

Even now.

Mary's trust in Jesus persists.

All appearances to the contrary, perhaps Jesus can still answer the problem of death.

Jesus gives her a promise.

He says to her, Your brother will rise again.

Martha, death does not have the final word over your brother.

Take heart.

Your lament will give way to greater joy.

Jesus is not saying a nice word of sympathy to Martha.

He's not giving her a hallmark card.

He's reminding Martha of God's well-known promise to raise up his people from the pit of death, the promise of the resurrection of the dead.

Daniel chapter 12 we read, Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

And in Psalm 71, you, Lord, will revive me again from the depths of the earth.

You will bring me up again.

In Isaiah 26, one chapter after our Old Testament reading today, your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.

You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy.

Though they die, yet shall they live.

And Martha understands this.

Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

Yes, Jesus, someday God will raise my brother Lazarus up.

Along with the rest of us, I believe this.

But perhaps this promise is little consolation right now.

Each of us know Martha's pain and lament in our own way.

In a life of lament, God's promises may be true, but they seem so distant to us.

They seem to bear little light upon the present darkness into which we go.

So to answer the problem of death, Jesus puts on display not only God's promise of resurrection, but presents a person, his very person.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Notice that Jesus doesn't say, Hey Martha, I represent the resurrection.

You know, I supervise the resurrection.

He doesn't say, I'm optimistic about the resurrection.

What does he say?

I am the resurrection and the life.

Ego Ami in Greek, I am.

So the very incarnation of the Word of God made flesh is himself in his very person, the resurrection.

Resurrection isn't just something Jesus does, it's who he is.

At the cross, Jesus takes upon himself the very power of death, the full fury and darkness of the bottomless pit, and in his death puts death to death.

And in his resurrection, Jesus triumphs over a defeated enemy.

And now he rules at the Father's right hand, holding what Revelation 1 tells us are the keys of death and Hades, the victor's spoils.

And he promises that all who believe in Him, that is, all who trust in His word to be true, and who submit their whole life to Christ, though they die, yet shall they be raised by the power of God as Jesus Himself was.

See, Christians don't follow Jesus merely because of his brilliant moral teaching.

Sure, he's got that.

They don't follow him because they think it'll lead to a life of prosperity and success.

There's no guarantee of that.

In fact, Jesus says, take up my cross and follow me.

Christians follow Jesus because he is the only person to conquer death through his death and resurrection, and promises us that we too can share in that hope of resurrection, his resurrection, if we'll receive that promise by faith.

In a world where life has only given way to death, now in the person of the risen Jesus, for the very first time, death has given way to life.

And for those who trust him, lament gives way to hope.

Jesus' question to Martha is the question he'd ask you and me.

Do you believe this?

Perhaps this is your first time darkening the door of a church or tuning into a service online.

Or perhaps you've been a lifelong churchgoer since Sunday school.

The question is the same.

Do you believe this?

JJ believed.

JJ's answers was Martha.

He is the Christ, the one who is coming into the world.

Martha had yet to see the power of God raise her brother, which Jesus will, in this moment, she lives in hopeful anticipation.

Like you and I.

Whatever shape your lament takes, whatever your what-ifs look like, however it is you feel yourself going down into the dark, today you can receive hope like a gift from Jesus.

Call out to him in trust.

Lay down your life at his feet.

Cling to his promise.

Though I die, Lord Jesus, I believe that at your word I will rise.

In Christ, my death will give way to life.

Eternum habeas requiem.

May you have eternal rest and new life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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May God bless you and keep you today and every day.