Joan attended another funeral this week. One of the inescapable realities we face is death. Nothing is certain except death and the rent day. We all eventually experience the grief of losing a loved one. And we all know that one day we must face death ourselves. We can’t but grieve for the tragedy that death brings to the communities that we have been thinking about in Cambodia in relation to the TEAR fund appeal.

Even though we know that death means the start of a better life for believers, most of us shrink from the prospect of death. Some very godly folk like St Francis of Assisi think of death as a friend, in his hymn he wrote:

And thou most kind and gentle death, Waiting to hush our latest breath, O praise him, hallelujah!

We do not all find that we can look at death that way. For most of us it would be more truthful to say that we regard death as the last enemy, not something to embrace, but rather something to do battle with.

Looking out over the estuary to the Kent coastline reminds me of a hymn by Isaac Watts, which is about death and heaven. ‘There is a land of pure delight where saints immortal reign’. Heaven is like Kent, a wonderful place across the other side. But, there is a drawback ‘death like a narrow sea divides that heavenly land from ours’.

The hymn writer Watts has observed that people don’t want to face death: ‘But timorous mortals start and shrink to cross that narrow sea, and linger shivering on the brink and fear to launch away’.

I am rather apprehensive about whether I will ever dare to sail my boat across to the other side. Generally we feel that way about death, we don’t want to go, it’s scary, and we don’t really want our loved ones to go either.

Death is a tragedy, but the bible does give an explanation of death. It tells us that back in the beginning when God made Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, he gave him one specific instruction. You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when you eat it, you shall die.

When Adam ate that fruit, sin came into the human race, and as Paul says in Romans chapter 5, death came through sin. Yet the wonderful truth of the gospel is that although death dominates human existence, life has come into the world through Jesus, Life that can counteract the power of death.

In chapter 11 John records the last of his signs, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. This is the ultimate sign. It’s accompanied by Jesus profound claim ‘I am the resurrection and the life’, and it reveals to those who saw it and to us the whole purpose of Christ’s coming into the world.
Jesus came to take the sting out of death. Jesus came so that death is not the tragic end, but the gateway to eternal life. He came so that death for the believer would be no more than ‘falling asleep’. You find that that was how death came to be referred to in the New Testament, if you died, you had simply ‘fallen asleep’, and all because of Jesus.

Jesus deliberately avoided rushing to Bethany before Lazarus died. He knew that God had a purpose in the events that were about to unfold. Lazarus’ illness and subsequent death would result in God’s glory, and that God’s Son would be glorified through it. The whole purpose of Jesus coming into the world was to reveal God’s love to mankind. The signs that John tells us of were events that reveal God’s love and power at work in Jesus. In particular, this miracle took place that people might see how God was going to transform the way we look and think about death through his son Jesus.

Lets look at some characters in this story, look at their attitudes to the prospect and realities of death, and see how Jesus, the resurrection and the life not only identifies with people in their grief and despair, but brings life and hope and purpose out of defeat and death.

Lets look first at Thomas. There is more than one death mentioned in this chapter. Besides Lazarus, the impending death of our Lord is in the minds of Jesus disciples. Particularly when Jesus tells the disciples that he is going back towards Jerusalem, the place where they have already attempted to kill him. I like Thomas. He is a realist.

We know from other places in the scriptures that some of the other disciples still were entertaining hopes that Jesus would be accepted as the messiah, he would inaugurate God’s kingdom there in Jerusalem. James and John still had their eye on the places of honour in this kingdom. It tells us in Luke 16v34 that at this stage, when Jesus told his disciples about his death and subsequent resurrection they did not understand.

Thomas was ahead of the other disciples in that he had understood that Jesus was going to die. He says when Jesus sets out for Judea, ‘let us also go that we may die with him’.
There is a real faith and devotion in Thomas, faithfulness unto death. That is a wonderful quality. But yet it is a faithfulness that on its own is fruitless, that ends in despair. Thomas can see nothing beyond death.

There are folk today who think like Thomas. Death is the end. Talk of resurrection seems meaningless and empty. Yet Jesus loved him and accepted him as one of the 12, he accepted the limitations of his faith. We must respect people too who have such limitations and doubts. Although it was hard for Thomas, and that is why we call him doubting Thomas, there came a point when the light dawned, when he met the risen Jesus. You can read about at the end of John chapter 20.

Jesus will ultimately say to the doubters like Thomas in our 21st century ‘stop doubting and believe’. To have a faith in Jesus that excludes belief in the resurrection is ultimately pointless. As St Paul puts it, ‘if Christ has not been raised, we are of all men most to be pitied. To live as we can with a confidence in the life beyond the grave gives us purpose and knowledge that all is not in vain, Gods purposes will be achieved, his love will win. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Lets look now at Mary and Martha. They grieve the loss of their brother. They had not only lost a dear friend, they had probably lost their breadwinner as well. From the brief picture we get of these two ladies, we see a grief such as still accompanies bereavement in the 21st century. There is resentment at what has happened. In their different ways they both say the same thing to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here Lazarus would not have died’.

Don’t we still say the same thing to God when tragedy strikes? ‘Why did you let this happen? Even though we may not say it we often feel it, when faced with loss. We also think or say it when faced with disappointments. It’s good to be honest with God about how we feel. But it’s also important to listen to what he says to us in our disappointment or in our grief.

Jesus says to Martha ‘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?’ Jesus is saying ‘Do you trust me? Do you believe me?’ That is what he asks you and me in our disappointment or trouble or grief. I was privileged to hear RT Kendal speak about his new book this week; the book is called ‘Pure Joy’. One of the things he told us is that he has learned that God sends difficulties into his life to test him. And that when he accept these trials in trust and obedience, then he is able to pass the test; he calls this ‘dignifying the trial’.

In our trials, the way through is not to let bitterness or resentment or disappointments take over, but with quiet dignity to trust God in our situation. To believe that he is the one who can make all things work for good, that he can bring good out of death and evil and disaster.

But lets now look at Jesus. We have here the shortest verse in the bible. Jesus wept. Jesus identifies with humanity in its grief. He feels with Mary and Martha, and he identifies with us in our sorrows too. But there is more than just sorrow. The text speaks of Jesus being ‘deeply moved in spirit and troubled’. The scholars tell us that there is a sense of indignation and even anger in that phrase. Jesus was angry at death. Death was not part of God’s plan for humanity. Death had only come to mankind as a result of sin.

And Jesus has come to defeat the power of death. He orders the stone to be taken away from the tomb. He commands Lazarus to come out. Lazarus is raised to life and comes out of the tomb. The most powerful sign of what Christ had come to accomplish for men and women, the defeat of the curse of death.

Yet signs point to something beyond themselves. In chapter 11 John begins to tell us more of the reality to which this sign pointed. John tells us of the plotting of the religious leaders. Read v 49-52 The reality to which the sign pointed, was that Jesus himself was to die for all the children of God, so that believing in him they all might not perish, but have eternal life.
The sign of raising Lazarus from the dead, points to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. Unlike Lazarus who came back from the dead on this side, when Jesus rose from the dead he went through death and came out on the other side. And that is our resurrection hope. When we have to face that last enemy, what Christ will do for us is not to bring us back to this side from where we will have to face the whole ordeal again. But he will take us through to where he has already gone.

And nothing can stop that; anymore than the hatred and plotting of Jesus enemies could foil God’s purposes. Rather God can make the trials we face; the opposition that comes against us ultimately work for his glory.

Jesus said; ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’

Amen
 

Acknowledgement.

I lay no claim to originality in my sermons. They are an attempt to pass on the gospel message in a contemporary way and depend on the bible as well as others who have studied and written on the passages in question. In preaching from John’s Gospel, I acknowledge my debt to Roy Clements for his book Introducing Jesus and I have also used material from Readings in John’s Gospel by William Temple. PN Jan 04

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