Lent 5
John 11:1-45
3/13/05
“You’ve
Got To Be Dead To Enjoy The Funeral”
I know it sounds strange,
but I really enjoy preaching funerals. It’s
not that they are fun like some Sunday sermons, but rather, it is the fact that
people who are grieving are usually more open to hearing the Good News.
They are hungry for some word of comfort and really, deeply listen.
So today, listen like you
are a mourner... at your own funeral.
In fact, I have news for you, if you lay claim to being a Christian you are
not just a mourner at your own funeral, you are the deceased.
So, sit back and relax, remembering , “You’ve got to be dead to enjoy
the funeral.”
That may seem like a strange
thing to say, but it is true. It is
only when we die that we can receive Christ and all that He would give us as
part of salvation. This death, by
the way, takes place long before we die physically.
We as Lutherans know that we must die to sin in baptism.
We are drowned in those baptismal waters and emerge from them a new
creation. This means that sin no
long has power over us. Yes, we will
still sin, but neither our sin, nor the devil can tell us that we are doomed.
But, we need to die in
another sense as well, and even perhaps before we have died to sin.
We need to be just as dead as Lazarus.
One of my favorite theologians, Robert
Farrar Capon, often uses this being dead theme.
He states that only when we are dead and know it are we able to receive
salvation because it is only when we acknowledge that we are dead, dead and
unable to do anything for ourselves that we are ready to accept salvation as the
pure gift of grace it is.
Yes, just as Lazarus lay
there in his tomb unable to even think a theological thought or whisper an
“I’m sorry”, much less do anything to earn life, just like him, we need to
accept that the life Jesus gives us comes without any merit or work on our part.
Lazarus could do nothing to regain his life and neither can we.
And it is when we accept
that fact, that we can become most alive. Accepting
our total inability to please God frees us from the soul killing need to be
always on guard lest we commit that one sin that tips the scales against us.
It frees us from the need to obey that devilish voice inside that says,
“Yes, I’m saved by grace, but I still need to live a good life or performs a
certain number of works or else I’ll lose my salvation”.
And it frees us from the need to justify ourselves or put on a holy front
because inside we know we’re not good enough.
No, we’re not good enough and that’s why Jesus was good in our stead,
so that we could have the life we could never ever earn for ourselves.
But, this being given life
isn’t just for after physical death, just as this text isn’t just for use at
funerals. Consider verse 25,
“"I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even
though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never
die. Jesus gives life even now.” Jesus
was speaking in the present tense to Martha and He continues to speak in the
present tense to us. Salvation
is for this life as well as the next. Eternity
starts long before we die physically.
So, if we are saved by
grace, if eternity starts already in this life and if it is all such a wonderful
gift, why do so many Christians (so many Lutherans) walk around like they are in
mourning for themselves? Why does it
so seldom show in our faces, in our words and in our behavior?
I would maintain that we
fail to fully embrace Jesus and the promise He gives us.
I think we put God’s grace away in a secret Swiss bank account figuring
that it is only for the next life and has little meaning for this life.
And if we do that, we are still stumbling around in our grave clothes
inside our tombs when we could be out dancing at the resurrection party.
We are freed, not just from,
but also freed to. We are
freed to live now. We are freed to
enjoy our salvation already in this life. We
are freed to live in the wonder and joy of being made alive again.
And I’d be willing to bet that anyone who
truly understands what all this freedom means for their lives will see life
differently and will be able to find life even in death.
Jesus wants us to live now
and he wants to make living meaningful for us in the now.
Accepting the life Jesus offers doesn’t mean we won’t have sickness,
grief and trouble in this life, but we can work ourselves to death and worry
ourselves into an early grave and not be able to prevent the suffering that is
part of life. Nor does Jesus promise
to protect us from all the pain of life. Rather,
He promises to be with us, and call us forth from the grave of these grief
filled times.
I want to share with you
that this has for years been one of my stumbling blocks in faith.
There had been just too many painful experiences and I’ve never been
able to completely trust Jesus because I feared there will be more suffering
ahead. What, frankly, I only came to
see as I was preparing this sermon is that while Jesus doesn’t guarantee a
painless life or keep us from dying, He does pull us through these events to a
new life on the other side.
That last phrase is the key:
Jesus does pull us through to a new life on the other side of suffering
if we let Him. That’s not just new
life in heaven either, but a new life in the here and now.
As I look over my life (and I invite you to do the same) I can see where
going through certain experiences prepared me for a new life. And only by
suffering the loss of something whether it was a job or a relationship or a
comfortable situation of some kind was I able to move on to that new life.
Now, I won’t pretend that I can see the hand of God in every
experience, but I trust that someday I will appreciate how even the worst events
of my life were part of the totality of a good life.
You can do this too.
Being able to enjoy the
funeral of our old lives or phases of those old lives, while clinging to Jesus
as He draws us into our new lives takes faith and surrender.
We will slip. Suffering hurts
and is all consuming, so we will at times hold onto that which is past, even if
it brings us continuing pain. It’s
hard to imagine the new life or trust that we will get there or even survive the
trip when we hurt so much. In that
state all we can do is hold on to the promise that somehow Jesus is with us and
will remain with us until we are ready to move on.
To have a faith that gets us
from death to new life takes an openness to the Spirit who helps us prepare by
looking at our lives from God’s perspective.
It also means we have to be willing to leave our cave tombs and shed the
grave clothes that bind us.
According to
one non-ancient manuscript, Lazarus didn’t come out of the tomb at all, so
Jesus went in after him. He was just
sitting there, all ready to come out, but still wrapped in his grave clothes and
not moving. “Why didn’t you come
out when I called?” Jesus asked.
“I was
waiting for the other three, “ Lazarus explained.
“The other
three?”
“Yes.
You said, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ and I was waiting for my turn.”
Then, set free
from our graves we are free to enjoy the funeral.
We see finally what a victory Jesus death on the cross was.
For by His death we die to sin, guilt and shame.
We are then called out to be alive in our relationship with Him and with
all those have learned to enjoy their own funerals as well.
For Jesus came, not to help us avoid death, but to embrace life.
So, listen up!
Can you hear Him? Jesus is
calling, “Come out!” Amen