March 26, 2023, What Happened at the Funeral, John 11:1-45 – Mtr. Kathryn Boswell

saintphilipsnorwood ♦ March 26, 2023 ♦ Leave a comment

To listen to this sermon, click the link above. Below is an outline of the sermon.

1. What I am able to do – invite people to remember the good in the person’s life – provide a safe atmosphere for people to express grief – present the hope of resurrection life – all important

What I can’t do – which is exactly what people want most in their grief – give these people more time with the person they love – make it possible for him to meet the great-granddaughter he never got to meet – offer an opportunity for people to say things that were left unsaid

2. The gospel reading brings us into a funeral service here – this family were close friends of Jesus, stayed with them when he went to Jerusalem – Bethany was just 2 miles outside of the city. Martha felt comfortable enough with Jesus to complain about her sister’s behavior. Mary loved Jesus enough to anoint him with costly perfume. Martha called her brother “the one you love.”

3. What is not happening here –

a. Jesus didn’t wait for Lazarus to die, causing pain to his good friends, to set the stage for his miracle. He knew Lazarus had died, and waited long enough that people could have no doubt about what happened.

b. Resurrection – Lazarus still had to face his death some time in the future

4. What is happening here –

a. act of compassion

Martha was a woman of faith, well educated in the Scriptures – she understood that her brother would rise on the last day – but she was like all of us – that was some comfort to her, but what her heart really wanted right then was to have her brother back – now.

And Jesus understood that:

Luke 7

Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her (the word for “compassion” is where we get our word “spleen” – a real compassion that comes from the gut – same word as the Father in the prodigal Son story) and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he walked over and touched the coffin, and the men carrying it stopped. Jesus said, “Young man! Get up, I tell you!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

TV show “Kung Fu” – he went around doing good things, and he was always totally cool – too Zen to live. But Jesus wasn’t like that at all.

When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep – literally “Jesus burst into tears”

When I officiate a funeral, I can’t give people the thing they want most – more time – but Jesus could – and sometimes he did, because he understood what it was to lose someone you love – he understands what it is to lose someone you love

b. The raising of Lazarus was an act of love. But the raising of Lazarus wasn’t only a spontaneous act of love. It was also a powerful sign – for the disciples, for Martha and Mary, for the Jews who came to mourn with the family

Before they even set out for Bethany, Jesus told his disciples, “Lazarus has died. And I’m glad I wasn’t there, so that you may have faith” This was the last miracle performed by Jesus before his passion and death and resurrection, the final demonstration of his power, and a moment of decision.

Jesus spoke to both Martha and Mary before he called their brother out of the tomb. Jesus said to Martha, “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. Do you believe this?”

And for the Jews who hadn’t yet come to believe, the sign of the raising of Lazarus was a moment of decision, too. John says, “Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.” And yet, the very next verse says this: “but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done…and from that day on they made plans to put him to death.”

The raising of Lazarus was more than another miracle of resuscitation. It was a sign, it was THE final and definitive sign of a sea-change in our world. It was a sign of what was about to happen; Jesus about to be resurrected – but even more, it was a sign about who he is, that he IS resurrection and he IS life – that where Jesus is, dry bones will come together like in Ezekiel’s vision – that where Jesus is, lifeless beings will be infused with life-giving breath.

And we’ve seen that in the Lenten readings about the people who met Jesus: fearful Nicodemus, who became courageous in his faith, the woman with the really messy life who became the first evangelist to the Samaritans, the blind beggar who stood up against the wrath of powerful religious leaders. We’ve seen it in our own lives.

5. A few weeks ago we read what Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ – new Creation!” That is our hope, that we, in all the weakness and mess of our lives, can be, are being transformed.

a. And that means at least two things – probably so much more. First, if we know this, it means that it is no longer possible for us to have a foot in both worlds. Because the raising of Lazarus, is a sign that calls for decision on our parts. Like the disciples, like Martha and Mary, like the Jews of Bethany and Jerusalem, in the next two weeks, we are about to walk with Jesus through his passion and death, to his resurrection. Jesus says to us, “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 says to us, “Do you believe this?”

b. But second, like Lazarus, Jesus has also given us the gift of time. Can you imagine how different life looked when his friends unwound his grave cloths and pulled the wrappings away from his face? It must surely have changed the way he related to his sisters, the way he spoke to others, the way he enjoyed the good things in his life, the way his heart went out to those who were suffering. We too, Jesus has given us the gift of today. How can that make us see things differently? What will you choose to do with that gift?