Today is Easter the high point of the church year! We will join with the universal church by rejoicing in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We will reflect on John 11:25-26 and John 20:1-9, Picture Jesus: The Resurrection and the Life. These are wonderful words of comfort & hope; knowing that whether we live or die we belong to Jesus. Through his life and resurrection, we also experience life and resurrection.
Today is Easter the high point of the church year! We will join with the universal church by rejoicing in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We will reflect on John 11:25-26 and John 20:1-9, Picture Jesus: The Resurrection and the Life. These are wonderful words of comfort & hope; knowing that whether we live or die we belong to Jesus. Through his life and resurrection, we also experience life and resurrection.
The Resurrection and the Life
John 11:25-26; John 20:20:1-9
Today is the highest day of the church year; just over 2,000 years ago history took a sharp turn towards hope and restoration. On the Friday, Jesus took the sins of the world on himself onto the cross, and by doing so, he took the punishment for all of our sin on himself; reconciling his people with his Father. On the first Easter Sunday, God raised Jesus from the dead as a sign that Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf was accepted and all our sins are forgiven. Hallelujah!
John sets up the resurrection story of Jesus with the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead less than 2 weeks before his own death. Even in Lazarus’ death and resurrection, questions rise up, beginning already with how Jesus responds to the news that Lazarus is sick, “When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Then instead of leaving right away to be with his friend and offering healing, Jesus hangs out where he is for another 2 days before leaving. As they get ready to leave, “Jesus goes on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” When his disciples don’t understand what he’s just said, “he tells them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Jesus’ goal in Lazarus’ death is to help them believe, but the question is, “Believe what?” When you read the Bible, listen for echoes, where do we hear something similar, when are there similar situations. When we listen for these, we begin to get a bigger picture of what’s happening. The idea of not understanding comes up again and again in John’s gospel; from the woman at the well, to Thomas, Martha, Mary Magdalene, and at Jesus’ tomb, Peter and John. They all recognize in their encounters with Jesus that there’s more going on than they understand at the time. In John’s gospel, this isn’t a mark of shame. Jesus doesn’t get frustrated, instead it gives Jesus the opportunity to teach them and bring them into the light of wisdom and understanding.
At Lazarus’ tomb, Martha hears that Jesus has come and she goes out to meet him. Martha goes in the hope that nothing’s beyond Jesus’ ability or power, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus’ response isn’t necessarily what she hoped for, “Your brother will rise again.” These are words that we often offer to each other when a loved one dies, but Martha’s hoping for something more, but she’s also hesitant to push Jesus to directly use his power, so she answers Jesus with some resignation in her voice, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Her last hope that Jesus might perform a miracle for Lazarus evaporates away. Now Jesus goes on, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” He follows this up with asking, “Do you believe this?” Again, this reference to believing, but believe what exactly?
Let’s be honest, we find it easy to believe this on the other side of the resurrection of Jesus, but for Martha and the early disciples, believing the resurrection was harder, even though they had seen Jesus perform miracles and heard his teachings the past 3 years or so. As I reflect on these stories, I see doubt and questions, coupled with a desire to believe and an openness to being open to having our worldview shaped by who Jesus is. I’ve learned that it’s easier to believe our theology as simple knowledge and harder to actually shape our hearts and lives, to allow it to shape us in its hope, comfort, and faith. Good theology is rooted in the good news of Jesus and builds up and encourages. In Jesus’ words to Martha, we hear Jesus is the resurrection and life, that we have life even though we die, and that we have eternal life through believing in Jesus, but death is still a reality that can shake us and leave us with all kinds of questions even as we live in faith and trust in our own resurrection.
Martha responds with a beautiful statement of faith, “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” She doesn’t say she understands exactly what Jesus has just said, but she trusts in who Jesus is. And even though Jesus is the Son of God with power over life and death, he still weeps over Lazarus’ death, over the pain and death sin has brought into the world before he raises Lazarus into life again. It reminds me that it’s good to weep when death touches us, but because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, we mourn with hope. In these ways Lazarus’ resurrection points us to Easter morning.
Mary Magdalene traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was there at his crucifixion. Magdalene shows that she came from the town of Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. The death of Jesus affects her deeply, Luke tells us that Jesus freed her from 7 demons that had possessed her. For Mary Jesus gave her new life, freeing her from those demons, filling her with hope and peace. Mary’s also one of a group of women who supported Jesus and his disciples, so Jesus’ death is a huge blow to her. While it’s still dark, Mary heads to Jesus’ tomb. She was with the group of women who had followed Joseph and saw the tomb he had placed Jesus’ body in. They made plans to come to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and perfumes.
Mary goes a little earlier than the other women, likely to just spend some time alone there before the other women show up. Mary sees the stone rolled away and the empty tomb and runs to tell Peter and John, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Peter and John book it for the tomb and John gets there first, looks inside, sees the linens Jesus was wrapped in, then Peter arrives and goes inside to take a closer look. John then writes, “He saw and believed.” I love his honesty in what he writes next, “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” So much about God is hard to understand. This is why the gift of faith is so precious, a gift that relies on trust and the Holy Spirit’s assurance as the Spirit keeps pointing us to Jesus and the hope we find in him.
It's an emotional day coming after an emotional weekend for everyone. There’ the fear, guilt, and shame that the disciples are going through; there’s the loss of Jesus and the death of Judas after he’s unable to deal with his guilt. There’s a loss of hope. Yet at the same time, God and Jesus are doing something that’s life and history changing, but so much of it is happening behind the scenes where people aren’t able to see it. This is where faith comes in, just like Job discovered, just like Joseph told his brothers centuries earlier that what they had done was all part of God’s plan to save them, helping us understand how Jesus’ death is all part of God’s plan to save his people.
People react to death differently. There’s a general fear and resistance to death today. After 20 years in ministry, I’ve seen how people deal with death, among them there’s the utter devastation that people who don’t know Jesus go through since they believe there is now nothing left of the person they’ve just said good-bye to; there are those who will go through all kinds of lengths to flee from the pain of loss; then there are those who wonder if there is anything to live for and stick their pain deep down inside and try to deny it because otherwise they need to deal with the reality of death.
Compare this to the funerals we’ve had in lately; funerals where there’s sorrow, but it’s sorrow with hope because of Jesus’ resurrection. Easter resurrection is especially meaningful at times like this, but it can also come with questions. We don’t always understand God’s timing or plans. We mourn because of our love for the person who died, but we also live in hope because we know that death has been conquered by Jesus and is now a doorway to eternal life in God’s presence! In a world that assumes death is the last word, there’s something so amazing when someone discovers that tombs are temporary, that for those who believe in Jesus, there’s eternal life. After that first Easter, we get a better understanding of what Jesus meant with “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” What we call death in the end is not death for the Christian. We possess eternal life!