Loving God, in your Word you teach us not only about you but also about ourselves.  Help us to continue to grow in our faith and in our understanding by the power of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    At the Celebration of Faith event last weekend, Dr. Rolf Jacobson reminded us that the stories we find in the Bible actually tell us something about ourselves.  They are not just about people who lived long ago in a land far, far away.  Instead, they are about us, and about how we relate to the God who created us and redeemed us and loves us. This seems especially true of today’s gospel, for it seems to me that most people will find a lot in this story that they can relate to.  I invite you to work your way through the story with me this morning, and to meet Jesus in the process.

    As our gospel begins, Mary’s brother Lazarus has just died.  She is full of “ifs” and “what ifs.”  She is full of questions.  She wonders why Jesus didn’t come sooner.  She wonders why Jesus didn’t prevent her brother from dying.  She says to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (Jn. 11:32).

    Anybody who has ever lost a loved one knows this feeling.  Sometimes we berate ourselves or others with “if onlys.”  If only I had done this or that, my loved one would not have died.  If only somebody else had done this or that, things might have been different.  If only things had been different that day.  If only God had stepped in and done something.

    Most of us don’t deal too well with loss, and so we wish with all our hearts that things could be different and that our loved ones could still be with us.  But did you notice Jesus’ response to Mary’s grief and questioning?  Jesus doesn’t defend or explain himself.  He doesn’t say, “There, there - it will be okay.”  Instead, Jesus totally empathizes with her.  He is deeply moved and disturbed in spirit, and he weeps with her!  Jesus feels our losses.

    Have you ever imagined yourself crying on Jesus’ shoulder?  Have you ever imagined Jesus crying with you?  What difference might that make in your relationship with God if you knew that God was there crying with you?  Our God is not aloof and unfeeling and uncaring.  Instead, our God weeps with us.

    Just as in the gospel, some will hear this and be aware of God’s love and care for us.  Others will ask the “why?” questions.  Why didn’t Jesus prevent Lazarus from dying?  He has the power.  Why didn’t he use it?  Why would he open the eyes of a blind man and yet not save his friend from death?  And don’t we ask the same kinds of questions?  When we do, we’re not alone.

    Once again, Jesus does not defend or explain his actions.  Instead, he tells them to take away the stone that covers the entrance of the cave where Lazarus is buried.  Rather than trusting Jesus and doing as he says, Lazarus’ sister Martha immediately thinks of why they shouldn’t do what Jesus says.  “It will smell,” she objects.  “He’s already been dead for four days!”  “What do you think you’re doing, Jesus?”  And how many of us can see ourselves in Martha?

    Jesus says to us and to Martha, “If you believe, you will see the glory of God.”  God has the power to do amazing things.  God has the wisdom to see how best to proceed.  God can see consequences and future events that we haven’t even thought about yet.  And we come up with objections and all of the reasons why God should do things differently.

    How many times do we hear an idea about how to carry out God’s mission and immediately come up with all of the reasons why it won’t work?  How many times do we hear about something that is working really well somewhere else and immediately lament about why it would never work here?  How many times does God put an opportunity for something really big right in front of us, and all we can come up with are objections to moving the stone?

    “Believe, and you will see the glory of God.”  When we can truly believe and trust in Jesus, things begin to look a lot different.  We may not always get satisfactory answers to some of our “Why?” questions, but when we can ask them within a relationship of trust in God, we are more likely to rest content that God really does have our best interest at heart.

    If we take the example of somebody close to us dying, there are often a lot of “why?” questions.  But consider some of the things that we are not able to see.  Maybe that person was spared some sort of serious suffering years down the road.  Maybe something good came out of their death that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.  Maybe the time that had been allotted for them on this earth was simply finished.  Maybe some other person made a choice that took them before their time.  Yet, even then, God can bring good out of the situation.  “Believe, and you will see the glory of God.”

    In the gospel, when they finally do what Jesus tells them, they do witness the glory and the power of God.  And we also witness through Jesus the power of prayer.  As we often see when God’s power is made manifest through Jesus, prayer comes first.  I can’t help but think of the time when the disciples were trying to cast a demon out of a boy and couldn’t do it (Mk. 9:14-29).  Apparently they had forgotten to pray!  It is prayer that welcomes and invites the power of God to work within us and through us, and it is prayer that enabled the power of God to work through Jesus.

    In Jesus, we see that God has the power not only to heal, but even to raise the dead.  And while you may not have experienced raising the dead, I know that many of you have had experiences where you have seen the power of prayer and the glory of God.

    In Jesus, we also see the power of God’s Word.  Just as God simply had to say, “Let there be light,” in order for there to be light (Gen. 1:3), Jesus simply has to say, “Lazarus, come out,” and he rises and comes out of his tomb.  However, this couldn’t have been an easy feat for a man who was all wrapped up in strips of cloth.  Jesus’ next words are spoken to those who are standing by: “Unbind him, and let him go” (Jn. 11:44).

    Once again, we may not be lying in a tomb, but what is God’s powerful Word that he speaks to us?  Do we hear God as he says, “Your sins are forgiven”?  Do we hear Jesus as he commands us to love one another as he has first loved us (Jn. 15:12)?  Do we hear as we are told to abide in Jesus, and he will abide in us (Jn. 15:4)?  Do we hear the gospel message of repentance and forgiveness, that we might have life in his name?

    And finally, what is it that binds us or others?  If Jesus were to say about each of us, “Unbind him” or “Unbind her” and “let them go” what would be stripped away from us that is keeping us bound?  Whatever it is, hear Jesus ordering it to be removed.  This story is not about people living long ago in the Holy Land.  Rather, this story is about us.

    Let us then abide and trust in the God who weeps with us, and who shows his glory, and who speaks his powerful Word, saving and redeeming us through Jesus Christ.  For Jesus says to us, too, “Believe, and you will see the glory of God.”  Amen.

All Saints Day                                John 11:32-44
November 1, 2009
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2009 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved