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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
“Sweet injuries!” Hymnwriter Samuel Crossman, in the Hymn of the Day that we just sang (Lutheran Service Book 430:4), calls “sweet injuries” Jesus’s making the lame to run, Jesus’s giving the blind their sight, and, probably also to be included, Jesus’s raising Lazarus from the dead. The Jewish leaders at these “sweet injuries” themselves displease and against Him rise, rise not only against Jesus but, not long after, rise against also Lazarus (John 12:9-11), who, some think, may even have been a member of the Jewish ruling Council, the Sanhedrin (Weinrich, ad loc John 11:1, p.544; ad loc John 11:17-27, p.584; and ad loc John 11:45-54, p.663). As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, at least some members of that ruling Council wanted to stop Jesus, apparently out of fear that the occupying Romans would remove them from their positions of power (Weinrich, ad loc John 11:45-54, pp.655-656, 664-665), but their leader, Caiaphas the High Priest, prophesied that Jesus would die not only on behalf of the nation of Israel but also that the scattered Gentile children of God might be gathered into one. Because Jesus did so die, He is the Resurrection and the Life.
Today’s nearly-one-chapter-long Gospel Reading moves quickly from each of its arguably five sections or scenes to the next (confer and compare Weinrich, ad loc John 11:1-16, p.557-558; ad loc John 11:28-37, p.610; and ad loc John 11:45-46, p.661). Lazarus, Mary, and Martha are introduced, and Jesus learns of Lazarus’s illness, remains where He is for two days, and teaches His disciples. Next, Jesus finds that Lazarus has been dead four days—long enough to be sure that he was really dead and for his body to begin to decay and decompose—and Martha meets Jesus. Afterwards, Mary comes to Jesus. Then, Jesus raises Lazarus. And, finally, the Sanhedrin decides to kill Jesus. This chapter and the next chapter, much of which chapter we will hear next Sunday, can be understood as beginning a new major section of St. John’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, the final major section that is the rest of the account, the exultation and glorification of the Son of God. Arguably more important to us than that beginning of the new section is the new beginning that we have in Jesus, Who is the Resurrection and the Life (Weinrich, ad loc John 11‑12, pp.540-541).
Today’s Gospel Reading shows a lot of ignorance or at least misunderstanding, whether with Jesus’s disciples, Martha and Mary, the Jews present at the tomb, or the Jewish leaders. For example, Jesus’s disciples thought that His reference to death as sleep meant taking rest in sleep. Both Martha and Mary perhaps thought that Jesus could only have prevented Lazarus’s death—and have prevented Lazarus’s death only if He had been there (compare, for example, John 4:46‑54)—and even Martha both wrongly distinguished between Jesus and God and seems not to have fully appreciated until later what it meant that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, despite her seemingly strong confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, Who is coming into the world. The Jews present at the tomb arguably misunderstood Jesus’s weeping and at best wondered whether Jesus could have prevented Lazarus’s death (Weinrich, ad loc John 11:28-37, pp.610, 624). And, the Jewish leaders seem to have wrongly thought of Jesus both as establishing an earthly Kingdom (compare John 18:33-38) and as only a man.
Likewise, we show a lot of ignorance or at least misunderstanding. We similarly misunderstand the body’s sleep of death: for example, too often we think of death as permanent. We similarly may think that Jesus can only prevent death, and we may wrongly be disappointed when He does not prevent death. Despite our strong confessions of faith in Jesus, we similarly may fail to fully appreciate what it means that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, failing to value rightly the body that He will resurrect and/or failing to regard more-highly the life of the world to come. And, we may wrongly want Jesus to establish more of an earthly Kingdom here and now. By nature, we are ignorant of and unable to understand spiritual things. We are sinful by nature and so we actually sin, in thought, word, and deed. On account of our sinful nature and our actual sin, we deserve temporal death and eternal torment, unless, enabled by the Holy Spirit, we are sorry for our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for the sake of Jesus, Who died on the cross for us.
As we heard in the Gospel Reading, Jesus’s raising Lazarus led to the Jewish Council’s making plans to put Jesus to death. The verse that immediately follows today’s Gospel Reading reports that, as a result of the Council’s plans, Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, at least until His time came with the coming of the Passover (John 11:54, 55; confer and compare Weinrich, ad loc John 11:45‑54, pp.660-661, 674-675). Then, the prophecy of Caiaphas the High Priest came true: one Man did die for the people, not only for the Jewish people or nation but also that the scattered Gentile children of God might be gathered into one. Of course, Jesus was no mere man but also God in human flesh. As the greatest High Priest, Jesus sacrificed Himself, in order to atone for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. Jesus loved not only Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, but Jesus also loved the world, including you and me. Christ crucified shows both God the Father’s will to save and the effecting of that will in the voluntary, eternal‑life‑giving death of God the Son (Weinrich, ad loc John 11:1‑16, p.563). Jesus’s resurrection of Lazarus in part was intended for Jesus’s disciples to believe, and we heard that many of the Jews, who had seen what Jesus did, also believed in Him. They believed in Him as God, Who alone can raise people from the dead. When, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, we repent and believe in Him Who is the Resurrection and the Life, then God forgives us our sinful nature and all our actual sin—our ignorance of and misunderstanding spiritual matters, or whatever our sin might be.
Some-times Jesus healed “in-person”, and other-times Jesus healed “remotely”. Surely Jesus could have raised Lazarus “remotely”, but Jesus chose to raise Lazarus “in-person”. Similarly, Jesus could forgive our sins only “remotely”, but Jesus chose to forgive our sins also “in‑person”, through those to whom He gives His authority to forgive sins with His Means of Grace. In today’s Gospel Reading, perhaps Jesus sent a message back to Mary and Martha that the Holy Spirit used to create or sustain faith in them (see Weinrich, ad loc John 11:1-16, p.561), as the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word read and preached to groups such as this group in order to create and sustain faith. In the Gospel Reading, we heard that Jesus’s death gathers into one the children of God. On the basis of God’s Word, we believe, teach, and confess that the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith (Small Catechism II:6). And, we know that we are made children of God as He gives birth to us from above by water and the Spirit (John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5; confer Weinrich, ad loc John 11:45-54, pp.669, 672-673). As Jesus ordered the resurrected Lazarus to be unbound and let go, we who are made children of God through Holy Baptism in turn confess the sins that particularly trouble us, for the sake of the unbinding and freedom of Holy Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself (Small Catechism V:2). And, Jesus, Who does not symbolize but is the Resurrection and the Life and the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48; confer vv.41, 51), in the Sacrament of the Altar, gives us bread and wine that do not symbolize but are His Body and Blood (Pieper, III:334 n.62, 352), and so there He also forgives our sins and gives us life and salvation, and the peace and joy that come with that life and salvation.
Today’s Gospel Reading is said to illustrate “the life-giving power of Jesus’ own sacrifice” and to indicate “the way of the cross as the pattern of life for those who are raised to discipleship with Jesus” (Weinrich, ad loc John 11:1-16, 556). As we follow that way of the cross, through suffering to glory, we can and at times will struggle to understand God’s timing and plan in regards to our loved ones and ourselves. But, with daily repentance and faith, we live in both the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and the forgiveness of sins that we in turn extend to one another. We confess our faith in Jesus Who is the Resurrection and the Life. And we know what He said to be true: that we who believe in Him, even if our bodies might die before He comes in glory, will live eternally in our bodies then resurrected and glorified. We who so live with that eternal life as our possession already now and believe in Him will never die the so‑called “second” death of eternal torment in hell (Weinrich, ad loc John 11:17-27, pp.581‑582, 592-595). And, as Lazarus rose bodily and Jesus rose bodily, so we, too, will rise bodily.
As we are loved by God and grow in our appreciation of that love, we love Him and grow in that love of Him. As we did in the Hymn of the Day (LSB430:7), we sing of Christ: “This is my friend, / In whose sweet praise / I all my days / Could gladly spend” (confer Veith, LSB:CttH #430, p.260).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +