Easter Sunday...Pastor Phil Strong

4-24-11

Text: John 11:1-44

● Resurrection Sunday… this is the day that we typically “pull out all the stops”, theologically.

            We consult the ‘JAMA’ (Journal of the American Medical Association) for their detailed explanation of what happens physiologically to a victim of crucifixion.    We utilize the all of our best apologetic resources to mount a seamless argument for the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus… but all that we are left with is a handful of stories, presented to us as eye-witness accounts (none of which we can prove), a healthy dose of mystery and a heart- suspicion that it just might be true!

● All the signs John has offered are preliminary to this one, not because this is the “show-stopper”, but because of what it says and portrays about Jesus. Not just that he can raise a dead person, but that he IS resurrection and life.

I realized that they really say more about my stubbornness and my demands for proof and less about his potency and compassion.

Faith will never offer you the luxury of absolute-certainty beyond your doubts, but it will offer you reason to believe, if you are ready.

● Jesus asks the question of Martha which drives the whole story; which creates the conditions for our own response… “Do you believe this?”

John is quick to offer context to the story he is about to tell.

            In Bethany, at the home of Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus. Jesus has history with them.

● John comes right out and says it,...“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (v.5)

“Lord, the one you love is sick…” (v.3). What a way to be identified, huh? [Okay, wait a minute,… who is this?] “Jesus wept… see how he loved him!” (v.35-36).

“Jesus loved…Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick…”

 John is so concerned about affirming Jesus’ love because his response to the family, upon receiving word of Lazarus’ fatal illness, could lead you to assume that Jesus is fairly indifferent.

● Both sisters had reached similar conclusions: (with different tones of voice) “If you had been here…” What do you imagine the tone of those statements to be? Sorrowful? Passive-aggressive? Accusatory?  

We have all experienced Martha and Mary’s reactions to life, haven’t we?

“Lord, if you really love me, why ______”. “Lord, if you had been here, ______”.

The problem is that every time you ground your faith in “conditions”, you diminish your capacity for belief.

            Your faith becomes “circumstantial”. Or, to put it another way: what we see happening often prevents us from seeing what’s happening!

● Resurrection: this idea is central to the overarching narrative of the Scriptures: what the world will be like, what our lives will be like when Messiah finally arrives.

The story includes a vision of a world that looked a lot like ours, except with all of the pain, disorder and ugliness gladly absent. At that time, all of God’s people would be given the opportunity to enjoy God’s renewed/restored world. A new body would be essential to such a full-sensory experience.

For the reality of the resurrection to come to bear on your life, I suggest the following:

►You have to know that this kind of stuff only happens in a ‘God-story’.

Human logic and rationale alone cannot account for what happened to Lazarus or to Jesus. We can’t take it and fit it into what we already know. God is in a category all by himself: the Bible refers to it as ‘holiness’.

►You have to imagine this, not just as a story about Jesus, but as a story about you.

            It’s a ‘glorious’ story--- and glory always distinguishes God and distinguishes us. It’s always about what ‘carries weight’ with God and in unmistakable ways, the story of God declares that we matter to him!

►You  have to see your situation, your life, as ‘irreversible’ apart from God speaking, God intervening. You have to see yourself as ‘dead’ with no hope of ever living apart from Jesus.

The story invites you to stand with Jesus before the tomb: the place where death resides, but where Jesus calls them back to new life. Not the same old reality with a new set of experiences or some clean clothes, but with a new hope, a new identity which is now connected to the resurrection and life… Jesus!

►You have to be developing a faith which is characterized by integrity: ‘all of the parts fitting together’; no disconnect between what you say you believe and what is actually ordering your life.

“I believe that you are the Son of God…” Martha’s statement is probably one of the most bold, creedal declarations in all of the Scriptures. She believes… but she just doesn’t believe. She sees no indicator as to how her belief will prove to be of any value to alter her present reality.

“I am the resurrection and the life…” (John 11)

This is not merely a doctrine to be explained or a creed to be confessed, but a person to be followed. Martha is face to face with reality; with life.

 With all that she hoped for in the future presently standing in front of her [like the anticipation you feel when you listen to someone mourn the loss of something valuable and you have it in your pocket; just waiting to present them with what you thought was lost for good].

Jesus does something exceptional here: instead of allowing her to reminisce about a past that “might have been, if…”, he invites her into a future; one that has somehow already broken into the present.

►You have to recognize yourself as “the one Jesus loves”.

            Interestingly, the author of this book refers to himself later as “the one Jesus loves”. Far from being arrogant or competitive, it was John’s life-orienting conviction. It’s what kept him at the cross with Jesus when everyone else had disappeared. The strength of the relationship was NOT necessarily founded on his love for Jesus, but Jesus love for him!

►If you don’t get this, if you are not secure in and secured by this love, there will be little motivation for belief when life gets painful and confusing. If you do get this, there will be nothing that can separate you from it (Romans 8:31-39).

►You have to find yourself engaged in a community of believers who will help you get your grave clothes off!

     “Take off his grave clothes and let him go…” (v.44)

He is essentially mummified (arms and legs are restrained and he has a shroud around his head). He’s alive, but still bound by his old death clothes.

● Jesus is inviting us to get in on this incredible resurrection moment. He desires that we be part of a healing-community which allows us to assist each other with this assimilation into the resurrection life.

Paul put it this way: “Clothe yourself with Christ” (Galatians 3:27) “…put off the old self and put on the new self created to reflect God” (Ephesians 4:23-24) [practice of giving inmates a new set of clothes upon being released from prison? So identified and so formed by that way of life that it was necessary to remove any remnants/reminders of who they had been].

►I invite you, today, to stand before the resurrection---its power, its wonder and its mystery; to stand with Jesus amidst the grief, despair and humiliation of your life and hear him scream, “Come out!”

This is not just an invitation to Lazarus but a declaration to the powers of death!! This is Jesus with attitude!

► “Do you believe this?”