John 11:1-45
And Live!
Have you ever tried to unlock a door with the wrong key? Then you know that embarrassment you feel when others are waiting on you to unlock it, but you’re standing there holding the wrong key. It’s even worse when the key still fits the lock but refuses to turn… and you still haven’t realized you grabbed the wrong key. Now, the problem isn’t just the embarrassment, it’s also the fact that now you’re locked out… assuming you don’t have the correct key on you. Or even if you do have the right key, you end up spending more time standing outside the door than you care to admit. But let’s take this one step farther. There are some doors that only have one key that opens them, and only a very special person has the key. If you’re not that person, then the entire point is to keep you out. It doesn’t matter how many times you bang on the door, jiggle the handle, or even trying a different key. It’s not budging for you. For there’s a sense where we must think of death like a locked door. When someone dies, they have been locked behind a door that you don’t have the key to. For this is the pain of being the person locked “out” on the other side. When death takes someone we love, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re not going to find the magic key to bring them back. We’re not going to be able to beat the door down. Death is a locked door that opens for nothing.
This is the context of our readings today. In our Gospel, Jesus learns of his friend Lazarus falling ill. It’s the ill-fortune of Lazarus, but especially his family, that Jesus wasn’t around to heal him. For before Jesus arrives, Lazarus dies. He crosses through the door of death that becomes locked.
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Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus concerning their brother. This entire family has become close with Jesus to the point that Jesus considers them friends, that Lazarus is described as “he whom you love” (John 11:3). And it wasn’t such an outrageous request either. Consider the fact that Jesus healed the man born blind; he’s cured leprosy; healed the lame; and cast out demons. How much more could he cure a little illness? But of course, as we quickly find out, this illness was far more severe than any cold or flu. For from the time Jesus hears this message, it’s only a day or two before Lazarus succumbs to his illness. Lazarus dies. For now, the situation is completely different. Understand that no one has been brought back from the dead once buried. For this is where our story takes an odd turn. It was Jesus himself who delayed. As we read, “So, when [Jesus] heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was,” John 11:6. Those two days was all it took to go from illness to grave. And before you even ask the question, yes, the sisters would likely have figured out quickly that Jesus delayed in coming.
For today, we have to talk about the reality of death and what death teaches us. The reason we have great sadness at the death of loved one is because we know this isn’t how life was meant to be. We know this intrinsically that death is an invader in God’s good world. Such was the reaction of both sisters when Jesus finally arrives, as we read, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” John 11:21, 32. We’re to hear the anger and hurt in their words because death wasn’t meant for any of us. Yet, we’re also to know that we’ve come to lie in the bed we’ve made. It was the original curse spoken over the forbidden fruit. “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die,” Genesis 2:16-17. Death is the result of our sin. Death reminds us that we’re weak, fragile, mortal. It reminds us that we’ve sinned against God and have not upheld his holy Law. For understand that all of this meaning is packed up into the shortest verse in the entire bible… “Jesus wept,” John 11:35. His weeping wasn’t just his mourning over the death of a beloved friend. It was also his quiet admission that God never intended life to be this way.
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So, for all those who have lost a loved one, for all those who had to bury their parents, a spouse, or worse, a child, it’s a pain that will never disappear because we’re the ones locked out. We’re the ones pounding on the door just trying to give them one last hug, one last kiss, one last goodbye. But we’re also to take comfort in those who stand by our side, not because it makes the pain go away, but because there’s solace in company. For the one who stands and weeps with us is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. In a broken world, he has made holy our tears and weeping. He’s hallowed our mourning over death by joining us in mourning himself. “So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!” John 11:36. Yes! See how much Jesus loves you that he joins us in such a lowly thing.
But we know that Jesus joins us in much more than our tears. Jesus’ love is so deep that he can’t sit idly by. He goes to see Lazarus despite the persistence of the Jews in Judea trying to put him to death. For in this act of love, he’s pointing us towards his cross. Jesus goes to join Lazarus, and you, and me, and all who have died already in death. Jesus goes to face his last enemy… death itself. He hands himself over to the Jews, to sinners. Thus, Jesus is taken to the cross to join us in death and the grave. For Jesus pours out his blood for you and me. He suffers the agony of pain and death so that he may not leave us without our shepherd leading us through the valley of death! For understand that since Jesus has joined us in death, he has conquered death. He has overcome death and the grave so that he now holds the key! Thus, as Jesus rose from the dead, now he’s able to call us forth from the grave! Just as he said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26. Thus, Jesus goes to awaken Lazarus, to call him forth from the grave, just as he will call all believers. For at his word, death must now yield. The grave must open. The door of death is unlocked! For it is death that’s weak now! Jesus hasn’t just unlocked the door of death; he’s ripped it right off its hinges! Now, as Christians, death has become but a sweet slumber. It’s become a gateway to paradise where we shall see all those we love again!
By his cross and death, we’ve come to learn:
JESUS ALONE HOLDS THE KEYS TO DEATH AND LIFE!
While we live in this world, there’ll still be tears and sorrow for a time, but let us not be without this hope! That Jesus has conquered death for us so that he now holds the key! For we know that Jesus shall return and call us forth from our graves and we shall rise to new life and eternal paradise! In Jesus’ name! Amen!