Ya know, it seems like there are a lot of people out there in this big world, that are plain afraid of dying. They are so afraid of the thought that everything they know could all be over, that they medicate, sedate with all kinds of stuff, and some out right hyperventilate at the idea of someday dying.
There are those that get so overwhelmed, and so obsessed about the fact that they are not in control of their lives that they adopt non-natural approaches of coping with their humanness. By this I mean, some people drink, or drug to forget and go numb, some become adrenaline addicts by pushing the envelope farther and higher to feel alive, there are those who will spend not only all of their own money, but even all that belongs to others that exists within earshot as well. All in the effort to tune out anything that seem contrary to their perceived ideas of happiness.
My hope today is to make the case to all of you that indeed those of us who have invited the Lord into our hearts, into our lives, have already died to this world’s idea of life, and have began to learn about living forever.
As a way of reinforcing my thought to you today, I would like to read from Paul’s letter to the young church in Rome. A church much like ours today, with all kinds of questions about how to live a good life, what living in the world means to all of us that call ourselves part of God’s family. Reading from Romans 6:6-11;
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
You see, each of us who has invited the Lord into our lives, are dying each day to that junk we are trying to leave at the curb and learning what the good life might be like. A joyful, robust, exciting life, is the reality of waking each day and looking for ways to serve, ways to enjoy, ways to love our God for all he has given not only you, but given the loved ones in your life. And… as you learn to love God, the number of loved ones in your life begins to increase as well.
In short, when I traded Masters…The one or ones that I was addicted too (you name your poison), traded them for Jesus Christ, I found freedom in my new Master… God Himself. And each and every one of you have that freedom to choose God over that stuff that really causes death… Selfishness itself!
Now that we have had a chance to think a little more about these choices God gives us in this beautiful life, perhaps today’s Call to Worship reading will take on new found meaning for each of us. This is: “A song of ascent” in which the congregation of Israel would sing together as a family in God as they went up to God’s Temple, His House. Reading Psalm 130;
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
God does forgive our sins! So, there is nothing but you… that can keep God out of your life, and your heart. Simply stated, all of us must get past ourselves, and begin or re-begin the relationship, the path that leads to a Faithwalk, that leads to life everlasting in and with your Lord and God’s family.
In fact, I think that is metaphorically what is happening in today’s message reading about Lazarus’ death. Because the real story is about his real life or re-life, following his worldly death. Here again is today’s Message Reading from John 11:1-16;
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 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.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
*Cutting in to say; It must have been really hard to understand why Jesus didn’t go to Lazarus immediately. All of us are learning about God’s time frame and how it glorifies God, and it isn’t the same as our selfish desires! By the way, our sickness will not end in death either, when we are in and with our Lord. Verse 8;
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
How incredible is this dialog. There is sleep and there is death, there is awake, and there is alive, and you and I get to select what you want to reflect in our lives! How awesome is that? You almost get the sense that the Disciples are being gently awakened from their own slumber, and actually not only awaking to what real life is, but actually living in and with the Lord. When Thomas says let’s go and die with him, is he saying with Jesus, or with Lazarus? If they are dying with Lazarus, the Lord will restore them too, and if it is to die with the Lord, they will get to live with Him too!
Our narrative continues at John 11: 17-45;
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
*Wow, and Wow some more; Martha’s statement precisely describes our Lord and her building faith that is growing all the time. Verse 28;
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
**Wow again; Mary hasshown that faith in the Lord is a family trait, and these two sisters are a marvel indeed! This moving passage is now about to hit home for some of us. Let me read on, beginning with verse 33;
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
***Interrupting the narrative to say; If they would have stopped here, they would have been perfect in their statements. Jesus loves us that much, that He (our God) weeps for the lost us, the hurting us, the overwhelmed and oppressed, the heartacking, grieving, burdened you and me! That’s how much your God loves you and some more on top of that my beloved! Even when we open our mouths and say the stuff we say. On to verse 37;
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
“Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Could have been the title for today’s message…And faith abounds. To put this in crude terms for I have no eloquence to do justice to the majesty of this passage. Take off the junk that is keeping you from Him, and from other people and live. This is kind of a mock-up of what God told us He would do for you children of His, way back in the Old Testament. Reading from Ezekiel 37:1-6, 12-14;
1 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”…
…12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Yes, this resurrection foretold by Ezekiel was written even before our Lord’s earthly ministry, and tells us what He will do. Even this kind of gory passage ceases to be morbid when we reflect that all those bones and graves mentioned reflect the death we lived in sin and are traded for the new life awaiting each one that chooses Him!
Our resurrection of the living in Christ proves the title of today’s message; Dying Aint Morbid, Living Selfishly Is! Because when I chose to die to the junk of this world that only knows how to chase itself in selfish ambition, when I die to that, I begin to really live in the here and now.“Take off the grave clothes and let go.” Let God put His Spirit in us and we will live…forever…Amen!