March 26, 2023             Text:  John 11:1-45

Dear Friends in Christ,

Years ago, a young woman became seriously ill.  After being in the hospital for a time she returned home to wait for her eminent death.  Her husband knew the situation but their eight-year-old daughter did not know her mom was terminal.

One afternoon, the little girl overheard the doctor say to the father and mother, “The time is not too far off.  Before the last leaves have gone from the trees you will die.”  The girl went to her room and cried.

A few months later, the father came down for breakfast and the daughter was not there.  He couldn’t find her in the house.  He finally saw her out in the front yard.  His heart was broken as he watched her picking up the leaves that had fallen to the ground.  She was using string to tie the leaves back on the tree.

This dramatically shows what we go through when a loved one is about to depart this world.  We don’t want to let go of those we love.  It also exemplifies a child-like faith.  We know the leaves aren’t going to stop this mother’s death, but this daughter believes in the impossible.

Our gospel is the raising of Lazarus.  Brother of Mary and Martha.  The sisters are distressed as their brother progresses toward death.  They don’t want to let go of their brother, and they hope Jesus can prevent his departure from this world.  By the time Jesus gets there it is too late – Lazarus has died.

When Jesus arrives in Bethany Lazarus has been dead for four days.  Martha goes to meet him.  She says, “’Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’”  Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again,’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’  Jesus said to her, ‘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?’” (v. 21-26)

Let’s make that our sermon title.  How do we see death?  And life?

“DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?”

Jesus is telling Martha Lazarus will not see hell.  Instead, he lives and his body will rise again to new life.  The Savior of the world holds the keys to death and life.  And so the question, “Do you believe this?”  Or to put it another way, and with great liberty, Jesus is saying to Martha, “Do you believe that I can keep the leaves from falling to the ground even when they have changed color and they want to blow away?  You do not need string.  I am the string.  I am the one who brings life even to those who are physically dead.  Do you believe that I can do what is impossible?”

This morning the Lord probes our hearts.  “Do you believe this?”  Can we confess it like Martha?  “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”  Yes, the faith of a child.  “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Now we get to an interesting part of the story.  We see Jesus’ humanity.  Like many of us what touched off his crying was seeing others cry.  The Lord felt the death.  He had compassion.  We need to remember this when our loved ones die.  Jesus didn’t cause the death.  He cares for you and I.  He is there through prayer and our fellow Christians to comfort us.  Here for Martha and Mary He also shows His divinity.

Deeply moved, he goes to the tomb.  He tells Lazarus to come out – and the dead man, now alive, comes out.  What if you were there?  The rot of death in the air?  Would your heart be pounding?  Would you believe what you are to see?  Silence . . . something in the shadows . . the dead man is coming out with his burial clothes still on!

Our loved ones who have died in the Lord are Lazarus.  You and I who believe in Christ are Lazarus.  This is what will happen to all the children of God.  For the sake of Christ even though we die, we live.  Because Christ lives, we never die.  We will be with the Lord in heaven and our bodies will one day rise from the grave.  There is one difference.  Lazarus ultimately died again.  What we have here is only a momentary picture of the last day.  This was to confirm that Jesus was the one sent from God above.

The return of Lazarus to his family was designed to be a picture of the reunion that all of us will have with those who have gone before us to heaven.  After Lazarus came back to life, they gave a dinner to honor Jesus.  

On the last day, we will see loved ones again.  Whether in heaven or on earth, God will provide a great reunion.  This reunion is described as a great banquet.  Sound familiar?  Even now we taste these things by faith in the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In the Eucharist there is communion with Christ.  Where Christ is there is forgiveness and life.  

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?

Amen.   

March 22, 2023 – Lent       Text:  Matthew 27:27-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

With my sociological mind I enjoy watching shows on the mob or the mafia if you prefer.  It is always a wonder why people get involved in this line of work and why have they wielded such power?  It can be whittled down to one word:  bullying.  The mob is made up of bullies.  Pay up or we hurt you, ruin your business etc.  They push people around or kill them just to show their power.  They are sick individuals.

Bullying is a problem in our society.  It happens at school, on social media, in the workplace, and between spouses.  The government has a website:  www.stopbullying.gov.  It names three types of bullying.  Verbal – name calling, threats.  Social – excluding a person from a group.  Physical – pushing, kicking, using your fists.

Jesus was a victim of all three.  The Pharisees and Sadducees verbally bullied him with their “gotcha” questions.  Socially the Jewish leaders discouraged people to follow him, and they spread rumors about him.  We see the physical bullying in tonight’s text.

Beginning late Thursday evening the physical violence against Jesus escalated.  Tonight, we see Jesus suffer the soldiers’ . . . 

“HANDS OF BRUTALITY”

This is the second instance of brutality.  We heard about the first last week in front of Caiaphas.  Jesus was blindfolded, slapped and spit upon.  He was then sent to Pilate.

That is where we find him in our text.  Pilate wanted to set Jesus free as we heard in the Passion reading.  But he was a politician first and a humanitarian second.  So, he hands Jesus over to the battalion – an estimated 600 men – to do their worst. (v. 27)

For a Roman soldier, being stationed in Judea was like being sent to the end of the world.  Nothing to do.  The Jews were a pain.  They needed entertainment and Jesus was the show.  The trial was about Jesus being “King of the Jews”, so they put a scarlet robe on him and a crown of thorns and reed in his right hand.  “And kneeling before him, they mocked him saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’” (v. 29b). They spit on him and struck him on the head.  This act was so torturous that many considered it an act of mercy.  You were so weakened by the beatings that you’d die more quickly when crucified.

Jesus had told his followers to “turn the other cheek” (Mt. 5:39), “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt. 5:44), and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt. 7:12).  This man is now under the microscope.  Would He practice what he preached?  He did more than that.  He fulfilled the Scripture from Isaiah 53:  “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

Jesus let himself be brutalized.  He offered his back.  He didn’t object to his oppressors, because he was the King of the Jews.  He was the King of the Gentiles.  He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Why didn’t he punch those bullies in the mouth?  He did it for you.  Jesus let himself be treated this way.  This was the cup of suffering Jesus asked God to take away.  But God wouldn’t take it away; Jesus was made to drink every last drop.  If He didn’t do it, there is no forgiveness of sins and God’s wrath is still in play.  

Look at the brutal treatment tonight.  That is how thoroughly forgiven you are.  

A bully will try to leverage power and control.  People can feel powerless and alone.  Sin is a bully; it tries to coerce us into crimes against the commandments.  The devil is a bully; Satan browbeats us into bad behavior.  Because of Jesus these spiritual bullies can’t demand our milk money any longer.  Paul writes, “Sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom 6:14). Since the forgiving love of Christ lives in our hearts, we happily submit to his gracious rule rather than to the empty threats of any evil bully.  “Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

Freedom from sin and Satan give us reason to rejoice.  When we join Jesus in his gracious rule, we see what liberty looks like.  As the Holy Spirit enables us to take on Jesus’ attitude we can turn the other cheek, pray for our enemies and treat others the way we want to be treated.  Because Jesus made peace with us through his suffering, we can live peaceably with all people.

It is no wonder why the world is so unhappy.  People living without Christ who are bullied by sin and Satan.  They feel alone and powerless as the bullies dictate their lives.  How much better it is to have God as your Father.  He raises happy kids!  Our brother, Jesus, suffered under the soldiers’ hands of brutality, and as a result we will never have to suffer God’s wrath.  And, as happy kids in God’s family, we delight to bring our brother’s peace to people who are still being bullied.

Amen.