Eternally Yours :: John 11:1-45

For nearly 2,000 years now, in divine service after divine service, week after week ... day after day ... Christians around the world have intoned with a certain solemnity ... but I pray, that it’s with even more confident joy ... that I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Christians who composed those lines from the Apostles Creed ... which incidentally was not written by the Apostles but is instead named in their honor ... have given voice to the truth of God’s Word ... the truth that God creates us and redeems us and sanctifies us through the person and work of Jesus Christ, who has delivered to us the forgiveness of sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. 

We were reminded of that truth today in our Gospel reading from John chapter 11. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. The one believing in me, even if he may die, will live. And all the ones living and believing in me will certainly never die into eternity. Do you believe this?

I most certainly do. 

But it’s a terribly difficult matter to comprehend, isn’t it? 

Oh, to be sure we know death and disease, panic and pain all too well. These things make us squirm. Death scares us. We scour the world looking for the fountain of youth. We want to live. But we are going to die. We can't control it. Especially during times like these ... as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps our world. 

There is no known cure for the Coronavirus, which literally takes your breath away, attacking our lungs and our ability to breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. It is killing more people faster than any virus in our lifetimes. Just in the first three weeks of this month, the death toll quadrupled around the world. 

So ... we will die and be buried. 

That begs my best Nicodemus impersonation: Lord, How can a man die and live at the same time? It doesn’t make sense. 

Well, brothers and sisters,

IN CHRIST YOU ARE ALIVE

God did not create us to die. He weeps over death. It troubles him. He did not create death. He created man for life, for living with him in paradise, in complete enjoyment and communion with him ... forever. 

Life in the garden, that is to say, life in paradise, was not just good ... it was very good ... the best. The sin of Adam and Eve plunged all of mankind into this valley of sorrows, this valley of pain and disease and death, for as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned (Rom 5:12). 

This original sin is a poison, a poison of self gratification that are part and parcel of our culture of death. It promotes selfish pride, arrogance, abusiveness. Ungratefulness, heartlessness, slander. Adultery and pornography. And your dependence only on yourself.

The good news is, God in his grace ... that is His great undeserved mercy ... has taken the curse from us. He has taken the fear and sting of death upon himself. God the Father Almighty has given his only son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to die for your sins. Jesus was sacrificed ... crucified ... for you on the cross. 

Jesus who was born without sin, who lived without sin, who healed you of your sins, literally became sin for you so that you would not have to suffer any longer. Because he became sin on the cross, the author of life faced the full wrath of God and died the sinner's death for you. Sin had to be destroyed. And only God was able to do that. In exchange all who believe in his name have eternal life. 

I am the resurrection and the life, he declares. All those believing in me will live forever. 

And that is why, as we approach the end of Lent, it is good to have these readings today from Ezekiel 37 and Romans 8 to go along with our Gospel from John 11. Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. ... I will put my spirit in you and you will live. ... If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Talk about Good News. Talk about the Gospel. God has given you the promises of promises. But they aren’t just promises. They are, in fact, way, the truth and the life proven in the resurrection, first of Lazarus and then later in Jesus himself.

I am the resurrection and the life, Jesus tells us. The one having faith in me, even though he dies, will live. And just like Lazarus, so too will you live.

There is no denying the fact that natural life comes from God, which unbelievers also have from him. In him we live and move and have our being.  In fact, natural life is part of eternal life. It is a beginning, but it’s ended by death because it doesn’t recognize and honor him from whom it comes. 

Without faith in Christ, the world cherishes only the temporal existence of natural life. And they are unwilling to lose it. 

However, we Christians who have been redeemed through the precious blood of God’s Son, should by practice become beacons of hope just like Martha, the sister of Lazarus. 

Yes, Lord, I believe! She declared. In fact, I have believed in you all my life. You are the Christ, the son of God, the one coming into the world. 

Martha didn’t just start believing when she heard this news. She may very well have believed in Jesus all her life. The evangelist Luke describes a close relationship. Therefore, have confidence in your confession. It is true and certain. I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. Amen. 

Therefore, Jesus being deeply moved by what was happening, went to the tomb of her brother Lazarus. There, he told the folks to remove the stone. I know Lazarus has been resting there for four days, Jesus said. I know he stinks. Because death stinks. But did I not tell you that all who believe would see the glory of God? Then after a quick prayer, thanking our Heavenly Father for his promises, Jesus called out in great voice Lazarus, Come Out! 

And behold, I believe in the resurrection and the life!

Christ has set you free.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God’s love for you is not a passive love. It’s not merely a verbal love. It’s not just three little words of feeling: I love you. 

God’s love is action. His word does something. He speaks and his word acts. It creates and makes new. It refreshes and restores. Through the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus confirmed the fact that he is the Christ, the son of the Living God, He is our Immanuel, and his active love breaks the bindings of sin and death that have bound mankind since that day when Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden to die. 

And now we know that whenever the fear of dying and death strikes in our family or among our friends, Christ comes to us and calls us out of our tombs. Jesus has come to us so that we might have life and have it abundantly. He literally gives us peace and joy and everything that we need to preserve this body and life. 

We Christians believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting because of the faith that he gave us rests upon him who died for us and rose again for us. Though we seemingly succumb to temporal death, we possess the fullness of life because he has united himself with us through baptism. 

Earlier in his epistle to the Romans, Paul writes: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

This new life is yours now ... today ... brothers and sisters in Christ. 

For all who believe in Jesus, death is but a door to the full and perfect life. Death has no sting. It has been swallowed up in victory by the resurrection of Jesus. 

This certainty of the resurrection of the body inspires new hope in the hearts of believers even in the midst of the greatest sorrows, pandemics, and plagues. This word ... I believe in the resurrection of the body ... is stronger than death. Though the dead may have rested in their graves for thousands of years, and pulverized back into dust, yet shall they arise on the last day. 

Eternal life is your present reality. For Jesus has already called you from your tombs through baptism. He has delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from stumbling.