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Hello everyone and welcome back to the Matthew Schreiner Podcast, and in todays episode we are going to look again at the readings from Sunday. This Sunday we again have a rather long gospel reading. But this gospel reading tells us the familiar story of Lazarus. And we learn a lot important from the story of Lazarus. The readings from year a, of which we read this year, are used often during Lent in the presence of Catechumens. And in this cycle of readings we are reading now from the gospel of John. And these stories are all about Christ, and the things he has done, and they are very important. Especially what we read today. John’s gospel is different then the other three, and he is oft depicted as an eagle, because he gives a view on “eagles wings”, a very spiritual and high view of things. As we have done let’s dissect this reading.

A man was ill, Lazarus, we are told about Mary, who was the one who washed Jesus’s feet. This is Martha and Mary who the Lord went to their house. This is when Mary was staying by Jesus listening to him, while Martha was made to do all the work. That is unimportant for today, but to give you a little bit of context of who this. They call to Jesus. Jesus says that this illness is not to end in death, except for the glory of God. Which is reminiscent of what Christ said last week, that the man born blind was blind so that the works of God may be done.

We are told Jesus remains where they are for two days, before Jesus says “Let’s go to Judea”, and the disciples think that he is crazy for wanting to go back, as at last they were there, the people of Judea wanted to stone Jesus. And then Jesus speaks in metaphor. He speaks a lot in this metaphorical way, that is truly rather interesting. I imagine Jesus was an interesting man to hang out with. He seems almost like a sarcastic man. One can wonder what the disciples and those around him thought of him. He was wise, truly.

Jesus then says that Lazarus’s death is for them to believe. And then Jesus arrives, and Lazarus has been dead for four days. Martha says that if Jesus had been there, hwe brother would not have died. But God will do whatever Jesus asks. Jesus says he will rise, and Mary says, I know he will, on the last day. Then Jesus says something profound:  “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” And Martha to this replies: “Yes, Lord. I […] believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

The Jews who came to comfort Martha and Mary, after Mary is made aware that Christ has come to town, and she goes so quickly that the Jews follow her. I almost imagine this in a cartoonish way. Then we hear something profound: Jesus wept. At the death of Lazarus, knowing he is actually dead, he weeps. He has become “perturbed and deeply troubled”. He weeps. And the Jews again are divided: “See how he loved him.”, some say, but some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus goes to the tomb, and asks that the stone be rolled away. And Martha says that there will be an odor. They roll away the stone, and Jesus, raises his eyes and says: “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” and he cries out, and we will read till the end: “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.” Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

Let us read the short first reading from Ezekiel: Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them,  O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live,  and I will settle you upon your land;  thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

This excerpt is what we read in the stations of the cross version I read aloud. And I like this excerpt of scripture.

The psalm today is the de pro fundis prayer, meaning out of the depths. Out of the depths, in true sorrow, we cry to God, and ask that he hear us: Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; LORD, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication. We are told of forgiveness: If you, O LORD, mark iniquities, LORD, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered. We are told of the deep trust we must have: I trust in the LORD; my soul trusts in his word. More than [watchmen] wait for [daybreak], let Israel wait for the LORD. And we are told of the great kindness and redemption of the Lord: For with the LORD is kindness and with him is plenteous redemption; And he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.

And let us read some of Paul: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit,  if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.

We read something important in all of these readings. The resurrection of the dead. Death is not the end for Christian believers. We are promised that at the end, there is resurrection. That we will all one day be alive again. And we especially read in Paul, that we are no longer in the flesh, for the spirit of God dwells in us, and when Christ dwells in us, we are made righteous, though the body is dead in sin, the spirit it is alive. If our spirit it alive, the one who raised Christ from the dead, will give life to our mortal bodies.

There are two important lines we read in the gospel: I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die., and “you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

The second line is similar to what Peter says about Christ in his confession. But this is what Martha says after Jesus says the first line. Jesus says something very important, and similar to what Paul says, that Jesus is the resurrection. Martha already believes in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. But Christ identifies himself as the principal actor of this thing. He identifies himself, in a way, close to God, as the one who will raise everyone from the dead. The Jews believes in this. And Jesus identifies himself with this thing. God is the giver of life, and Jesus claims to be the one who will give life at the end of time. Jesus says this more clearly he is the life. Life is God’s gift, therefore he is identifying himself with God. He continues that anyone who believes in him will never die. That whoever believes in him will live.

And many Jews began to believe in him? What did they believe. That which Martha says. That Jesus is the Christ sent by God. And that what Jesus says of himself. That he is the son of God, the Christ, sent by God.

Death is something we will all experience. Be it of a loved on, a friend, a neighbor, and eventually ourselves. What is there after death? Jesus does not offer a physical immortality, rather he offers us spiritual immortality, our spirit will live on, until the end of time, when life will be given again to our mortal bodies. All we have to do, is believe in Jesus.

Jesus offers eternal life. He offers us meaning, something to look forward to. Jesus offers us something that no one else can offer us. This brings us back to Lord, Liar, Lunatic, the Trilemma offered by C.S. Lewis. He is either a liar, who is just telling crazy things. Lunatic, someone who believes crazy things that are just that, crazy, unreal, can never happen. Or Lord, these things are all true, and he is Lord God.

He is not a prophet, and he does not leave this as an option. A prophet has no power over life, has no power to raise someone from the dead, by his authority. No prophet can be the resurrection and life. No prophet can offer that those who believe in him, not just in his message, will live. A prophet brings a message, Jesus brings himself. He is also not a wise teacher, we can avoid a wise teacher, ignore his teachings when they ask to much of us. But like with the prophet, a wise teacher has no authority to say the things that Christ says.

And he offers us himself. He offers us life. He offers us resurrection, and all we have to do is believe in him. Let us believe in him, he offers us something no one can offer. And he proves this by giving life again to Lazarus. A liar and a lunatic cannot give this, only the Lord.