Sunday Message at BBP 26 March 2023 – I AM…

I Am. (the resurrection and the life)

Reading: John 11:1-45

• Jesus meets with a religious leader of influence and fame – called Nicodemus – who needs to be born anew.

• He shines a light on the complex human relationships of an unnamed woman avoiding publicity at a well in the heat of the day – and she needs living water.

• An unnamed blind man reduced to begging finds that spit and dirt open his eyes at a pool called Siloam – he also needs his spiritual vision fixed.

Jesus didn’t really know them well. They weren’t his friends. But he knew what was happening in their lives. He helped them all – pointing them to a new beginning, a new truth, a new vision to see and know God in Jesus himself.

All this because God so loved the world.(3:16)

All three were sent onto a new quest –  a different trajectory for their lives – new identity, new truth, new vision – and they would all have to work through the details of what it meant to believe and follow this Messiah, this Son of God.

Today we look at Jesus and the friends he really knew.

I mean close friends. He knew them well. He loved them. Not only as God’s son, but as Jesus the man interacting with people at a close intimate level.

John 11:1  Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. John 11:2  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. John 11:3  So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

This message is not a request but a statement which meant something had to be done.

Like “dinner’s ready” means the battle of the screens versus the voice of the parent begins again – get off that device and come to the dinner table now”.

You see it in his first sign in John’s gospel – remember that this is a gospel of signs (usually followed by teaching) and not just “I Am” sayings.

In John 2 at the wedding in Cana of Galilee we are told that Jesus’ mother was there. She notices a social faux pax or blunder – they ran out of wine. Mary does this kind of speech act thing:

“Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” Joh 2:4  “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

We are introduced to the idea of his “time” which would come. But, it’s his mother. She knows him. What does she say to the waiters? “Do whatever he tells you”. We would do well to listen to Mary too!

“Lord, the one you love is sick” is not some irrelevant bit of gossip. It has this force: “come quickly – we need you – it’s Lazarus” (not some stranger at a well or standing at the gate).

Clearly that didn’t work. It almost seems unkind, cruel at another level. It’s a higher up version of what I’ve had in my parenting life from my kids: “You’ve had more time for other people we don’t know and probably will never know – than you’ve had with us.” Pastors’ kids are often the losers at that level.

Here’s the result: John 11:5  Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. John 11:6  Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

It appears like a deliberate delay. But Jesus – these are your friends!

There are more cryptic clues to decipher. You’ve got them all by now:

• Born anew does not mean a time warp trip back into your mother’s womb. (Sorry Michael J. Fox)
• Living water can’t be carried in a bucket, but inside you.
• Blind people can see, and seeing people can be blind.
• You can add today’s first riddle: People who walk around in the day can actually be in the dark. Conversely, in the dark scary places like a crucifixion site the light will not be overcome. (See John 10:9-10 which seems to say that we’ll be fine even when it’s a shambles out there – as long as Jesus is our light).

The next two today are simple:

• “Lazarus is sleeping” does not mean he’s dozed off after lunch. He’s dead. (Cf. African use of the phrase “He’s late”.)
• And God’s glory involves both death and resurrection when Jesus’ hour finally comes. The glory of Lazarus rising from the dead pales into insignificance compared to the glory of the crucified son of God on the cross, his resurrection and ascension. Oh, and his coming again.

I’m not going to drag you through another long-winded explanation of a long reading.

Here’s what I find really helpful. Some interpretive tips if you like.

1. He had to delay two more days  – for this reason. If he’d brought Lazarus back to life too soon, they would question whether he really was dead.

The belief of the day was that when a person died, their soul hung around  for three days – and then left. You were really dead by day four. (I’m not going to debate near death experiences or the challenge of body, soul, spirit here. This is just an observation). There was a purpose in the delaying tactics.

• Jesus responds differently to different people’s needs. Both Martha and Mary say exactly the same thing to him. They give him the classic “if only” speech that we use when things go wrong through sudden death (whatever the cause) or other traumatic incidents. “If only I’d done this or that…” is our form of grief and regret which is a normal reaction – and most times, especially in trauma, there’s probably nothing we could have done.

For Martha and Mary, is regret that he didn’t respond to their urgent text – because they’d seen the signs, and knew he could have done something.

FIRST MARTHA:

• John 11:21  “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

To Martha he says:

John 11:22  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” John 11:23  Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

She responds with a classic Jewish belief of the resurrection on the last day – that Jesus spoke about four times in John 6.

John 11:24  Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Here comes the final I AM teaching. This is the ultimate claim that Jesus is God:

John 11:25  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; John 11:26  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha gets the teaching. And she needs that (after all she was always preoccupied with chores, wasn’t she).

The result: the most profound confession of faith:

 John 11:27  “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

THEN MARY:

But look at this difference – her words are the same, but she does what she did before when he was in her house:

John 11:32  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.

John continues:

Joh 11:33  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Joh 11:34  “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Joh 11:35  Jesus wept.

This time it’s not Jesus who is God declaring the truth to someone he  loves dearly.

It’s Jesus the human being who responds with the full experience of human grief and feels total empathy for those who mourn – even now.

Martha gets the teaching. Mary gets the tears.

There’s an interesting factor lost in translation here. In both v33 and v38 Jesus is “deeply moved” (NIV)

The word is embrimaomai (ἐμβριμάομαι). This is a word meaning a noisy sound made by animals and people, a snorting raging anger with groaning. Most English translations just duck here. Jesus was not angry, they imply, just “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (RSV, NIV, TNIV), or “deeply disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” (NRSV).

It’s difficult to guess why he’s angry. Not at the people, clearly. I suspect its death that gets to him – he knows how painful bereavement is, the stark loss and aching deep down when we lose someone  we love.

He feels it again at the tomb. I suspect he knows his time is coming. His hour – his own tortuous death. In fact, things move very quickly after this. Raising Lazarus will be the final thing that pushes the authorities over the edge.

“Roll away the stone” – he orders. Martha, ever practical, is worried again, this time about the bad smell. In the old KJV it’s a great line. I shared it with a friend this week who didn’t really believe me. This word is only used once in the New Testament – here. Martha reminds Jesus that after four days there will be a “bad odour”(NIV). In the KJV –“he stinketh”. Jesus, ever the teacher (rabbi) reminds her of his lesson earlier: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

I  love his prayer. It’s a foretaste of John 17:

“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. John 11:42  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.”

John 11:43  When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

John 11:44  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.

In our last verse today John records that Jesus prayer was answered – some of the Jews who were mourning with the family believed.

Read the rest at home. The hour comes quickly. The plot to kill him is set in motion. Read chapter 12. It’s one thing trying to save your nation from someone you think could be a dangerous Messiah.

Sin is insidious. It spirals you down even deeper when you stand against the things of God. They even plot to kill Lazarus.

It all happens as his hour finally comes on Calvary’s cross.

There he hangs for Nicodemus, the well lady, the blind man, his best friends, and the rest of them. And of course, for you and me.

He meets us at our point of need too.

Easter is a good time to revisit how much God loves the world.

And to reflect on our relationship with Jesus too.

What might he be saying to you at this time in your life?

Thanks be to God.

Amen.