St. Peter Lutheran Church, Arlington Heights, Illinois St. Peter Lutheran Church

Admittedly, we usually hear today’s words when we gather around a freshly dug graveside. The pastor speaks: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.” (v25) However, these words are not meant for the dead but for the living. We need the story of Lazarus to bring hope to our weary lives, to experience the transformation that we long for most. In our text, Jesus finally arrives in Bethany some four days after Lazarus has died. When Martha comes out to meet Jesus, He comforts 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…. Do you believe this?” Martha answered, “Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” Though this sister is neck-deep in grief and sorrow, she holds onto the firm hope that her brother will rise to eternal life – to full and complete transformation – on the last day. We carry Martha’s ultimate hope of resurrection and transformation into our storms of life too.

The lingering Jesus didn’t just cut it close; He didn’t make it in time. In the extra days that Mary and Martha waited for Jesus, their brother Lazarus died. Their deepest fear and concern had become reality. We know what it’s like to sit with life’s losses too: a divorce, diagnosis, church split, job loss, death of a family member, shattered dream, memory of past abuse. With Jesus, however, even the greatest losses in life become fertile ground for change, for Jesus can use any circumstance, tragedy, or hurting heart as an instrument to transform us. Jesus told His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” (v11) With Jesus, graves are not the end but places where resurrection takes place. In light of this truth, dare we welcome hardships and losses as prime opportunities/fertile ground for Jesus to work His transformation in us? (p50-67)

Today’s portion of Lazarus’ story comes with a surprising twist. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their brother is quite ill. In their word to Jesus the sisters even remind Jesus that Lazarus is “the one You love.” Clearly, the sisters hope, even assume that Jesus will come. Jesus, however, doesn’t go into rapid response mode, drop what He’s doing, and come to the rescue; rather, He stays right where He is for two more days. Jesus doesn’t show up in their greatest moment of need. While we have the advantage of knowing that Jesus does show up – eventually, His timing reminds us that Jesus never guarantees that things will work out when and as we desire. Where is Jesus? Why doesn’t He come sooner? In our text, Mary and Martha’s action reveals how we are to respond when Jesus seems to tarry; in an expression of faith, they send word to Jesus. In our own circumstances and seasons of “waiting on Jesus,” we too live by faith. Such waiting (i.e., the in-between time) plays an essential part in transformation. By faith in Jesus and His perfect timing and ways, we relinquish control, surrender our wills, and lay down unholy entitlements. Even when we don’t have answers, we can hold on to the things that we know ARE true: we are deeply loved by Jesus & He is in perfect control. And the times when God seems most absent can be the times when we get to know Him best…moments when God births new hope in us, a hope in who He is, not a hope in who we want Him to be. And we have His promise in Philippians 1:6 that “He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We begin a new 8-week series digging into the story of Lazarus in John 11-12. These verses speak to longings and breakthroughs, unmet expectations and disillusionment with God, the highest goal of God’s glory and clinging to hope in hard times. These are all facets of transformation. In today’s portion, Lazarus needs just that. The beloved brother of Mary and Martha is ill. We do not know what kind of sickness befell Lazarus, only that it is desperate enough to warrant his sisters sending word to Jesus of his illness…a clear cry for Jesus’ help. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus brings and effects real transformation. He transforms water into wine, a Samaritan village to faith, an invalid for 38 years to full mobility, a handful of bread and fish feeds to a feast, a man born blind to full sight, and His own grave stands empty to this day. As people who desperately need transformation – physical, mental, and always spiritual – genuine change can only be found in Jesus. Jesus’ work of transformation in us, however, is never easy and quite messy (p95-111) as we open up past hurts, current struggles, and future fears to His healing. Moreover, Jesus’ transformation can be dangerous (p181-182). Friends and loved ones might not welcome our letting go of old habits, breaking free from addictions, or changing our behaviors and ways. Real transformation comes with varying degrees of rejection, grief, loneliness, trials, and woes, but all-the-while Jesus is leading us to a more full and abundant life in Him.

From prominence to ash heap, Job needed a strong hand guiding him and a tender heart loving him. Like Job, we are not insulated from life’s tragedies, but neither are we intimidated by them. In the middle of the broken pieces, Job cries out, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” These words mean that we have someone to walk with us through life’s long, dark, winding halls. Granted, there are many things surrounding our hardships that we simply don’t know, but what we DO KNOW is that on this day of resurrection our Redeemer truly lives! No matter what our dark hallway looks like and what our circles are saying, we do not walk alone. And why is that? “He lives, all glory to his name! He lives, my Jesus, still the same. Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives!’”

For thirty-five chapters in the book of Job, Job cries out; his three friends speculate; and God … He remains silent. The LORD doesn’t speak a single word. In Job 38:1, however, the hidden God becomes the revealed God and what He reveals is powerful. “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.” Job does not receive an explanation from God as to the why, when, or what of his suffering; rather, he/we receive a revelation of God – who our ever-orchestrating God is. Through what will become a string of 70 questions from God to Job, the LORD emphasizes His incomprehensible greatness in all things. Through life’s storms, God leads Job and us from an attitude of self-pity and self-assertion in our trials to a place of self-surrender, falling before God in reverence, awe, and humility. We too no longer press God for an explanation, but simply bask in His unfathomable revelation – especially in and through Christ.