Pastor Dave Ginter
Death AndPrayer 03/11/2010
 
  Let’s talk death. I want to share with you from John 11. It deals with Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead. Significantly, it gives us clues to help us understand why God responds or delays a response, or even answers in ways we do not expect.

A couple of weeks ago during the Thursday Contemplative Service, we shared what we would like people to say about us at our funeral. One person answered, "I would want people to say, 'He was a great humanitarian who cared about his community.'" A second replied, "I would want people to say, 'She was a great wife and mother, an example for many to follow.'" I was trying to come up with something memorable. But all I could think of was “Look, he's moving!”

That’s what the crowd must have screamed after Jesus’ called on Lazarus to return from the grave. Let’s take a look at John 11

We all face death
Verse 1 - A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. 

Lazarus is sick. We know this is a serious sickness because he dies! Here’s the question: what will Jesus DO about this death? It’s a question facing us all. It’s been my experience after 30 years working with youth that teenagers are the only ones alive who think they are immortal. The rest of us understand we are all somewhere along the toll road that ends in our demise. The question we face is this: who will pay the fee when we exit?

When we get sick, we all pray for life
That’s why in verse 3, Lazarus’ two sisters send a message (their “prayer”) to Jesus, fully expecting that He will drop everything and come immediately to the rescue in response to their pleadings.

So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”  

But Jesus doesn’t drop everything. Christ doesn’t come right away; He waits.  This leads to a second clue to help us understand how God responds when we pray:

God sometimes doesn’t seem to respond
Look at verses 4 and 5:
4But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death…  5So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,  6he stayed where he was for the next two days.

Worse than a delayed response, Jesus’ response, when he finally gets around to talking about going, seems really uncaring. This leads me to another clue:

God’s Responses Sometimes Seem Harsh 
14So he told them (His disciples) plainly, “Lazarus is dead.  15And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there…
He’s GLAD? First off, Jesus claims Lazarus won’t die. Now he says Lazarus is dead???… and He’s glad?????? What’s up with this?!!!!!

Let’s follow Jesus to the tomb and see what happens. First, look at Jesus response in verses 33-35:
33When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.  34“Where have you put him?” he asked them.
They told him, “Lord, come and see.”  35Then Jesus wept. 

Jesus is angry? What on earth does Jesus have to be angry about? It’s Lazarus who’s dead! It would be easy to misunderstand this anger. Jesus isn’t angry with anyone present. He’s angry at the entire event! Death, destruction, funerals, grieving – ALL of it was never part of His plan when He created us. We were never designed to suffer and die. All of this was the work of the Evil One, not God. And seeing His friend’s family grief-stricken, knowing what Lazarus underwent as he experienced the pangs of death, it all made Jesus sick to His stomach. He was angry at the devil and He was angry with death!

What about poor old Lazarus’ response?
I doubt Lazarus was pleased to have gotten ill, having suffered as he walked bravely through the “valley of the shadow”, struggling for his final breaths, closing his eyes one final time, then opening them to see a smiling face of God welcoming him into eternity. O THAT part, waking up in the arms of God, that would have pleased Lazarus. But I doubt he was pleased when his sisters’ pleadings prompted Jesus’ words “Lazarus! Come on down!” Think what Lazarus gave up. He was living the perfect life, pain-free, purpose-filled, eating ice cream Sundays with no calories or bad fat, reunited with loved ones and having an eternal blast. How do you think he felt to be forced to leave God’s presence, return to earth only to have to go through death’s dark door one more time? I doubt he was pleased, unless, as one of my congregation quipped to me recently; Lazarus woke up in hell, not heaven. In THAT case, Lazarus probably was doing cart wheels as he exited deaths grip and came back to do it right next time!

In any case, I think the great American playwright, Eugene O'Neill, nailed Lazarus’ response in his creative drama Lazarus Laughed. It's all about Lazarus's life after Jesus raised him from the dead. At one point in the play, guests from Bethany arrive to share a banquet in Lazarus's honor. They’re curious and excited to hear what Lazarus has to say about his deadly affair. As they arrive, someone says, "The whole look of his face has changed. He is like a stranger from a far land. There is no longer any sorrow in his eyes. They must have forgotten sorrow in the grave." Another guest recalls the scene at the tomb after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead:

And then Lazarus knelt and kissed Jesus' feet, and both of them smiled, and Jesus blessed him and called him "My Brother" and went away. And Lazarus, looking after him, began to laugh softly like a man in love with God. Such a laugh I never heard! It made my ears drunk! It was like wine! And though I was half-dead with fright, I found myself laughing, too."

When Jesus is your savior, you can look death in the face…and laugh. Read these wonderful words starting in verse 38:
Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. (ANGRY AT WHAT? DEATH’S WHOLE MESS. REMEMBER: DEATH WAS NEVER GOD’S PLAN NOR GOD’S IDEA) 39“Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”
40Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”  41So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.  42You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”  43Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”  44And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Eugene H. Peterson writes about the Lazarus Experience:
The do-it-yourself, self-help culture of North America has so thoroughly permeated our imaginations that we don’t give much sustained attention to the biggest thing of all: resurrection. And the reason we don’t give much attention to it is because the resurrection is not something we can use or manipulate or control or improve on. It is interesting that the world has had very little success in commercializing Easter, turning it into a commodity, the way it has Christmas. If we can’t, as we say, “get a handle on it,” and use it, we soon lose interest. But resurrection is not available for our use; it is exclusively God’s operation.

Christmas is fun, the coming of Christ, the presents, the pageantry and all. But Christmas PLAYS are just the prelude to the real PERFORMANCE. That one happens on Good Friday and Easter, when God dies to pay for our brokenness and sin and then rises inviting us to laugh at death.

God’s Response To Our Prayers Whenever We Face Death
God has three options when considering your prayers. 

First, God may perform a Healing of the sick miracle, answering you immediately and precisely as you requested. This is often our experience as Christians.

But sometimes, God’s answers are delayed, like Mary and Martha’s request for a healing visit by Jesus. We plead. God says no, not yet. Why? Why does God delay when we need God’s supernatural intervention right now? I believe it’s because circumstances have not yet deteriorated enough. At such times, God is interested in doing an even bigger miracle than we ever dared pray for. God’s intention is to perform a Raising of the dead miracle, not just a Healing of the sick miracle. If God’s responses are delayed, take hope. God may be waiting for your situation to get so bad that when the answer DOES come, no one can take any credit for it but God.

The final option for God and for us is a Resurrection miracle. This is the miracle all Believers hope for and all Believers long for one day. The Bible says (and experience proves) we all die, becoming fertilizer for flowers. What we all need is Resurrection. Lazarus was resuscitated, facing his own demise yet once again. Christians die and experience resurrection. Though we die, we will live once more and never die again. That is the Good News of Jesus.

Pastor Tim Keller sums it up this way: Here's the gospel: you're more sinful than you ever dared believe; you're more loved than you ever dared hope.

What’s it like to die? Author Catherine Marshall reflects on this question in her fictional story of a 12-year-old boy named Kenneth. In the story Kenneth is suffering from an incurable illness. As he grows weaker and weaker, he begins to worry about what death will be like. At one point in the story, he turns to his mother and asks, "Mom, what is it like to die? Does it hurt?"

Caught off guard by the question, his mother is overcome with emotion. To gain composure, she dismisses herself to another room and then returns with an answer: "Kenneth, do you remember when you were younger—when you used to play so hard, you would be too tired to undress yourself, but just fell asleep in my bed? [In] the morning you would awake to find yourself in your own bed in your own room? Your father had come with his strong arms and carried you there. Death is like that. You will wake up to find yourself in your own room where you belong, because Jesus cared and carried you with his strong arms."

And THAT, friends, is how you can face your own death or the death of a loved one. Because, for the Christian, death never has the last laugh; we do!
 


Comments

Steven Johnson

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:43:05

What a wonderful blog to read right now - the powerful, pervasive hope of resurrection in Jesus Christ. In the past 18 months I knew 3 men who died - 2 around my age, and 1 who grew up with my son. They all were full of life, but died suddenly, unexpectedly. My wife, Becky, and I, recently joined close family friends - a couple we took through pre-marital counseling and wife who Becky prayed for while she was growing up - in praying for them to have a few brief moments with their newborn son who would not live. There is great strength, hope, comfort to persevere because of resurrection in Christ. Happy Easter. And, He lives!

 

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