“On the Road to Resurrection,” John 11.1-45 Lent 5A March ‘20

1.                Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this 5^th Sunday in Lent is taken from John 11.1-45 and is entitled, “On the Road to Resurrection,”

2.                Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. But if you pause the story...then it’s not just about Jesus raising Lazarus.  Amazon Prime now has a video feature called X-ray. X-ray allows you to pause a film and find out more information. When you press pause, the forward motion of the film stops, and a different kind of motion begins. You start to move deeper into what is happening. X-ray helps you find out about the actors, identify the soundtrack, or get background information on the scene. It is a way of entering more deeply into a movie.

3.                I would like to do that with our reading from John this morning. Pause it for a moment and enter more deeply into what is happening.  Our text is the account of the raising of Lazarus. That is what we call it: The raising of Lazarus. Indeed, this is the climax of the story. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. But if you pause the story… let us say at the moment when Martha first speaks with Jesus… then it is not just about Jesus raising Lazarus.

4.                Instead, the story is about Jesus comforting Martha. If you were to title this scene, it would be, “Jesus comforts Martha on the long road to resurrection.” For me, that is important. We spend most of our lives on the long road to resurrection and so what Jesus does for Martha, how He comforts her, can be encouraging for us today, especially as we are still in the midst of this Covid-19, Coronavirus Pandemic in our nation.  Many of us are afraid, anxious, and socially isolated from one another.  This is the time for us to be the Church and comfort one another with the wonderful promise of everlasting life, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the body that we have through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

5.                When her brother Lazarus became ill, Martha sent word to Jesus. She asked for Jesus to come. Unfortunately, it took a while for Him to appear. Now, when Jesus finally does arrive, her brother is dead, and her life is filled with sorrow.

6.                If you were to freeze this scene, you would see Martha standing there on the road with Jesus, looking to the past and looking to the future, wanting to be anywhere but here.  Martha knows what could have been: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21) And Martha knows what will be: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:24) But what could have been and what will be do not change what is right now. Her brother is dead. Her Lord is late. And her life is filled with sorrow.

7.                This moment for Martha is familiar to us. It is where we spend most of our lives… on the road to resurrection. When we look at the past, we know what could have been. When we look to the future, we know what will be for us in Jesus. But right now, we stand in the middle of suffering.  We are all waiting for this quarantine to be lifted and we can meet with one another in person again. What could have been and what will be do not change the present moment in our lives. 

8.           Then Jesus speaks. He says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Notice the use of the present tense. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus does not point to the past – I was the resurrection and the life – nor to the future – I will be the resurrection and the life. No, Jesus speaks about the present. I am the resurrection and the life.

9.                Jesus takes the power of resurrection and the promise of life and buries it in His own flesh. This Jesus, the one who is speaking to you right now, He is the resurrection and the life for you.

10.             What this means is that before Lazarus walks out of the tomb, before Jesus is raised from the dead, right now, as Martha stands there in the middle of that long road to resurrection, Jesus is the resurrection and the life for her. He has come to be the resurrection and the life for her even in sorrow.  In this moment, before Lazarus is raised from the dead, what does it mean for Jesus to be the resurrection and the life? It means the resurrection is a hand that can be touched, a voice that can be heard, a tear that is shed, and a holy conversation that happens with Jesus in the middle of sorrow.

11.             What Jesus teaches us is we do not have to wait until the body comes out of the tomb to participate in the resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection and the life even now. We do not need to silence the suffering, to mask the mourning, to soothe the pain. Instead, we can receive them as holy. Jesus is the resurrection and the life even in the midst of sorrow. And, that is what He gives us: Moments of holy conversation on a life-long road to resurrection. He chooses to bring the wonder of His life to us now, as we walk the long road to resurrection.  He reminds us that our sins are forgiven, for we have confessed our sins before Him, and He has announced to us that they are forgiven through the Words of Absolution.  Through Holy Baptism, He reminds us that we have been buried with Christ.  Paul writes in Romans 6:3-4, “3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We 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.”  In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus gives us His body broken for us and His blood shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins, in, with, and under the bread and the wine.  The medicine of immortality.

12.             So, today, let us pause for a moment in the story. Let us enter more deeply into what is happening. Wherever you are on that long journey to resurrection, Jesus has come to be with you. He is the resurrection and the life, even now, in the midst of your sorrow, filling your present days with His love.  Amen.  Now the peace that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

“Tree of the Lord’s Planting,” Psalm 104.10-18, Ezek. 17.1-24, Mark 4.30-32, Lent 5, March ‘20

1.      Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word on this 5^th Lenten Midweek Service is taken from Psalm 104:10-18, Ezekiel 17:1-24 & Mark 4:30-32, it’s entitled, “Tree of the Lord’s Planting,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.      “From tiny acorns grow great oaks,” so they say. That may be, but the process never just happens. What we take to be simple and common acts of nature are always really the work of the Creator’s hand. It goes all the way back to the beginning when Genesis tells us that, “the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. . . . And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gen 2:8–9). Tonight, in the 17^th chapter of Ezekiel, we heard about a particular tree that the Lord planted. We’ll consider that tree in this 5^th sermon of our special Lenten sermon series, “Living among the Bible’s Trees.”  Considering the tree of the Lord’s planting, we realize that, although we are disloyal and sin in other ways, Jesus saves us and makes us to dwell securely.

3.      In that reading from Ezekiel, our First Reading tonight, God uses trees in a figure of speech. Using a cedar, willow, and vine, God relates recent history allegorically: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon taking King Jehoiachin of Israel captive and putting his relative Zedekiah in his place, only to have Zedekiah disloyally and unfaithfully seek help from Egypt. Then God prophesies the consequences of Zedekiah’s rebellion. Finally, using a similar figure of speech, the Lord God speaks of the tree that he himself will plant, in order to prophesy the Messiah and his kingdom, the Church.

4.      Since Adam & Eve, the first man and woman ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not only King Zedekiah but all of us in various ways have been disloyal and unfaithful. Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah swear a loyalty oath in the Lord’s name, but Zedekiah broke it. Instead of faithfully trusting in the Lord even at that point, Zedekiah sought from Egypt help that never really came. You and I in our Baptism renounced the devil, all of his works, and all of his ways, and at our confirmation we further promised to live according to the Word of God and to remain true to him in faith, word, and deed. You make vows to spouses, and we make commitments to family, friends, and employers. How long do we go before we first and then repeatedly break such vows and commitments in thoughts, words, and deeds? You and I also face consequences for our rebellion against God in all its forms: we face not an exile in Babylon but death here in time and torment in hell for eternity.

5.      The 1978 song called “The Trees” by the Canadian rock group Rush could just as well have been inspired by the First Reading. In the song, maple trees demand more light from lofty oaks and eventually form a union and pass a law that kept the trees equal by hatchet, axe, and saw. In the First Reading, not a “noble law” but the Lord brings low the high, proud tree and makes high the low, humble tree; the Lord dries up the green tree and makes the dry tree flourish. Unless we humbly repent and believe, as the Lord calls and enables us to do, we will be humiliated at the judgment and for all eternity. He is the Lord; he has spoken, and he will do it. So, we humbly turn in sorrow from our disloyalty and rebellion and from all our sin, we trust God to forgive our sin, and we want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we repent, we receive God’s forgiveness of our sin. God forgives all our sin, whatever it might be, for Jesus’ sake.

6.      Jesus is the Sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, the tender topmost of its young twigs, whom the Lord himself sets out and plants on a high and lofty mountain. And indeed, the New Testament shows us Jesus on mountains, such as when he was tempted, when he was transfigured, and when he finally comes again with the new Jerusalem. Jesus is the righteous Branch who saves Judah and makes Israel to dwell securely (Jer 23:5–6). The young Plant grew up and was despised and rejected by people, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. On the cross, he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, in order to bring us peace with God and heal us from the eternal death we deserve (Is 53:2–5). For Jesus’ sake, whatever our sin might be, God forgives it all.

7.      The Psalm for this day (Ps 104:10–18) recalls creation and the Garden of Eden with its parklike plenitude of trees. The two stanzas of the psalm that we chanted are the center of the psalm and tell of the good use to which God puts water, creating strong trees bursting with life, hordes of birds and other alpine animals. We should think of Holy Baptism and the good use to which God at the font puts water and his Word—working forgiveness of sins, rescuing us from death and the devil, and giving eternal salvation to all who believe the words and promises of God. Those so baptized live with daily sorrow over their sins and trust that God forgives their sin, and as needed they seek out the unique comfort offered by individual Holy Absolution from their pastor as from God himself. And those so baptized live in the shelter of the Church, sustained on the Church’s meal, the Sacrament of the Altar, bread that is Christ’s body and wine that is Christ’s blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins for life and salvation. Considering the tree of the Lord’s planting, we realize that, although we are disloyal and sin in other ways, Jesus saves us and makes us to dwell securely. As every bird and winged creature according to its kind once entered the ark (Gen 7:14), so we nest in the tree of the Lord’s planting, eating the abundant seed or food it offers.

8.      There is a tendency among some Americans wrongly to apply to the democratic country that is the United States promises that God made to the theocratic country that once was the Old Testament nation of Israel. We can and should pray both that our nation as a whole repents and that God richly blesses our nation as he has in the past, but we should not expect the United States to endure forever and to be what Jesus calls the “city set on a hill” (Mt 5:14); that’s more properly Christ’s Church. We should also not expect even the Church to achieve its greatest glory this side of eternity. Jesus’ teaching in the Second Reading, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, certainly echoes or alludes to the First Reading from Ezekiel (see also Dan 4:12). The mustard seed was the smallest seed Palestinian farmers and gardeners knew. It was proverbial for its smallness as a seed, but, as a plant, it reportedly could grow to ten or twelve feet tall, the largest plant in their herb gardens. So Jesus uses the seed and its God-given growth at least in part to teach that the kingdom of God that is the Church starts from insignificant beginnings, as planted and grown by the Lord’s doing, but eventually gives shelter to people from all nations of the world, ultimately standing gloriously forever in eternity. Jesus himself is the tree of the Lord’s planting, and he makes us, his Church, to be that tree as well. God blesses our “Living among the Bible’s Trees,” both now and forever. Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

“Jesus Sees a Man, Jesus Sees You” John 9.1-7, 13-17, 34-39, Lent 4A

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word for this 4^th Sunday in Lent is taken from John 9 and is entitled, “Jesus Sees a Man, Jesus Sees You,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                When the story begins in creation and ends in restoration, all the moments in between are filled with the working of God.  Have you ever noticed how John, in his gospel, takes us into small personal encounters with Jesus? Rather than give us an overview of Jesus’ ministry, listing regions and various kinds of healing, John takes us into the heart of Jesus’ work, asking us to meditate on how He interacts with people: Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus and the Samaritan woman, etc. Today, it is Jesus and the man born blind. In these small intimate moments, John offers us a vision of how God works, personally, individually, then and now in the world.

3.                John chapter 9 begins simply. “As [Jesus] went along, He saw a man blind from birth.” (John 9:1) Jesus sees a man. I would like you to stop and think about how profound this is. Jesus sees a man. Sometimes, it’s so hard for us to see a person. We see things not people. We see the Rolex watch but fail to see the broken marriage. We see the nose ring but completely miss the lifetime of childhood abuse. We see the permanent smirk or the broken smile. We see the news about the coronavirus right now everywhere we look, but we don’t necessarily see the people suffering from this sickness or another terrible disease.  They are statistics and numbers to us.  We see things but do we really see people?

4.                Consider what it means to truly see a person as Jesus sees him or her as we reflect on Martin Luther’s words considering the plague of his day.  In 1527, Ten years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Door, a plague ravaged Germany.  Pastor Johann Hess asked Luther for advice. Luther responded with a tract titled, “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague.”  Luther’s step one was to follow Christ’s statement, “As much as you did to one of the least, you did to me” (Matthew 25:40). Luther continued: “If you wish to serve Christ and to wait on Him, very well, you have your sick neighbor well at hand.”  Luther knew Satan would tempt us to flee. He said, “the devil wants us to disregard God’s command in our dealings with our neighbor.” He called that—“sin of the left hand.”  Luther then said, “Others sin on the right hand. They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. … They do not avoid persons and places infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are.”  Luther said when people fail to protect themselves from the plague, they risk infecting and poisoning others who might have remained alive.  Luther was blunt: “He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. My dear friends, that is no good. … Shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence.”

5.                Now concerning our present-day situation with the coronavirus in our nation.  We still don’t know how far and fast it will spread. We don’t know how lethal it will be, but we need to take precautions. We should carry on with necessary personal and public conduct but avoid the unessential.  We should postpone pleasure trips and cancel big public gatherings.  Luther said pastors “must admonish people to attend church and listen to the sermon so that they learn through God’s word how to live and how to die.”   Let’s conclude with one-way Luther talked back to Satan: “If Christ shed his blood and died for me, why should I not expose myself to some small dangers for his sake and disregard this feeble plague? If you can terrorize, Christ can strengthen me. If you can kill, Christ can give life. If you have poison in your fangs, Christ has far greater medicine. … Get away, devil. Here is Christ and here am I, his servant in this work. Let Christ prevail! Amen.

6.                It is hard for us to see a person.  Maybe even harder when we are facing the danger of a serious virus or disease.  When your life is in danger. When the disciples see this man, what do they see? They see a problem, not a person. Listen to what they say to Jesus: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) For the disciples, he is a teaching moment, an educational instance which has reduced this human being to a theological dilemma.

7.                The disciples think they are practicing theology, meditating on great theological questions. But, their theology takes them away from the world. So, they stand at a distance from a person, observing the man, but not seeing him. Talking about him but not with him. They do not see him. They do not speak to him. They do not touch him. They do not put shoes on his feet or a piece of bread in his lap. They do not grasp his hand and lead him to Jesus. They stand apart from the world and talk theology with their teacher.

8.                But Jesus… Jesus does something different. Jesus sees the man. And Jesus sees this man as part of a greater story.  The disciples had written a story which was too small. It was a story of sin and punishment from God. This man was blind, and someone had sinned. Either he did or his parents and God punished the sin with blindness. I don’t know if you have ever encountered people who tell the Christian story this way. It’s just a story about sin and an angry God. We become the morality police in the world. We are there basically to tell the world how everyone sinned, and God is punishing them. We’re there to discipline rather than disciple. We police the world rather than participate in the good life God has given. 

9.                Jesus, however, sees this man as part of a much greater story, a story of creation and restoration and resurrection. Jesus knows a greater story. It does not begin with sin but with creation. It does not end with punishment but with restoration & resurrection in Him. When the story begins in creation and ends in restoration & resurrection, all the moments in between are filled with the working of God. God who comes to take His broken creation and fashion it into a new creation.

10.             So, Jesus looks at this man and sees him as part of a greater story. Jesus says to the disciples, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:3) Then Jesus stops talking theology and starts living it. He kneels on the ground and begins to create again. He spits and makes mud from the dust of the earth. Forming it. Fashioning it. Putting it on the man’s eyes. And then He speaks to him and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.

11.             This one who said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” (John 8:58) now shows just how far back He goes. He was there at the first creation, forming a world that was beautiful and fashioning beautiful creatures to live in the world. The One, who was there at the original creation, has come into creation again and is going to work to bring His broken world back to restoration & resurrection. He will take this man and give him sight. That is His work. And He is willing to die to do such work. In fact, by dying He will do even greater things than these. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17). He will capture our sin and condense it into His death and then He will rise to create new life. Life for this man. Life for you.  So, Jesus sees this blind man, He sees you in your sin and He is willing to die on the cross for you and rise from the dead in order to give to you a new life.

12.             What a blessing for Jesus to reveal Himself like this today. How easy it is to reduce God’s story to sin and punishment; to see problems, not people. To take a colorful world and reduce it to black and white until the only thing people hear from the Church is sin and punishment.

13.             But Jesus comes today and gives us a glimpse of a much greater story. Baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are children of God. You are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ. You are not slaves to sin but children of God, servants of His righteousness. Jesus opens the door of His Father’s Kingdom and gives us a glimpse of His greater work. He teaches us to live, not by the littleness of our minds (talking about people) but by the greatness of His Kingdom, working with people, “that the works of God might be displayed.” (John 9:3) Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.