[John 11:17-27] … Jesus said to her, “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?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
“One Whom God Has Helped”
In our Gospel reading today, we hear a piece of the conversation between Jesus and Martha, the sister of Lazarus. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were siblings. The Lord was a friend to their family.
He had visited them before in the Gospels – it’s that Mary and Martha [Luke 10:38-42] – this Mary would later anoint Jesus with the expensive ointment [John 12:1-8] while He ate in their home – and Jesus was a personal friend of Lazarus.
Now, Lazarus is dead. Jesus wasn’t there when His friend fell ill nor when He died, but now He is there with Mary and Martha. Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days at this point.
When Jesus arrived, Martha approached Him and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died – Jesus had healed many sick – But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” “I know that even now, you can still help.”
In the time of Christ’s earthly ministry – when He walked and talked, physically present – many were blessed to be healed of their diseases, cleansed of their leprosies, blindness was restored to sight, the crippled walked.
But our time is a time more like the illness and death of Lazarus. The Lord is with us, but He’s not physically, visibly present. And our illnesses often remain - that sudden miracle doesn’t always show up before death. Nevertheless, we know that, even now, He can still help.
Jesus’ victory of life is at work in a way even greater than our death. In the death of His friend Lazarus, the grave is not avoided, but Jesus ends up proving His victory over the grave. And in our earthly troubles and death, Jesus proves His victory for us.
The Lord says to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha responds correctly, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus then tells (and will show) Martha that He Himself is the resurrected life which conquers our death even though we die: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Our brother, Francesco, has died. But death does not have the victory. On the day that Francesco was baptized, his whole self – his life and death; his sicknesses and health; his soul and his body – every bit of him, was baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
And you also, when you were baptized in the water, you were baptized into Jesus and everything he has done.
By baptism, every part of us – in soul and body – is buried into Jesus’ death and will be raised in Jesus’ resurrected life. Meanwhile, Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross covers all our sins – so that we live and walk forgiven.
In the life of His friend Lazarus, Jesus proves His power – not by causing Lazarus to avoid sickness and the grave – but by raising Lazarus from sickness and the grave on the other side of it all.
Likewise, Jesus proves His power to us not always by shielding us from the hardest parts of life but by being our strength throughout them.
Shortly after where we stopped reading, Jesus goes to the tomb and calls out to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come out!”[John 11:43]. Lazarus comes out. Death is healed, life is restored, he comes out on his feet, and, in the next chapter, he and his sisters are feasting with Jesus in their home.
“An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out…” [John 5:28-29]. He will shout, “Come out!” to all our dust and ashes. All our bodies will be raised.
Nevertheless, death is not an unserious thing. It is very serious. “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” [Hebrews 9:27].
All our bodies will be raised, “…those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” [John 5:29].
Yet, we are all sinners. “None is good; no, not one” – “all have sinned” [Romans 3:9-10,23]. The good or evil we can do is the good or evil of receiving and believing in this Savior, Jesus, or of ignoring and neglecting such an important thing – and such a good and undeserved gift God has given us.
Jesus died for the sins of the world – your sins – on the cross, paid the eternal price for our wrongs in His death, and overcame death to give life to those who trust in Him.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life.” Whoever believes “does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” [John 5:24] “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
We therefore give thanks above all things that our brother – and friend, and husband, and acquaintance – Francesco is one who has believed in his Savior, Jesus, who is the Savior of us all.
The name “Lazarus” means “One Whom God Has Helped.” Through faith in his Savior Jesus Christ, throughout his life, Francesco has been a “Lazarus” – one whom God has helped.
Francesco is still one whom God helps. His soul is with the Lord in heaven since the moment he died – “Today you will be with Me in paradise”, Jesus said to the thief on the cross [Luke 23:42].
Francesco’s body, these remains of dust and ashes, await the resurrection of the body – when what is mortal and perishable here will put on immortality and become imperishable – when what was lowly in this life will become glorified like the body of our risen Lord Jesus Christ. Victory over death and the grave.
Through your baptism and faith which trusts in Jesus [Mark 16:16], you are also “One Whom God Has Helped”. You are a friend and family of the Lord.
May God continue to help you in grief, in sickness, and in your final parting – for He is with you always [Matthew 28:20]. Amen.
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