[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.
[Read Luke 5:1-11 & Isaiah 6:1-8]
Calling the Unqualified
You can, perhaps, see a master’s priorities in the quality of servants he calls to serve him. There was one master who employed only the best of the best – the most talented, the most capable, with unblemished records – servants who would bring the most profit to his household.
And there was another Master. His servants varied in talent – some with some abilities and others with practically none. Some looking pretty good. Some looking shabby. But servants who all looked more in need of this Master’s household than they were of profit to this Master’s household.
This Master needs nothing. He calls servants not to be profited by them but to be of profit to them by calling them into service in His abundant household.
Jesus is the Master who has come not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many [Matthew 20:28].
Because He has heaven’s riches and desires to share them, He calls – not the best of the best – but the unworthy and unqualified. He needs nothing from us – not even our holiness – He has it all. Instead, it’s for our benefit that He calls each of us to be servants in His household.
In today’s Old Testament reading [Isaiah 6:1-8] and in today’s Gospel [Luke 5:1-11], the Lord calls men to service who were well aware of their own unworthiness and unfitness.
In Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah, as a priest serving at the altar of incense, enters the temple – enters the church – but instead ends up standing before heaven itself. God sitting on His throne up where the altar is supposed to be. Angels, called seraphim, flying around Him calling out, “Holy, holy, holy…”
Isaiah sees this and says about himself, “I’m done for!” ““Surely I stand condemned.” “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
“Like the rest of my people, I have lived a life of sin in the words that I say – in how I speak – in how I curse – in how I gossip – in how I complain – in how I grumble under my breath – in my unclean jokes or words – and in the praise and thanksgiving I fail to speak about God – I am a person of unclean lips.”
And now Isaiah is standing before the Lord. He thinks he is judged and done for. But then an angel flies to Isaiah with a coal picked up from the altar with tongs. The angel touches it to Isaiah’s lips and says, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Instead of burning him, the coal from God’s altar cleanses him from his guilt. His lawless deeds are forgiven, his sin is covered [Romans 4:6-8].
An then, what happens? Isaiah, whose sin was in his speech, is called to speak for the Lord. To be God’s spokesman as a prophet. After that coal was applied, God then said, “Whom shall I send?”, Isaiah said, “Here am I! Send me!” Isaiah believed that his unclean lips really were forgiven. He could now even speak for the Lord from those forgiven lips.
And then, in our Gospel reading today, the Lord – which is the Lord Jesus Christ – calls and comforts another man, a fisherman, named Simon Peter.
The Lord had employed Simon’s boat to get out from the shore a little bit, onto the water, to have room to speak to all the people gathered on the beach to hear the Word of God.
Jesus, after teaching the crowd, says to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
Simon responds, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
Simon, and his brother Andrew, do this and catch an enormous number of fish so that their nets begin to break. Their partners, in a second boat, James and John, help them bring in the load which filled both boats.
It’s a miracle. This man in Simon Peter’s boat is holy Lord. And Simon Peter is a sinner. Afraid, Peter exclaims, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
And what happens? Jesus does not depart from Peter but instead calls him: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” They bring their boats to land, leave everything, and follow Him. Not because they were holier than other men but because they had found the Savior of sinners.
You are called, brothers and sisters. Not because you are holier than other people but because you have found the Savior of sinners.
There is one Spirit, but various kinds of service [1 Corinthians 12:4]. There is service in the church. There is service for charity. There is service in your home to family or spouse. There is service to your neighbor. There is service in your vocation and hobbies. And there is service to each other. The many ways we toil all night for the Lord.
Because He has forgiven the guilt of your lips, you can even serve Him by what you say. Speaking to each other the admonitions, encouragements, and forgiveness of the Lord.
God has put people in your life, in many places, whom you serve. Wherever and whoever you serve, you serve as servants of the household of God, the Lord of heaven and earth. You are His servants. Not to benefit God but because He calls into His household those who need Him.
We are – each of us – like street beggars who, to our surprise, have been called to serve in the palace of the King. There are many ways to serve, and He even makes you His spokesmen – fishers of men – to many people, when you show, by your words and conduct, that you have found the Savior.
When we look in the mirror, we can see our Master’s priorities. He didn’t call the best of the best. He called us to be His servants – and is even willing to use each of us to bring in His great catch. Amen.
[Hebrews 2:14-18] Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Like His Brothers in Every Way
“He’s a man like us.” “Down to earth.” Men and women running for political office – by how they dress or their choice of words – go to lengths to appear as “regular folk”, someone like me. Or, in a helpful way, your heart surgeon might try to be “down to earth” when talking to you.
We like to believe that those in whom we put great trust are able to sympathize with us – that they know and care about what it’s like to be one of us. Yet, importantly, they are also unlike us in some ways – like, they know how to perform the surgery or are skilled in administration, etc.
This sympathy is a powerful thing. Mom and dad’s sympathy already makes the skinned knee start to feel better. Sympathy in a time of grief from those who have also suffered loss and have survived it is a powerful help. And sympathy in the aftermath of tragedy, like the recent plane and helicopter crash, is a needed comfort.
It is simply helpful to know that someone else has felt what we feel, yet they are on their feet, standing with their head up. That lifts my head up.
Our second reading from Holy Scripture this morning was from Hebrews chapter two. Here we learn that our God and Lord is a great sympathizer. That He has become like one of us, truly. The Lord, the Son of God the Father, was “made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest.”
From highest to lowest – from pauper to president – you and I are flesh and blood. Beset with limitations. Weaknesses and frailty. Even in perfection, at our best, we are not God but are limited beings.
And, we do not live in perfection or at our best but in a fallen condition. “In Adam – that man from whom we all come – all die” [1 Corinthians 15:22]. “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” [Romans 5:12]
In our individual flesh and blood, and in the whole world, death reigns. We share a common, sin-fallen condition. It comes from our ancestors, in our flesh – we come from them – and is passed to our children from us. Death reigns, and sin and failure and mistakes are present – in this common, fallen human condition – and the fear of death enslaves [Hebrews 2:15].
We are, at the same time, victims of grief and tragedy that befall us and culprits of wrong-doing and wrong-being that comes from us. These are connected – as symptoms of the same malady that affects us all.
Because of sin and death, we by nature live under grief. And, we, by nature, live under the Law. Pressed under the thumb of divine laws broken which therefore slay us with guilt, pierce us, condemn us.
What we need, and what we have, in Jesus, is a King and Ruler, a Great Physician and skilled Healer – a God and a Lord – who has become like one of us, in every way, and sympathizes.
God lives in relation to Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One God – and God is, by nature, untouched by all other things. God is, by nature, unaffected by everything. He is the Almighty, the Untouchable, the Unapproachable Light.
But God became flesh and blood. In Jesus, God the Son became brother to us, sharing in the same flesh and blood we have. Taking upon Himself and experiencing limitation, weakness, fear, frailty, pain, grief. And life beset with tragedies. And life under the requirements of God’s heavy Law.
“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” [Galatians 4:4]. Jesus’ mother, under the Law, presented herself and Him at the Temple, offering the required sacrifice [Luke 2:22-24].
He was born surrounded by His mother’s labor pains [Luke 2:23]. He was raised in a family of sin-fallen people, like your family, and experienced the same tempers and arguing around Him that go on in your family.
He had the same emotions as us – joy and sadness – friendship and loneliness. Friends left Him at times. He experienced prejudice based on where His family lived – “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” And saw His countrymen hypocritically angry at the foreign Samaritans.
Jesus suffered the death of loved ones and good friends and wept [John 11:33-36]. And Jesus, though He had no sin, suffered all this as a burdened sinner [2 Corinthians 5:21] – under the burden of our sin: “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.” [Isaiah 53:4-5]
God, in His Son, has experienced life as His frail, broken creature – like you. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things… Like His brothers in every way.”
Yet, importantly, unlike us in that one way: Without sin. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” [Hebrews 4:15]
Griefs in our life – like the death of loved ones – and tragedies like we witnessed in the D.C. plane crash this week certainly cause us to be tempted – it puts our faith through the wringer, through the hard test. “How can things like this happen?”
And my sins – real flesh and blood wrongs – also certainly put my faith through the test: Can it really be that I still have a Savior?
Our God and Lord shared in our flesh and blood to be tempted like us in every way – but without sin – to not only sympathize with us but also to become our priest. Our sympathetic and once-and-for-all High Priest:
“He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” [Hebrews 9:24-26]. One Holy and Perfect offering, offered up by our Priest for us – the offering of Himself for His brothers and sisters.
He became “A merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God” His Father, “to make propitiation – atonement – for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”
It is our Lord and God, Jesus, eternally God with the Father, who has truly become like one of us, down to earth. Having such a Brother and High Priest as Jesus, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” [Hebrews 4:16]
Now let us depart in peace and serve our neighbor by finding ways to point them to this same Savior that they also have in Jesus Christ. [Luke 2:29]. Amen.
