Awakening

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 11:32-44
on November 5, 2006 at Batesville Presbyterian Church.

They were away from Bethany when Jesus told his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was no there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." (John 11:10-15) So began a journey that would lead to the awakening of Lazarus.

The awakening of Lazarus was a life and death issue in more ways than one. First, of course, Lazarus was dead. He had been in the tomb for four days. This was not a case of a near death experience. He was so dead that his sister Martha was worried about the stench they would encounter if the tomb was opened as Jesus had ordered. Secondly, the scent of death was in the air in regards to Jesus and his disciples. For if Jesus did indeed raise Lazarus from the dead, such a public miracle only two miles from Jerusalem would be the last straw for the powers that be and they would almost certainly decide that Jesus must be killed if he took this fateful step.

So when Jesus makes it onto the scene, four days after the death of his good friend Lazarus, and after he cries with Lazarus's sister Mary, Jesus calls for the mourners to roll back the stone that covers the cave where Lazarus has been wrapped up like a mummy and laid to rest. This is a risky situation for Jesus. For if the stone is rolled away and Jesus calls Lazarus to rise from the dead and Lazarus does not come back to life then Jesus will look like a cheap magician who has lost his touch and who may then be discounted as a has been. On the other hand, if the stone is rolled away and Jesus does in fact raise Lazarus from the dead and does this on the home turf of his fiercest critics then that will likely be the last straw -- strike three -- and Jesus is likely to be murdered by the people in charge who will feel he has become too powerful and threatens their place in the sun. So Jesus is faced with a terrible double bind. Whatever he does will have negative consequences in some way. Jesus chooses to raise his dead friend back to life. He puts his friends concerns ahead of his own. This is typical of the way he lived. After Lazarus walks out of the tomb where he has been dead for four days, wrapped up like a mummy, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped with kerchief, Jesus says to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Jesus takes the situation of his own double bind and uses it to unbind his friend Lazarus.

Many of the Jews standing there believed in him. But some of them went to the religious authorities and reported what Jesus had done, thus demonstrating how they were dead to the power of God as powerfully demonstrated through Jesus' bringing Lazarus back to life. The religious authorities called a meeting of the council, and said, "What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our temple and our nation." The religious authorities felt threatened by Jesus. They had some justification for their feelings. Jesus brought more to the game than they could handle. And, strangely enough, I think this is the key point of the text.

Roaches scatter when we turn on the light in the storage shed. They scatter because they fear the light. So some of the witnesses of the resurrection of Lazarus scattered after the event. They ran away from the light. Fear drove them away from Jesus and into the hands of the authorities. They were not awakened to the reality of God's power in Jesus. We wonder how such people could be so unaware and recalcitrant in the face of the power of God in Jesus. We wonder why the religious authorities turned against him. We wonder why the Romans crucified him. And as we wonder, we can hear Jesus speaking through his pain on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." They were unaware and Jesus recognized that and asked God to forgive them for that.

Think of the resurrection of Lazarus as being a parable in motion. This time instead of speaking a parable Jesus enacted it. He lived it out. Before beginning the journey to Lazarus's tomb Jesus told his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." Jesus knew Lazarus was dead and plainly says so a few verses later. But his purpose, beyond literally raising Lazarus from the dead, was to enact a parable of awakening so that we would recognize the power of God available to us through Christ.

Jesus wants to awaken us. You may argue that we are already awake and you would be correct up to a point. We are awake enough to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, our Savior. But being awake is more than a belief that we come to hold. Being awake is an attitude that we take toward life. Being awake is a way of experiencing the world. It is a world-view. People can be asleep in the sleep of disbelief or the sleep of fear and so need to be awakened. And this awakening is not a one time shot. It's not that we awakened once and joined the church, were baptized, and from now on we are awake. There are different levels of being awake. There are different stages of understanding about God and ourselves and the world. Christian theology has a broad term for this unfolding of the spiritual life into ever greater spirals of love and devotion. Sanctification is our term for this awakening to Christ.

Today as we welcome new members into our congregation, we acknowledge their sense of spiritual awakening and we join them in opening ourselves to the power of Christ within. Also this morning, as we remember our dearly departed loves ones on this All Saints Day, we realize that our time is limited, our days are numbered, and we gain a sense of urgency in the great task of sanctification. We don't take life for granted. We awaken to the precious quality of life. Jesus went to Bethany for the specific purpose of awakening Lazarus. When Jesus called his name, Lazarus came forth from the tomb. Listen carefully this morning and you may hear Jesus calling your name and challenging you to come forth from the tomb in which you have been sleeping. Our appropriate response is clear. Like Lazarus, all we have to do is respond to Jesus voice, awaken from our slumber, and walk out of the tomb. Jesus is standing there waiting for us. Let us not make him linger.