Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
In the Psalm this morning, the psalmist is crying out to God from the depths. What these depths are, we don’t know. They could be sorrow. Despair. Even death.
This voice calls out hoping that God will be there to help. This voice waits for the Lord, waits for hope. And this voice continues to hope that help will come.
There are times in all of our lives we have felt as the psalmist does. That we have called out to God in the hopes that He would hear us and save us from our affliction.
And for any of you who may have lost hope, our readings this morning show just how much God is there, ready to help us. That He is willing to reach down into any depths to save us. Even death itself.
In Romans, Paul tells us "But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”
God loves us and remains with us. That doesn’t end in death. In fact even in death, God is offering us new life in Him.
We see that love that offers life first in Ezekiel this morning in the valley of the dry bones. Ezekiel is taken, by God to this valley, full of bones. Full of the remains of the dead.
It is to these dead that Ezekiel is told to prophesy to. And the message is this. That even though these bones represent the dead, God still loves them enough to look after them. He loves them enough that He will bring them back from the grave. He will give them His spirit, or His breath, and breathe new life into these dead.
Death doesn’t end God’s love for us. He still continues to look after us, no matter what. And He offers us the very thing we need: Life. And life abundantly.
We see this same sort of life-giving love in a more direct way in the Gospel. At
the start of this reading, Jesus is given a message from his friends Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus is very sick. Deathly ill in fact.
Now Jesus doesn’t go right away. God always works miracles in His own time, not ours. But when He does decide to go and see Lazarus, it is at a dangerous time for Him. It’s at a time when the religious leaders are looking for Him. They are looking for Him so that they might kill Him and be rid of Him. But in spite of the danger, Jesus still goes for His friend.
And when Jesus gets there, when He stands in front of Lazarus’ tomb, we see just how much He cares for Lazarus. How much He loves Him. He stands and weeps.
Now it has been four days at this point that Lazarus has been dead. For all those standing with Jesus, this is past the point of no return. The spirit, for them, only remains around the body for 3 days after death. For them, at this point, Lazarus is truly dead and gone.
This is the fullness of God’s life-giving power. Even though Lazarus is past his time, Jesus has not forgotten him. He still loves and cares for him. And He most certainly can still raise Lazarus from the dead. And Jesus does so, even at His own risk.
In raising Lazarus from the dead, in sending Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones, God has shown that He cares for us even after we have died and that He will continue to care for us long after we are dead.
So when we find ourselves in despair, when we find ourselves in doubt about God’s love, we can remember that our God is a God who wants to restore us. That wants to give us new and abundant life even. That this is a God who loves us no matter what, and wants to be there to help us, even after we are long gone.
The kind of faith, the trust, that stems from this life giving love is very real. And very powerful. So powerful, that immediately after the passage we read in the Gospel this morning, the religious leaders are concerned. They fear that the people’s growing faith, that the fact Jesus raised a man from the dead, will attract unwanted attention from the Romans. Until one, Caiaphas, comes up with the idea that they do not need to fear. Because they can just kill Jesus. After all, isn’t the death of one man preferable to the death of the whole nation?
Even though this is spoken from a place of fear, Caiaphas had no idea how right he was. Because Jesus didn’t just die for one nation, but for the whole world. And His death and Resurrection were the ultimate act to raise us all.
Next Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem as well as His death and sacrifice for us all. This is the ultimate reminder that God is there for us, even in death. That God is there to save us even from death.
And as we come to a fuller understanding of God’s compassion and His looking out for us, we can be thankful. Thankful that God is willing to save us from death.
Thankful that God is willing to raise us to new life. Thankful that God loves us enough to still be mindful of us. And we can prepare to give thanks with a loud and grateful shout at the start of our Easter cheer.
Now Jesus doesn’t go right away. God always works miracles in His own time, not ours. But when He does decide to go and see Lazarus, it is at a dangerous time for Him. It’s at a time when the religious leaders are looking for Him. They are looking for Him so that they might kill Him and be rid of Him. But in spite of the danger, Jesus still goes for His friend.
And when Jesus gets there, when He stands in front of Lazarus’ tomb, we see just how much He cares for Lazarus. How much He loves Him. He stands and weeps.
Now it has been four days at this point that Lazarus has been dead. For all those standing with Jesus, this is past the point of no return. The spirit, for them, only remains around the body for 3 days after death. For them, at this point, Lazarus is truly dead and gone.
This is the fullness of God’s life-giving power. Even though Lazarus is past his time, Jesus has not forgotten him. He still loves and cares for him. And He most certainly can still raise Lazarus from the dead. And Jesus does so, even at His own risk.
In raising Lazarus from the dead, in sending Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones, God has shown that He cares for us even after we have died and that He will continue to care for us long after we are dead.
So when we find ourselves in despair, when we find ourselves in doubt about God’s love, we can remember that our God is a God who wants to restore us. That wants to give us new and abundant life even. That this is a God who loves us no matter what, and wants to be there to help us, even after we are long gone.
The kind of faith, the trust, that stems from this life giving love is very real. And very powerful. So powerful, that immediately after the passage we read in the Gospel this morning, the religious leaders are concerned. They fear that the people’s growing faith, that the fact Jesus raised a man from the dead, will attract unwanted attention from the Romans. Until one, Caiaphas, comes up with the idea that they do not need to fear. Because they can just kill Jesus. After all, isn’t the death of one man preferable to the death of the whole nation?
Even though this is spoken from a place of fear, Caiaphas had no idea how right he was. Because Jesus didn’t just die for one nation, but for the whole world. And His death and Resurrection were the ultimate act to raise us all.
Next Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem as well as His death and sacrifice for us all. This is the ultimate reminder that God is there for us, even in death. That God is there to save us even from death.
And as we come to a fuller understanding of God’s compassion and His looking out for us, we can be thankful. Thankful that God is willing to save us from death.
Thankful that God is willing to raise us to new life. Thankful that God loves us enough to still be mindful of us. And we can prepare to give thanks with a loud and grateful shout at the start of our Easter cheer.