Fairhaven Sermon 3-2-2026

Well, here we are at the last Sunday before Holy Week begins already. And as we approach the events of that world-changing week, our readings from Scripture gather around the point in Jesus' life where He is turning His face toward Jerusalem and the cross that He knows is waiting there for Him. And yet, this week in our sermon series on health-related topics, the focus is on resuscitation. And the more I thought about this, the more I thought, Well, we need to rephrase that, because today's focus is really on resurrection, which is not exactly the same thing.

Resuscitation is for someone who has passed out but is still alive to bring them back to consciousness. Resurrection is for someone who has died. to bring them back to life. And the two may look the same, but they are very different.

Death is a horrible thing, and I know I don't need to tell you all that. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that death is horrifically final. It brings a pain and a grief that never go away, and the pain might fade a little bit over time, but only a little. And with death, we even experience anger.

I mean, how dare death Do this to our loved one. We are created to live and not to die, and we know that. Death flies, not only flies in our faces, it flies in God's face too, because God created us in God's image to live forever. The work that God and Jesus are doing in this week's readings go beyond resuscitation.

It goes all the way to resurrection. And this can be difficult to get our minds around and to get our hearts around too, because dead people don't just get up and start walking around. Amen. Yet.

This past weekend... A few of us were able to go to the Pittsburgh Symphony and hear Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, and as expected, it was gorgeous.

And if I may put a plug in for our city's Grammy-winning orchestra, the concerts were not only wonderful, they were recorded, so keep an eye out for the recording. Anyway, there's a word that keeps repeating in the final section of that Resurrection Symphony. It's Alferstein. It's a German word that means, you shall rise again, which is appropriate for a symphony that deals with resurrection.

But as I was reading our scriptures for this week, both the Old Testament and the New Testament lessons, that word Alferstein kept coming back over and over. You shall rise again. You shall rise again. Our first stain is not something we can do for ourselves, and it's not something we can control.

God does it for us, and that's what these readings are about, eternal life that God brings to us. So let's take a look at these scriptures here. First off, starting in Ezekiel, we hear the story of God leading the prophet Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones. And this, by the way, is where that old song, Dry Bones, comes from.

Do y'all remember that one? Head bone connected to the neck bone, the neck bone connected to that one. You're right. Oh, hear the word of the Lord. That's where this comes from, is this particular reading.

What God is showing Ezekiel in this valley is a large army of men from long ago that And the army was defeated in battle years before, and they were defeated so badly that no one escaped from that valley, and nobody was left alive to give the dead a proper burial. They simply lay where they fell. And even today, our historians do not know what army this was or what country they were from. God showed them to Ezekiel sometime around the year 580 B.

C., when most of the people of Israel were captive in Babylon. And because the bones were very dry..

. And that meant they'd been dead for a long time, and there's no meat left on the bones, no cartilage, no soft tissues, no internal organs, I mean, completely dry, and probably picked clean by animals and birds and insects. So, God says to Ezekiel, that Israel, the nation of Israel, is like these dry bones. The nation is captive in Babylon.

Their land has been taken over. There is nothing left of the temple or the priesthood or the kingdom. And the question is, is there any hope for Israel at all? Is there any way they can go home again? And at that point in time, even the prophet Isaiah, under God's instructions, was telling Is there any hope for Israel at all? the people, settle down in Babylon, get jobs, build homes, raise families, because you're going to be here for a long time. That was God's message to the people in Babylon.

So people who were children, when the nation was deported from Israel, would be old men and old women when what was left of the nation finally came back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem. So God gave Ezekiel a vision that this miracle is possible. What appears to be dead and hopeless and forgotten will live again.

And God tells Ezekiel, prophesy to the bones and say, thus says the Lord God, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, 'And I will bring you back to the land of Israel, and bring you up from your graves. 'and you shall know that I am the Lord 'when I open your graves. 'I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.' And the dry bones in the valley, as Ezekiel preached to them, they started to reconnect and have skin and stand up and move around.

It's like, 'Alferstehen, you shall rise again.' When will all this happen for us? Only God knows. But Psalm 130 talks about watching for it. The psalmist writes, My soul waits, and in His word I hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. That's the original, more than watchmen for the morning. People who watch for the morning are people whose job it is to stand guard on the walls of the city all night long, watching over its gates, making sure nobody gets in that shouldn't be inside. And while they watch, it's dark and it's quiet, and the temptation is to sit down and fall asleep.

Amen. But a watchman stays awake through the wee hours out of love for the people in the city, and he watches for those first rays of sunshine to creep across the eastern sky, because when the sun finally rises, his or her job is done. A watchman stays awake, alert, scanning that horizon, looking into the darkness for any possible danger, and knowing for certain that the sun will rise. Every sunrise, every sunrise is a promise of resurrection.

Our first day. All these things point us to the truth that is found in the Gospel of John. And the story here is a familiar one. This is the resurrection of Lazarus.

But as we dig into this passage, we discover there's a lot of unfamiliar material in here, and the story itself is not completely in chronological order. So let me kind of give some background and set things in the order in which they happen. First off, Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, live in the town of Bethany. We've met them before.

A while back, Jesus was teaching in their home, are in the same way. and Martha was cooking and providing food for everyone there, and Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet listening and learning. And Mary was working really hard, and she complained to Jesus and said, Lord, tell Mary to get up and help me. And Jesus said, no, Mary has chosen the better part to learn from him.

And two things we learn from this: Number one, in spite of society's traditions, Jesus did not think that it was wrong for a woman to sit at his feet and be a student. And secondly, in spite of how that particular conversation turned out, Jesus loved Martha every bit as much as he loved Mary. One thing the Bible doesn't tell us, actually it did in your version, in your version it did. I was surprised to hear this.

But most people did not know this, is Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem. It usually just says Bethany is nearby. About two miles. So it's a very short walk.

In fact, the road... Bethany was just over the top of that hill on the far side.

So the closer we get to the cross, the more dangerous it is for Jesus and the disciples to be in Bethany, because this is one of the places the temple authorities are going to be watching. For this reason, Jesus and the disciples have been staying in another town, which is also named Bethany, but this town is called Bethany beyond the Jordan, and it's about a day's walk from the Bethany where Lazarus lives. Okay. So Jesus and the disciples have moved to this other Bethany to stay away from the temple authorities who were looking to kill Jesus.

And while they were there, Lazarus fell ill. Mary and Martha were aware that if Jesus came to them, he'd be risking his life. So they probably waited until they couldn't wait any longer to send Jesus a message. And when they did, they didn't ask Jesus to come.

They knew that Jesus could heal from a distance. Amen. They'd seen him do it before. And they knew that Jesus loved Lazarus.

So they simply sent a very simple message, Lord, he who you love is ill. They had complete trust in Jesus' love and in Jesus' willingness to act as he knew best for his friend Lazarus. When Jesus received this message, he remarked to the people around him, including the disciples, that this illness does not lead to death, rather it's for God's glory, so the Son of God can be glorified through it. So whatever happens, Lazarus will live, and he will live in a way that brings glory to God, which is exactly what Lazarus would have wanted.

And then Jesus and the disciples stay where they are for two more days. Yes. And John is quick to add that even though Jesus waited, he really did love Lazarus. He said, Jesus didn't wait because he was tired or afraid.

He waited for the sake of God's glory. Now, what we don't know at this point, or what the disciples didn't know, is that Lazarus had already died. The place where Jesus has been staying is a day's walk away from the Bethany where Lazarus lives. So doing the math, the messenger that the sisters sent to Jesus took a day to get to Jesus.

Jesus waits two more days and he waits for a day. And then there's a fourth day when Jesus and the disciples walk to where Mary and Martha are. So that's four days. And when Jesus gets there, he is told that Lazarus has been dead for four days, which means that Lazarus must have died very shortly after the messenger left and long before Jesus heard the message.

So why the wait? Why would Jesus wait for, Partly, I'm not certain of all the reasons, but partly, I think, back in those days, the field of medicine was in its infancy. People couldn't always tell the difference between death and, say, a really deep coma. In fact, this was actually true up until about 200 years ago. So, today, in most cases, we know the exact day and hour when a person passes, but in the past, that wasn't true.

This is why back in the 1700s and 1800s, people, when they buried someone, sometimes rigged up a bell on a string. They'd put the bell above ground and the string around the wrist of the person who was buried underground, just in case that person woke up, they weren't 100% sure. And so if the person inside the coffin woke up, they'd pull on the string that's..

. what we call saved by the bell. So, that's where that comes from. People did not know back in Jesus' day.

They could not be 100% certain that someone was actually dead. So, they would wait a day or two after death before they buried someone. And in fact, the traditional wisdom of Jesus' day was that the soul of the departed sort of hung around its body for four days before it moved on to heaven. That was the traditional wisdom.

So, That's why Jesus waited to make it the four days. They have made that decision to go, and they get there four days after Lazarus has passed, so he is now buried. So the disciples are feeling very uncertain about this decision to go there for a lot of reasons. The authorities are still looking for Jesus.

Thomas sees very clearly that if Jesus returns to Jerusalem, he will probably be killed. That's why he says in verse 16, Let's also go so that we can die with him. Thomas was pretty sure of that. And I've read some Bible scholars who think that Thomas was being a little bit too dramatic, but the fact is Thomas was only off by a couple of weeks.

A few weeks after Lazarus was raised, Jesus would be dead. And this is one of the reasons why some of the people at the foot of the cross said, he saved others, why can't he save himself? The answer to that question, of course, is that Jesus didn't come to save himself, he came to save us, which is why he stayed on the cross. And we will tell that story on Good Friday. For today, we're still at Bethany.

As Jesus and the disciples approach Bethany while they are still on the outskirts of the town, Bethany. Martha comes to meet them. Martha, the sister who takes care of everybody. She's the one who has been greeting people who come to be with the family.

And as she greets Jesus, Martha says to him, 'Lord, if you had been here, Lazarus would not have died.' But even now, I know God will give you whatever you ask. She's not saying, Jesus, why weren't you here? She is expressing faith as in, I know you could have done this, and I know even now there's still hope. Martha knows that Lazarus died before Jesus got her message, and she is speaking her faith that if things had been different, Lazarus would still be alive, and that even now, if Jesus asks, God will bring him back.

And Jesus does not say, I'm so sorry for your loss, or any of the things that people say at funerals. Instead, he says, your brother will rise again. Amen. and Martha agrees, and she says, 'I know he will rise in the resurrection at the last day.

' And Jesus says, 'I am the resurrection. 'Anyone who believes in me, though they die, will live, 'and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. 'Do you believe this?' In other words, the resurrection is standing right in front of you. Auf erstehen, Martha, auf erstehen.

And Martha answers, Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world. And she joins other people who know this now, John the Baptist and Peter and Andrew and the woman at the well, they all know now who Jesus is. And after Martha says that she goes and calls her sister Mary and says, The teacher's here, and Mary gets up to go to him, and the rest of the mourners get up and go with her, assuming that she's going to the grave. But she's going to Jesus, she's going to life, not to death.

And Mary says exact same words that Martha said, Lord, if you'd been here, Lazarus would not have died. And Mary is crying too hard to say anything more. And seeing this, Jesus weeps with her. Those of us who grieve can be assured that Jesus is with us in our sorrows.

His tears mingle with our own. Meanwhile, the bystanders are always bystanders, right? And they always have opinions. Have you noticed that, these bystanders? Gospel writer John says that some of them talk about how much Jesus loved Lazarus and how much Jesus is weeping, and others criticize Jesus, saying, If he could open the eyes of the blind, why couldn't he have kept this man from dying? And Jesus ignores them all, and he simply asks, Where did you lay him? and And when Jesus arrives at the tomb, a tomb that's a cave very similar to the one that Jesus will be buried in, he weeps again. and then gives a command to roll away the stone.

And Martha objects. And I love the King James Version. She says, 'Lord, he stinketh.' And Jesus answers, 'Didn't I tell you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God.

' What's important to know is that Jesus is deeply moved by our tears and by our sorrows. I think it's very human sometimes to wonder if our prayers are being heard and if our tears are actually seen by heaven. Let Martha's story assure you and assure us that Jesus hears every word and sees every tear and he is deeply moved. Jesus feels our sorrow as if it were his own.

And here with Martha and Mary, he begins to weep. We serve a God who knows our pain, who knows our tears, and who is not ashamed to weep with us. Jesus then prays to God, thanking God for always hearing him and for helping his crowd to believe it. And then he cries out with a voice of command, Lazarus, come out.

And Lazarus comes out. still wearing his burial cloths. And they unwrap him and they set him free. And Martha and Mary and all their friends who've been grieving are now joining in a celebration of life.

There are hugs and joy all around and happy tears. And everyone who witnessed this miracle believed in Jesus. And that's where our reading for today ends. But the very next verse tells us the sad story that not every witness to this miracle was faithful.

The storm clouds begin to gather as we hear the words, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. And this sets in motion the events that will lead to Holy Week. Jesus. Caiaphas, the high priest, will say, it is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed, by which he means that if Jesus' popularity isn't stopped, the people's enthusiasm for him will turn into rebellion against Rome, and Rome will send armies, and they will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.

Amen. Now, Caiaphas is wrong about this. Of course, the Romans couldn't care less what Jesus was or what he was doing. But in a weird way, Caiaphas was right.

Because if Jesus doesn't die for the people, then we are all destined for destruction. So as this week comes to a close, the darkness is falling. But in the darkness we hear whispered the word, Alfersteen, Alfersteen. Amen.

Amen.