5th Sunday in Lent
Texts: John 11:1-45;
Ezekiel 37:1-14
DOING GREATER WORKS
About a week or so after raising Lazarus from the dead, on the night of
his own death, Jesus said to his
disciples,
"Very truly, I tell you, the one who
believes in me will also do the works that I do and,
in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the
Father" (John
14:12).
Say what?! You raise from the dead someone who's been four days in
the grave and we are going to
do greater works than these? And last week's story was about healing a
man blind from birth. Greater
works than these? Com'on, Jesus, you've got to be kidding! How can we
do greater works than
these?
On the other hand, the only person Jesus raises in John's
Gospel is Lazarus. Millions of people die
every day, and Jesus only raised his friend. You and I have no doubt
prayed and prayed and prayed
for a loved one not to die, only to have that person die. For me, it
was Aunt Kay, my favorite aunt, who
died of cancer at age 42. And Jesus was not there to raise her back to
life. Raising one person back to
life, as amazing as that is, is not so great when billions have died.
In John's Gospel, as a matter of fact, raising Lazarus back to life
after four days in the grave, is not
even called a miracle. No, in John's Gospel, it's called a sign.
It's the seventh and last sign. It began
with the wedding at Cana, turning the water in the ritual purification
jars into wine. The water for a
somber ritual was turned into the wine of a joyful celebration of life.
Then, in ch. 4, Jesus heals the son
of a royal official - the second sign. In ch. 5, it's the healing of a
lame man at the pool of Bethsaida.
Chapter 6, two signs: feeding five thousand and walking on water. We
heard the sixth sign last week:
healing the man born blind. Today, the seventh and final sign - final,
that is, until Easter morning, the
eighth sign on the eighth day, the first day of the new week, the first
day of a New Creation. In John's
Gospel, these are not miracles. They are signs of the Creation
beginning again.
They are signs to help us to believe, signs to signal our entry into
the New Creation, signs to help us be
faithful by working in the New Creation. And that's why Jesus is not
only sad at Lazarus's wake, but
he's also troubled in spirit, perhaps even angry. The word used for
"troubled" in verses 33 and 38 is
translated in Matthew and Mark's Gospels as being angry or frustrated.
Why would Jesus be angry or
frustrated at such a sad occasion? Because he is giving them signs to
invite them into New Creation,
and they aren't getting it. He has staged this entire event with
Lazarus death - staying a couple of extra
days on purpose, to make sure that Lazarus would die - and they still
aren't believing that he is all
about resurrection and life. They aren't yet understanding.
What about us, two thousand years later? Do we get it yet? Yes, we
believe that God raises us after
we die. But like Jesus says to Martha, 'I am the resurrection
and the life. It's not just happening
someday in the future. It's happening right now, Sister! I'm trying to
invite you, empower you, right
now on how to live wholly and completely for Life.' Do we get this
still? Do we know how to live
completely on the side of life here today, and not just put it off
until tomorrow?
Here's what I mean. Perhaps the most telling conversation in John's
Gospel is between Jesus and the
Judean leaders in chapters 7 and 8. Jesus has come to invite them into
life, too, but they are such stick
in the muds for the Law, for Torah, that they can't get past Jesus's
healing on the Sabbath. To them,
Torah is Life. And as a good Jew, it is for Jesus, too. But then you
have to understand how to have
Torah lead you wholly and completely into life. The Judean leaders
still use it to impede working
toward life by following the letter of the law instead of the Spirit of
it - like getting on Jesus's case for
healing on the Sabbath. They also use the law to elevate themselves
above others, seeing themselves as
fit for life and others as not. Jesus had to tell the Pharisee
Nicodemus to be born again from above. He
had to help him to understand that unless he is able to see every
person on this earth as God's child fit
for life, then he was really living for death, not life. And Jesus
would go on to tell the leaders point blank
(in chapter 7) that they would use the law to kill him. And
for good measure, when they bring an
adulteress to him, ready to stone, ready to kill, he would halt them in
their tracks, telling them, "You
who is without sin may cast the first stone." The law is for Life,
never for death, never for killing, never
for neglecting others because you think that somehow you are better.
Now do we understand? Are our politics any better than the Pharisees?
As our lawmakers, for
example, both federal and state, make the laws to fund what we as a
people want to do together, is it
for the common good? Is our law making wholly and completely on the
side of Life? When we elect
our lawmakers, when we guide them with our participation in governing
ourselves, is it for everyone's
benefit, for everyone's fullness of life? Do we understand that we can
do greater works than Jesus,
effecting many more people if we do the work of God's New Creation as
best we can, guided by the
Spirit?
If not, Jesus comes here to remind us once again this morning that he
is the resurrection and the life right
now, here today. This isn't just about some future life in a far-away
place. This is about God's Creation
here and now. He is here in bread and wine to feed us for living wholly
and completely for Life, for the
sake of the world. He is here to say to us, "Very truly, I tell you,
the one who believes in me will also
do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these,
because I have gone to the Father,
so that I may live in you and you in me. I am the vine, you are the
branches. Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit..." Amen
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran,
Portage, MI, April 10, 2011