“Putting Death In Its Place”

ll Saints                                 November 1, 2009

Text:  John 11:32-44

All Saints Sunday, a day set aside to remember all those who have died.  I doubt if there is a person here who has not been affected by death.  This is something that none of us outlive, even Lazarus eventually died.  The Saints of our lives, living and dead, fill us with joy and inspiration.  This is a time for us to celebrate victory over death or let’s say it this way, “putting death in its place.”  Woody Allen once said that it’s impossible to whistle a tune while pondering one’s own death.  But that is what we do today, not whistle, but put death in its place.  We all have loved ones to remember, so let’s put death in its place.

First of all death stinks.  Most of us could list a group of people in our lives that we feel died way to young, and that stinks, for me it was my parents.  In our story it was Lazarus who stunk.  “Already there had been a stench because he has been dead four days.”  At that time they buried them quickly so it was not unusual for someone to rise on their own; in other wards they were still alive.  3 days was kind of the line, “dead as a door nail.”  Well 4 days meant that Lazarus was “really” dead.  God invaded the stench of death and snatched Lazarus from its jaws.  He put death in its place.

Next we see that death causes grief.  Mary and Martha were grieving because Jesus had not gotten there sooner.  When Jesus sees the weeping he was greatly disturbed and deeply moved, in fact he too weeps, and is disturbed again when he gets to the tomb.  The human Jesus showed his emotions.  The people watching grieved, “Why didn’t he do something about this, I thought they were friends.”

I can remember in rural Nebraska walking away from the graveside of an extremely sad circumstance funeral, I had broken down and the son, whose father we had just buried came up to me and said, “we forgot that you are human also.”  Jesus was human and so are we.  Grief, weeping, is natural and healthy.  Tears are a way to release pressure.  We weep not because of a lack of faith, as some would think, but God has given us a way to deal with this pain.  As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”  The grief we have is filled with confidence, the confidence of the resurrection.  Paul says, “Do not grieve as others do, who have no hope.” (1 Thes4:13)  I noticed the two different kinds of grief in my years as a hospital chaplain in the emergency room.  All Saints and their families grieve with the hope of the resurrection, which puts death in its place, verses the no hope side.  As Jesus called Lazarus out, unbind him, set him free, raise him, so he does for all the Saints, “The saint’s triumphant rise in bright array.”

Death also brings Jesus’ participation.  “With a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’”  It’s literally like calling a dog, “Here boy.”  A strong command.  Somehow Lazarus gets out even though he is bound like a mummy, maybe you saw someone dressed like that last night.  Strips of cloth everywhere, even his face.  “Unbind him, let him go.”  Can’t you just see them unwrapping and unwrapping.  Can’t you see Lazarus, flailing with his arms, 4 days being wrapped; he can’t get them off fast enough.  Kind of like getting your arm stuck in a jacket, I just start flailing.   God has power over this death.  What is it that wraps up our lives and keeps us from living the saintly life that God would prefer for us?

What do you need to be unbound from?  It would have been unfitting for Lazarus to keep wearing the clothes, it is unfitting for the Saints to keep wearing old ways of life, get rid of them.  Flail a little bit.  Jesus wept, you can flail.  Bottom line, whatever it is get rid of it, this was Jesus reaction.  “Unbind him, and let him go.”  As Saints you are to complete the work of God by helping to liberate people to be free in the world with this wonderful message that death has been put in its place.  You help God to set people free.

This started for you in baptism.  In Baptism you were buried  resurrected with Jesus, and the Lazarus moment was that you were unbound.  You are a Saint because you are in contact with a holy God, or we should say the holy God is in contact with you.  Baptism snatches you from the chaotic waters of life and cleanses you.  In the old days they would take the baptismal water out to the cemetery by the church and pour it on the gravesite as a sign that God has overcome death.  Death put in its place.

They were upset because Christ did not get there in time.  Perhaps he did this so the crowd would know that God sent him.  Their expectations were too low, he came to do more than heal the sick, or postpone death, but to defeat death, to put it its place.  This was out of character for Jesus, Lazarus was a friend, but Jesus had bigger fish to fry, bigger victories to win.  By invading the death of Lazarus it put death in its place and this event would soon lead to Jesus’ own death and his final opportunity to put death in its place.

CS Lewis once observed that Jesus was either the Son of God or as loony as a fruitcake.  There is no middle ground.  His teachings and his promises leave little doubt as to who this is; it is the son of God who put death in its place.

“He will swallow up death forever,” Isaiah said.  And John says, “Death will be no more.”  For all the saints, death has been put in its place.  Amen