Brad
Sullivan
5 Lent,
Year A
April
2, 2017
Emmanuel,
Houston
John
11:1-45
We’ll
never be transformed if we aren’t willing to walk into the tomb.
Thinking about the raising of Lazarus from the dead got me
thinking about death and the fear of death, and that got me thinking about Star
Wars. To be fair, most things do, but fear
of death is a recurring theme in the Star Wars saga. In Star Wars there is something called “the
Force,” an almost divine-like force that some people can tap into and use to
perform great feats and do great good.
There are others who can tap into the force, but use it selfishly. The way they use the Force is called The Dark
Side, and through The Dark Side, they bring about great evil. The tragic hero of Star Wars, Anakin, is one
of these good force users, but he is particularly afraid of death and the death
of those he loves. So when he receives a
vision of his wife dying, he is terrified, and he seeks the advice of the wise,
old Master Yoda.
Anakin explains this vision of
death, and Yoda says, "Careful you must be when sensing the future,
Anakin! The
fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side."
"I won't let my visions come
true, Master Yoda," Anakin replies.
Yoda says, "Rejoice for those
around us who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to
jealousy, the shadow of greed, that is."
"What must I do, Master
Yoda?" Anakin asks.
"Train yourself to let go of everything you
fear to lose."
Sadly, Anakin didn’t really take Yoda’s advice and through
his fear of death and loss, he ended up acquiring great power through The Dark Side
and became an embodiment of evil, the infamous Darth Vader. Anakin was unwilling to face the tomb, for
his life and the life of those he loved, and so he became and brought about the
very thing he feared.
Now most of us aren’t going to become an embodiment of evil
because of our fears, and yet Yoda’s advice still applies to us. “Train yourself to let go of everything you
fear to lose.” Jesus said something
similar in his teachings about not worrying and about losing our lives. Don’t worry about what you will eat or what
you will wear, Jesus taught. “Do not
worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s
trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34)
Worrying, he taught, won’t change anything or help you in any way, but
it will make you afraid and miserable.
Closely tied to not worrying was Jesus’ teaching about our lives. He taught us to let go of that which we fear
to lose. “For those who want to save
their life will lose it,” Jesus said, “and
those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
save it.”
How much of our time is spent, like Anakin, “sensing the
future”, worrying about some possible future catastrophe? How much of our resources are spent trying to
stave off death? We fear, we worry, and
we take actions that are guided by our fear and our worry of death and loss,
and those actions usually bring about greater death and loss.
Jesus would prefer that we let go of that which we fear to
lose and trust instead in him. That’s
what he showed us in his raising of Lazarus from the dead. When Lazarus was deathly ill, Mary and Martha
sent for Jesus, and Jesus apparently had every intention of healing Lazarus,
but only after he died first, right?
Jesus waited around and let Lazarus die before he healed him, and he did
so for two reasons: one so that people
could see that he, that God, has power even over death, and two because it was
very important to Jesus that people believe in him.
Jesus waited around till Lazarus was good and dead before
deciding to go to see him in Bethany “so that [he], the Son of God [would] be
glorified through [Lazarus’ death and being raised from the dead].” See, just before this story, Jesus had been
in Jerusalem and had given sight to a man who was born blind, a miracle so
great that no one had ever heard of anything like that ever happening before. Many who did not see Jesus actually perform
this miracle, however, did not believe that Jesus had done this, and later,
many of them even tried to kill Jesus for claiming to be God’s son.
So, Jesus left Jerusalem, went away across the Jordan River and
then received word that Lazarus was sick.
When he arrived in Bethany which was very close to Jerusalem, with Lazarus
already dead, many Jews from Jerusalem were there mourning with Martha and
Mary. Ok so, we don’t know if these were
the same people who tried to kill Jesus, but they were from the same place where
those doubts and death threats had come.
In fact, Jesus’ disciples were afraid of going so near to Jerusalem,
believing that they were going to be killed, since last time they were there,
people tried to kill Jesus.
So, Jesus returned to Bethany to show people from Jerusalem not
only a healing, but to show them that he had power to raise the dead back to
life. Jesus wanted these people to
believe in him. It was important enough
to Jesus that people believe in him, in fact, that he waited for Lazarus to die
and risked being killed in order to show that he truly was God’s son, and those
who saw believed.
So why was it so important to Jesus that people believe in
him, that he would risk so much? Because
Jesus wanted to heal them too, and believing in him was the healing they
needed. They needed to believe in him
who is the light and life of all creation.
They needed to believe in his power over death. They needed to believe that his teachings
were true, that they could let go of that which they feared to lose, and trust
in him. Jesus wanted them and us to
believe in him because Jesus knows what our worries and fears bring us when we
follow after the ways of our worries and fears.
Ultimately, our worries and fears bring us to The Dark Side,
to Darth Vader. Consider when we don’t
trust in Jesus and don’t follow in his teachings. Times when we have been hurt and we don’t let
go of that hurt, we don’t forgive, and we cause greater strife. Times when because of our hurt and our
perceived righteousness, we retaliate and cause further harm. Consider how much suffering is caused by our
epic battle with death. How many are
killed in order to protect the lives of others.
Consider the suffering caused by our battle with all kinds of
death: physical, emotional, relational,
death of goals, dreams, etc. How often
do we try to stave off and prevent death at all cost, rather than accepting
death and trusting our lives and our deaths with Jesus?
Trusting in Jesus, believing in him, means letting go of
that which we fear to lose. Trusting in
Jesus means being willing to face the tomb, trusting in resurrection, in Jesus’
power over death. That’s a lot of trust
because even trusting in resurrection, we don’t know what’s going to
happen. Trusting in Jesus, we need to
let go of that which we fear to lose and accept death in order to be
transformed.
A couple I know and gave some counseling to was limping
along with their marriage basically on life support. Their marriage was dead, but neither was
willing to face that truth. Finally, one
did, but rather than simply say, “ok, let’s get divorced,” this person said
plainly what their marriage had become and did raise divorce as a
possibility. That was a bit of a shock
to the other. So, together they began
facing the tomb in which their marriage had gone. They looked at what was causing the death of
their marriage. They looked at what they
each of them were afraid to lose, what each of them had to place into the tomb
in order for their marriage to survive. They
worked together, and they both allowed some things to die. Some of their dreams of what they wanted their
lives to be died. Some of their visions
of what they thought marriage should be died.
Through those deaths, they found new life. Through their willingness to enter the tomb,
their marriage was transformed. They
found new life, resurrection, by letting go of that which they feared to lose
and entering the tomb.
See, what Jesus ultimately wants for us is transformation. That is why it is so important to him that we
listen to him and believe in him. Jesus
wants us to be transformed into light and life, and we’ll never be transformed
if we aren’t willing to let go of that which we fear to lose and walk into the
tomb. If we trust in Jesus and believe
in him, then we can accept and face our deaths.
We can enter the tomb and be transformed.
