Speaker: Pastor Stephen “Tig” Intagliata
Bible Passage: John 11:17-27
Summary: When Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life”, it was after he took the time to mourn with Mary and Martha over the death of their brother Lazarus. Grieving well helps make resurrection experiences more powerful. Jesus is at work today, bringing resurrection where there is despair and death. Let’s look for signs of the risen Jesus around us.
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
Today we’re continuing our sermon series on the “I Am” statements of Jesus in the gospel of John. Let’s recap a bit:
We first looked at “I am the light of the world”. We saw how Jesus is the light in that he illuminates our path and gives us direction in life,
And also how Jesus is the light who gives hope to people experiencing darkness and despair, like the woman who was about to be stoned but was rescued by Jesus,
or the young man who became disillusioned with church and became an atheist, but then returned to church after seeing Mennonite Action’s witness for a ceasefire in Gaza at the capitol rotunda.
And we saw how Jesus is light by bringing to light what is hidden that needs to come out, for example, the Old Testament story where the prophet Nathan calls out David for his affair with Bathsheba.
The second “I Am” statement we looked at two weeks ago was where Jesus says “I am the Vine, and you are the branches.” We explored what it means to abide in Jesus and his love.
And we looked at our own church’s history to discover how the early Anabaptists had a deep spirituality of abiding in Jesus which gave them the courage and the joy to stay faithful in the face of persecution, even when it cost them their life.
Now today we will consider what Jesus meant when he said “I am the Resurrection and the Life” from the 11th chapter of John.
There’s a distinct theme running through most of John 11. Does anyone remember the nickname I gave the 6th chapter of John a few weeks ago? I called it the “Panera” chapter because it’s all about bread.
The “Panera chapter” will be revisited at the end of the month when Caleb preaches on “I am the bread of life.”
Now the theme running through most of today’s chapter, John 11, is the death of Lazarus and the grieving of Lazarus’ sisters Martha and Mary, along with the many friends who came to console them and mourn with them.
We heard this story already in the children’s time, where grief turns to rejoicing when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. But let’s not jump to the joy of resurrection just yet.
Just like before we get to Jesus’ resurrection at Easter, we must go through his suffering and crucifixion during Holy Week, it’s important to pay attention to the grieving that takes place before Jesus brings Lazarus back to life.
As I thought about a good title for the theme of chapter 11, I thought of a kind of an obscure song by Elton John: It’s called Funeral for a Friend.
Elton John wrote this song as he was thinking about what kind of music he would like at his funeral. Have you thought about a song that you would like to have played at your funeral?
While you’re thinking about it, here are some responses I saw on Threads when someone asked that very question:
One person said “I’ll Fly Away”, Several people said “In My Life” by the Beatles. Another said “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds, from the book of Ecclesiastes. Someone else said “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult.
For me, one song I thought of for my funeral might be “Moon River”. I love that song, and with all the traveling Karen and I have done and all the places our family has lived, it fits well. “Moon River, wider than a mile, I’m crossing you in style someday.”
Any of you want to share a song you’d like at your funeral? I know it’s a pretty sensitive subject, and thinking and talking about death is not something we look forward to. But along with taxes, death is something we can be certain of, so it’s good to learn to face it.
As I have spent time with families mourning the death of a loved one, and done some of that recently myself with my own dad, I’m becoming more comfortable with it, even though it’s never easy.
Different cultures have different traditions and practices surrounding death. When I lived in Latin America, I went to several Catholic novenas—a novena is a 9-day period when people gather to mourn and pray for the soul of their loved one.
In the ancient Jewish world, mourning typically lasted for 7 days, and it began immediately on the day of the burial, which took place on the same day as death.
And we get a good taste of this grieving in this 11th chapter of John.
Also, there was a belief of people of Jewish faith that the soul of a dead person remained in the vicinity of the body “hoping to reenter it” for three days, but once decomposition set in, the soul departed.
Commentator Gary Burge says that when John mentions that four days had already passed before Jesus arrived,
“John wants us to know clearly that Lazarus is truly dead and that the miracle of Jesus cannot be construed as a resuscitation.” This puts to rest the idea that some people thought of Lazarus just being “asleep”.
And if we read a little further in the story we see that Jesus is moved to mourn as well. Can anybody quote the verse in John 11:35? It’s the easiest verse to memorize in the Bible! It says “Jesus wept”.
And the original word there could be translated as “Jesus burst into tears.”
It’s the shortest verse in the Bible, but one of the most powerful because it shows Jesus’ humanity, and how he too was moved by the death of his friend Lazarus.
And I think it’s interesting how Jesus didn’t rush to raise Lazarus from the dead; he took time to sit with his family and friends in their grief, and mourn with them.
You know, compared to Catholic novenas and 7 day Jewish mourning periods, our American communal grieving process is usually just a few hours rather than several days. There’s the funeral, and usually a reception, and then it’s over, right?
It’s like we want to get it over with and not dwell on our grief very long. I was reminded of this recently in light of another tragic school shooting this week outside of Atlanta which took the lives of four people and injured several others.
I’ve heard some politicians say things like, “People dying in school shootings is just a fact of life” or “We need to just get over it and move on”.
That certainly wasn’t Jesus’ response to death, and it shouldn’t be ours either. Grieving and remembering those we have lost is a way to honor them, and it also helps us in the healing process.
And it should move us to action to reduce gun violence in our society.
Now let’s get to the “I am the resurrection” statement, which took place when Jesus was with Martha, Lazarus’ sister. The story says that Martha went out to meet Jesus before he got to their house, while Mary stayed at home.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him
Martha’s words show her faith in Jesus’ healing ability, but she wishes that he would have arrived earlier to heal Lazarus before he died.
And then Jesus says to her “your brother will rise again”. And Martha replies with “I know that he will rise again on the last day.”
Now Martha is referring to the Jewish belief that people who have died will be resurrected on the final judgment day, similar to the Christian belief that people will go to heaven after they die.
But I believe that Jesus has something more in mind here, where resurrection has to do with not only what we might call “pie in the sky” but also with life in the here and now on earth as well.
And this is where his “I Am” statement comes in. He says to Martha
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
You see, Martha says that Lazarus will be raised in the future. But Jesus says that Lazarus is going to be raised now. And Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead shows us that we can experience the power of the resurrection,
not only as a future hope but as a present reality, because Jesus is present among us, and he has the power to bring new life to things that were given up for dead.
This is the miracle and mystery of the incarnation, of God being with us through Christ, that there are signs, symbols, possibilities of resurrection all around us.
And that’s where Mama Dog comes in. Did you wonder about that when you saw the sermon title? “Mourning, Martha and Mama Dog.”
The story of Mama Dog is told in a book that I mentioned in my sermon on Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones. It’s this book, Signs of Life: resurrecting hope out of ordinary losses by Stephanie Lobdell.
Mama Dog appears in the chapter on the death of hope. Mama Dog was the name given by Stephanie’s family to a mangy abandoned stray dog that lived in their neighborhood.
Mama Dog was “active in the community” in that she had litters of puppies with seemingly all the male stray dogs around, including a stray that Stephanie’s family had adopted into their family.
But Mama Dog always kept a distance from the family and from people in general. She wouldn’t let anybody near her for a long time.
Stephanie’s family started putting food out in the backyard for her, but she would eat it when no one was around, and then disappear out of the yard.
But over time, Mama Dog started trusting Stephanie’s family, little by little, and she would let them get a little closer to her, but not too chummy yet.
Now Stephanie and her husband Jack started leading a youth group from their church.
And this particular youth group included a bunch of misfits—kids who weren’t popular at school, kids who came from broken homes, who were neglected and felt abandoned by their families and their peers.
The youth group met at Stephanie’s house, and sometimes they hung out in the back yard to talk and play games. And wouldn’t you know, Mama Dog started venturing into the yard and over time started hanging out with them as well.
One member of the youth group, Megan, struck up a special friendship with Mama Dog. Maybe it was because both she and Mama Dog had experienced neglect and abandonment, and they could sense that in each other.
It’s like they understood each other. And their relationship was therapeutic, healing for both of them, and to a larger extent the entire youth group. Mama Dog bonded with that youth group, and a lot of love was shared between them.
A once abandoned, shy, and untrusting dog became like a mascot to that group of misfit teenagers.
Here’s what Stephanie said about it:
Through Mama Dog, I had borne witness in the most unexpected of ways to God’s resurrection power, God’s breathing life into an abused, abandoned creature.
As I watched her find salvation and restoration in the love and kindness of a bunch of wild, wounded teenagers, I caught a fleeting glimmer, out of the corner of my eye, of God’s resurrecting intentions for us.
I saw God’s resurrection power at work in the hearts and lives of those teenagers as they gave themselves over more fully to the love and care of God.
Mama Dog had given me eyes to see hope pulsating beneath the surface. She was a symbol of resurrection in a world of death.
Friends, What symbols of resurrection can we see in a world where the signs of death seem to be all around us?
One thing I thought of is this—if you were here a couple of years ago when Shane Claiborne came for our Beating Guns event, you witnessed how people worked together to make this garden tool out of guns.
An instrument of death had been refashioned, dare we say resurrected into something that helps nurture and bring new life out of the earth.
In a society where so many people idolize the 2nd amendment and love their guns, and where those guns too often destroy life, to beat those guns into garden tools is a symbol of Jesus’ resurrection in our midst.
Mama Dog. Guns turned to garden tools. Where else around us can we see the power of the one who said “I am the resurrection and the life”?
As you go through this coming week, I invite you to open your eyes with expectation to see signs and symbols of the risen Jesus.
Yes, we believe in the resurrection at the end of our days on this earth. And we also believe it is a possibility as we go through our daily lives, right here and right now. Amen.
