This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church, Tailem Bend, at 7:30 pm.
What's
the first thing an escaped prison inmate does that's also the first
thing a sports club that's losing money does? Get rid of their
uniform, either to blend in and escape or to make money from more
merchandise sales. But uniforms are pretty handy. They're handy for
Christians as we all share a few, and yet we don't all dress alike
nor should we. That's the second riddle.
And
that's what draws together these two different readings from John
chapters 11 and 19. They seem far apart, but when Jesus raised
Lazarus from the dead, it was only a short period from his own death
on the cross. They're so far apart in John because John sets aside
chapters 14-17 to record Jesus' words to his disciples right before
his betrayal and arrest. So really these two readings are close
together. And let's see how.
In
chapter 11, Jesus gets the news that his friend Lazarus is dying.
But he waits a few days, and when he arrives, Lazarus has been dead 4
days. Jesus speaks with his sisters Martha and Mary, telling Martha,
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me,
though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes
in me shall never die.” Then he asks to be taken to the tomb, and
even more asks for the stone to be taken away. Martha is so
surprised that she says, “Lord, by this time there will be an
odor”. But the people are even more surprised when Jesus calls
Lazarus out of the tomb, and out he hops, still wearing and bound
with the grave cloths. So Jesus says, “Unbind him, and let him
go.”
What
Lazarus was wearing was no longer suitable for him. But that's only
because he was raised from the dead. See, resurrection means nothing
if sin and death mean nothing. We want the glory of resurrection
without the reality of sin and death, but to actually do that is to
have neither. There's a surefire way to rob resurrection of its
truth and glory; just take away the seriousness of death. Why would
we want to do that? So that we can have the feel good feeling of
resurrection without the sad and painful reality of death. And
that's both true – resurrection is great and death is sad. But
without acknowledging that death is the wages of sin, you don't have
resurrection. Because resurrection isn't feeling brand new or
whatever; it's being dead, because sin is real and is the cause of
death, and resurrection is being raised from the dead, because
Christ's resurrection from the dead is real.
Jesus
released Lazarus from the grave, really and truly, and so he
commanded that his funeral preparations (the cloths) be undone.
“Unbind him, and let him go.” And there's more comfort for
sinners in this reading too. It's what Jesus does on his way there:
two things – he weeps and he is “deeply moved”, but that word
is used for anger, irritation. This death bothers Jesus in those two
ways, and bothers him according to his two natures. According to his
divine nature, death is not an original part of creation, and he
can't stand the way it afflicts the creation which was formed through
him. But according to his human nature, he is so involved in his
creation that he mourns what death has done to Lazarus, his friend.
It's because Jesus is bothered, and is going to do something about
it, that he says, “take away the stone.” He does something about
it right then and there. But he does something about it at his
cross, defeats sin and death at the cross. And he does something
about it at his tomb, when he leaves it alive, after he was put into
it dead.
And so
we read Jesus' words “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever
believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who
lives and believes in me shall never die.”, we read them at
funerals; not because they make us feel better, but because they're
true. We read them for the exact reason that they are true, and
that's only because the subject those words address is true also.
True, but conquered.
Transition:
So in John 11 Lazarus looses his uniform of the grave and the grave
cloths, and in John 19, Jesus is put to death and loses his clothes!
[That's the object for this Wednesday, the dice that determined who
got Jesus' tunic, his inner garment.]
But
Jesus lost more than his clothes at the cross. He laid down his
life. He really and truly died. And the soldiers who were ordered
to put him to death on the cross, they divided up his clothes, a bit
for each. But there was one part they couldn't divide equally. Each
soldier already had a bit, but there's one more piece: his tunic.
And what could they do, it was woven all in one piece. “We
wouldn't want to tear it”, they said, so they had a good idea: cast
lots. That means a roll of the dice. It's a good thing they had
such attention to detail, as they put to death the Lord of Life. And
even though they didn't know what they were doing, as Jesus prays to
the Father for them, they are still fulfilling God's Word from Psalm
22: “They divided my garments among the, and for my clothing they
cast lots.” Every detail of Jesus' passion went according to the
detail that had been laid out, and all so that you may be forgiven.
And look
at the weight of sin. The world is so twisted that it mistreated
Jesus, God made flesh. At his death he possessed nothing: not belt,
not head covering, not outer garment, not sandals, not tunic. Yet by
his poverty you are made rich (by the forgiveness of sins).
Jesus by
his poverty takes away your uniform of the grave and gives you the
uniform of his righteousness in Holy Baptism. That's the clothes we
all wear when we're released from the grave. They are the clothes we
all wear when we are washed into Christ's death and resurrection.
They are the clothes we all wear when we receive the forgiveness of
sins by faith. They are the robes that have been made white in the
blood of the Lamb. They are the proper uniform of the Christian
whatever we may wear.
Jesus
released Lazarus from the grave and lost his own shirt to clothe you
with forgiveness in Holy Baptism.
Conclusion: Lazarus had his uniform taken away and his death taken
away. Jesus had his uniform taken away when his life was taken away.
Jesus left a uniform in the water when he joined his holy word to it
in Holy Baptism – forgiveness of sin.
[My
Salvation Is Found in Christ Alone . . . Who Is The Resurrection and
The Life.]
Amen.
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