Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 3 November 2024.
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c 1255–1318), The Raising of Lazarus (Source)
• First Reading: Isaiah 25: 6-9 (He will swallow up death for ever)
• Second Reading: Revelation 21: 1-6 (A new heaven and a new earth)
• Gospel: John 11: 32-44 (Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead)
It is said that politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose. The campaigns have to be enticing and present an excitement about the future. They have to be upbeat, optimistic, and definitely appeal to our more fashionable instincts.
Then the reality kicks in. The appointments to office, the programme of legislation and of course, the Budget, and then dealing with all the sordid leaks about this or that personality.
It does not take too long for the initial excitement to give way to a weary cynicism.
And yet here we are celebrating All Saints with visions of a heavenly banquet beyond all comparison.
I saw recently a performance of Hiawatha’s Wedding, which tells of feasting, dances, songs, storytelling, all exuberant and flamboyant.
And the vision in Isaiah is of a grand feast – but that is only the beginning. The promise goes much further. It tells of the removal even the elimination of suffering and death. All tears would be wiped away from the faces of those crippled by sorrow and grief.
The shroud of death would be no more for death would be no more either. Its fear dissolved and its power eradicated. God would be supreme over all aspects of sin, death, desolation, devastation, degradation and the disfigurement of societies and communities by hatred and sin, and the corruption of their governments by self-interest and self-deceit.
This is a picture of far more than a six-hour binge. It is a vision of eternal life.
And that is a life in the presence of God, whose justice and mercy are demonstrated by His extravagance and exuberance. Holiness and love come together with a perfect will and a perfect vision under which all who trust in Him will indeed find a thriving and creative life freed from self-interest and the need to survive or demonstrate personal superiority.
Isaiah does not present a small or temporary relief from pain or sorrow. It is an everlasting realm in the presence of God.
In the gospel, we have the picture of a very present-day story of suffering and death.
Jesus’ own dear friend, Lazarus had been sick and was getting worse. Yet Jesus, who could and would bring healing to the sick, had delayed visiting him. He had deliberately held back because there was something else to be seen and learned here.
When He did go to Bethany, Lazarus was dead and buried. He had been in the tomb four days, unlike other raisings of the dead like the daughter of Jairus or the son of the widow of Nain. Lazarus was not only dead but the body was beginning to decay. He was going off and the tomb would stink.
There would be no confusion in the raising of Lazarus with the resuscitation of the recently dead.
But this was the point. Jesus had already proclaimed the forgiveness of sins and had taken authority over leprosy as well. His track record over evil and the satanic was already known.
The raising of Lazarus showed His authority over death and hence over our fear of death. It would point to His own passion and death, for this was a raising from a tomb rather than in the upper room of a house or on the road to the graveyard.
And so we are presented with the account of how Jesus had confronted one of our deepest fears: the unknowns and the fear of death itself. In Him we have an assurance that this is not the end, but rather the beginning of a new chapter of human existence and identity.
And this is a reality that we enter here and now as we believe and trust in Jesus Christ, directly and personally.
Looking at the vision in the Book of Revelation, we again see the climax to human history.
John is shown a new heaven and a new earth, together with the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, prepared and adorned by God as a home for His people. Perfect in all respects and presented as a love-offering to those who are His people.
This is a completion of God’s purposes and He would be with His people directly and personally. Every hurt healed, every tear known and counted and wiped away. Every regret and every sorrow stripped of their power to cripple and corrupt the people of God and their memories.
To believe and trust in Jesus Christ is far more than the hope of a better life tomorrow if one will only endure today’s discomforts and betrayals patiently.
It is a life that is also for the here and now, and it begins today as we entrust our lives and our futures to Him.
It means letting go of our own agendas and letting Him have the initiative in our lives. His priorities and methods become ours.
Now we also are free to live, delivered from the fear of death and comforted by His desire to release us from the power of our own sins.
There are many burdens that we carry in this world. The fear of sin and death need not be among them.
