John 11:17-27, 38-53 (Lent 5A)
St. John, Galveston 3/22/26
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, which means we have nearly arrived at the end of the Lenten Season. Soon the Alleluia’s will return to our sacred worship as we celebrate once again God’s victory over death and grave. It’s fitting though, as we move toward Easter Sunday, that the Gospel reading for this last Sunday in Lent deals with the subject of death. It comes to us from John 11, with the account of the death Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.

    People had come to the home of Mary and Martha to console them at the death of their brother, Lazarus. The gathering was similar to what we call the visitation at the funeral home. Friends and family members, no doubt, saw each other for the first time in a while. It was awkward for everyone there, mainly because, even as it is today, it’s hard for people to know what to say to the grieving.

    It’s also hard to deal with the whole subject of death. Sometimes we’re inclined to look for comfort in our grief in death itself. As such, we try to rationalize it. We conclude that our loved one lived a long, full life. Since they lived such a long life, death, we reason isn’t so bad. After all, they got everything they could out of life. Or, perhaps the one who died was suffering a great deal in the months, maybe even years, leading up to their passing. Then, we’re inclined to view death as a merciful end to an otherwise difficult situation. And so, we say things like, “they are much better off now.”

    While it is true that all human suffering ends at the time of death for those who die in Christ, we aren’t taught anywhere in the Scriptures to cozy up to death, or to find comfort in it. To the contrary, the Scriptures teach us that death is always our enemy. In fact, it is the enemy of all mankind. As such, it’s not, as some would say, a natural part of life. There is nothing natural about death! Remember, it was never supposed to happen! It wasn’t part of God’s design for His creation. Rather, “it is wage (or the consequence) of sin!”  

    When Jesus arrived at the home of Mary and Martha, Martha went to Him and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Her words expressed the terrible grief she was feeling at that moment. They didn’t indicate though a lack of faith on her part. To the contrary, what she said was an expression of exactly what she believed about Jesus. He had the power over life and death. And so, if He had been at their home that day, Lazarus would be alive. After all, Jesus is the Lord of Life.
    As you know, Jesus worked a miracle in the case of Lazarus, raising him from the dead, which affirmed exactly what Martha believed about Jesus, that He has power over life and death. “Take away the stone (Jesus said).” Martha said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” They took away the stone, and Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth.” “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

    Jesus, of course, doesn’t always grant us the miracle that He granted to Mary and Martha. Still, as Christians, He gives us hope in the face of death. Before Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave, Martha once again expressed what she believed when “Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” (She) said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” At which time, Jesus said, “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.”

    Jesus won for us victory over death and grave. “Death (the Bible says) has been swallowed up in victory.” It has been swallowed up because Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the promise of your resurrection from the dead. Like Martha, as we believe firmly in the resurrection of the dead, we approach death and we cope with it in a completely different way than those who do not believe in Jesus. While death is still unnatural, in the sense that it is not what God intended for His creation, it is, for us, a portal, a passage, if you will, into the nearer presence of God. It is our homecoming.      

    Mindful of the promise of the resurrection from the dead, we grieve when we lose a loved one in death, but not as those who have no hope. As the Scriptures say, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

    And so, we grieve in death, trusting that there is a better day to come. A day of resurrection and life. A of celebration and joy. A day of reunion with those we love who have gone before us in the faith. But, most importantly, a day to stand before the Lamb who sits on the throne, the One who gave Himself over to death, that we might have life.

    When Lazarus came out of the tomb, Jesus said to those who gathered to grieve his death “Unbind him.” It was a beautiful image of the unbinding of our sins in the cross of Jesus and the unbinding of death in His resurrection from the dead. What Martha believed about Lazarus rising from the dead on the last day was absolutely true. It was, in fact, the solemn promise of God to him, even as it is to you. In Christ, “death has been swallowed up in victory.”

    To the prophet Ezekiel, God said, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hopes lost; we are clean cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your grave, O my people. And I will bring you into the Land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”


“Christ broke the age bound chains of hell;
The bars from heaven’s high portals fell.
Let hymns of praise His triumph tell.”

“Lord, by the stripe which wounded Thee,
From death’s dread sting Thy servants free
That we may live and sing to Thee.”     

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +