Easter3A20.   Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33.   “Jesus, the Nazorean, was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst.”  “This man,” “you killed;” “but God raised him up, releasing from the throes of death.” David “foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ.” “God raised this Jesus; of this we all witnesses.” The once fearful Peter, hiding in the Upper Room but now burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit, fearlessly announces that the once dead Jesus is now the risen Messiah.

Luke 24:13-35.   How wonderful is this narrative of Jesus and his two disciples on the way to Emmaus.  Later the followers of Jesus were known as the people of the Way.  The Way is the journey we make daily with Jesus to heaven.  When we lose sight of this, we become wanderers in the darkness.  Not realizing that they are talking to the risen Jesus, Jesus’ companions to Emmaus tell him that Jesus was put to death on the cross.  They were despondent because they had hoped “that he would be the one to redeem Israel” from the Romans.  Yet they were astounded because “some women from our group” “reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.”  Jesus responds, “How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!”  In speaking this to the disciples, Jesus was speaking to the whole of his followers who were so preoccupied with the thought that Jesus would deliver Israel from the Romans that they could not comprehend that his self-sacrifice on the cross and resurrection had already redeemed them not from the Romans but from sin.   Jesus was frustrated at their inability to comprehend that the redemption had just happened.  He had just redeemed them from what matters eternally.  There would be others who would oppress the Jews politically besides the Romans, such as the Moslems and the Nazis, but they could not harm them eternally as sin could.  The many appearances of the resurrected Jesus would help his followers to understand that God’s Will is different from humans’ will.  The material, physical nature of this world is only the context of our salvation but not the goal.  The goal of our life here is to take us beyond our world here and not to win wars. First our minds must understand what God’s plan is. Then our hearts must burn with the desire to accomplish God’s will.   Only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can make our hearts burst into the flames of a spiritual fire that moves us to devote ourselves to accomplish his will.

1 Peter 1:17-21.  Peter writes, “Beloved: If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning (here on earth), realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct ”  “with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.”  Realize through the day as we go about our daily routine that our souls have been purchased at a great price, so precious are we to him.  May each day be an opportunity to hold him preciously in our hearts.

Easter17.   Acts of the Apostles 10:34a, 37-43.  Peter, appointed by Jesus to lead the Church, speaks, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.” “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance.”  Here Luke, traditionally accepted as the author of the Acts of the Apostles, seems to see Jesus as man empowered by God but not God in himself.   Apparently for Luke that would be a later development.  The Apostles are witnesses to all he did while he walked this earth, to his resurrection to full life again, able to eat and drink.  Peter goes on to say: “he commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.  To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”  Both the Apostles and the prophets are witnesses to believing in him will bring one eternal salvation.

John 20:1-9.  Jesus had foretold at various times that he was to suffer, be put to death and then arise.  It appears that no one, not even Mary of Magdala nor the Apostles, took him at his word. The last line of this Gospel says, “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” One commentary states that the Greek from which this gospel was translated indicates that it appeared that Jesus miraculously slipped out of burial cloths, leaving them empty of the body that had been in them, with the cloth that had covered his head, removed and placed in a separate place.  The word tomb is mentioned in this gospel seven times, I believe, to indicate the empty tomb with the stone rolled back is a physical witness to the resurrection of Jesus.  Peter’s authority and leadership is clearly accepted by John, since he waited for Peter, more important than he, to enter first.  John goes into the tomb “and he saw and believed” that the tomb was empty.

Colossians 3:1-4.  “Seek what is above,” “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  After Jesus had told his disciples that he had to suffer and die and then Peter rebuked Jesus for thinking that way, then Jesus in turn rebuked Peter saying, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Matthew 16:18)  We are people who live in this world, not in heaven.  This world can, and easily does, drown us in its way of thinking, feeling and acting.  The Holy Spirit, who is far more powerful than our good intentions and will power, can enable us to have Jesus as our life.  With Christ as our life, one day he will share his glory with us.

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8.  “Let us celebrate the feast, not with old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  Yeast could be symbolically thought of as an evil, corrupting force; whereas being unleavened was thought of as growing in the purity of the “sincerity and truth” of Christ.  If we dine on the lamb, that is the paschal lamb that is Christ, the bread of our meal must be unleavened, i.e. pure, not corrupted by the evil of this world (Exodus 12:1-15).  We ought not to mix the sinful ways of this world with holy ways of God.

 

East2A20.  Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47.   The newly established community of Christians “devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.”  “They would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each’s needs.” Their intense focus on being wholly and thoroughly devoted to cultivating their spiritual life in Christ seems to me to offer the paragon, the ideal of Christian life for all ages to come.  However, there has been some controversy as to whether or not they were expecting Jesus to come quite soon and so they deposed themselves of only the material things  they needed up to the time that Jesus would take them to heaven.  What is known is that Paul often appealed to his converts (Acts of the Apostles 24:14; Romans 15:25-28; 1 Corinthians 16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; 2 Corinthians 9:11-13) “to make some contribution for the poor among the holy ones in Jerusalem.” (Romans 16:26b)

John 20:1-9.   Fear is the natural reaction to the perceived threat of danger.  In this earthly life we are always in danger of spiritual harm.  When we live each day in the almighty Lord there can be no reason for fear because he is always saying to us, “Peace be with you.”

Then he says to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” who helps them to mature in holiness themselves as well as to enable others to be holy.  In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says, “So be perfect (holy), just as your heavenly Father is perfect (holy).”  In the synoptic parallel to that verse Jesus says in Luke 6:36, “Be merciful (loving), just as [also] your Father is merciful (loving).”  Jesus enables his disciples to be instruments of the Spirit in the Spirit’s task to bring holiness to those who live by the life of the Holy Spirit within them by giving his disciples the merciful power to forgive sins.  However, to those who reject the life of the Spirit, the disciples can retain their sins, since they have rejected the mercy of God.    In John 14:1a Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. “ (Be at peace)  Then in John 14:4 Jesus said, “Where [I] am going you know the way.” Thomas, forever the everyday day realist of this down-to-earth world, said in John 14:5, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”  Jesus was speaking of the spiritual way and not of an earthly road trip.  In today’s gospel Thomas thinks as any ordinary down-to-earth person thinks, ‘When you’re dead, you’re dead.  That’s all there is and there is nothing else.  When the once-dead Jesus and now-alive Jesus tells Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand and put it into my side,” Thomas’ rock hard earthliness comes crashing down.  In this stunningly quick turn of events, he has learned that the spiritual is more real than the material.  In 2 Corinthians 4:18b Paul said, “For what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”  We ourselves can learn from an inner spiritual life that the Holy Spirit gives us that what is more vibrant and fulfilling is not what is seen in the outward visible world.  We can come to the realization that what feels real in the outer world will soon fade away and disappear  but what is real and true forever comes from our relationship with the invisible Christ.   “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

1 Peter 1:3-9.   From Christ we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.”  “Although you have not seen him, you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you will rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

 

Easter17.   Acts of the Apostles 10:34a, 37-43.  Peter, appointed by Jesus to lead the Church, speaks, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.” “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance.”  Here Luke, traditionally accepted as the author of the Acts of the Apostles, seems to see Jesus as man empowered by God but not God in himself.   Apparently for Luke that would be a later development.  The Apostles are witnesses to all he did while he walked this earth, to his resurrection to full life again, able to eat and drink.  Peter goes on to say: “he commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.  To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”  Both the Apostles and the prophets are witnesses to believing in him will bring one eternal salvation.

John 20:1-9.  Jesus had foretold at various times that he was to suffer, be put to death and then arise.  It appears that no one, not even Mary of Magdala nor the Apostles, took him at his word. The last line of this Gospel says, “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” One commentary states that the Greek from which this gospel was translated indicates that it appeared that Jesus miraculously slipped out of burial cloths, leaving them empty of the body that had been in them, with the cloth that had covered his head, removed and placed in a separate place.  The word tomb is mentioned in this gospel seven times, I believe, to indicate the empty tomb with the stone rolled back is a physical witness to the resurrection of Jesus.  Peter’s authority and leadership is clearly accepted by John, since he waited for Peter, more important than he, to enter first.  John goes into the tomb “and he saw and believed” that the tomb was empty.

Colossians 3:1-4.  “Seek what is above,” “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  After Jesus had told his disciples that he had to suffer and die and then Peter rebuked Jesus for thinking that way, then Jesus in turn rebuked Peter saying, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Matthew 16:18)  We are people who live in this world, not in heaven.  This world can, and easily does, drown us in its way of thinking, feeling and acting.  The Holy Spirit, who is far more powerful than our good intentions and will power, can enable us to have Jesus as our life.  With Christ as our life, one day he will share his glory with us.

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8.  “Let us celebrate the feast, not with old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  Yeast could be symbolically thought of as an evil, corrupting force; whereas being unleavened was thought of as growing in the purity of the “sincerity and truth” of Christ.  If we dine on the lamb, that is the paschal lamb that is Christ, the bread of our meal must be unleavened, i.e. pure, not corrupted by the evil of this world (Exodus 12:1-15).  We ought not to mix the sinful ways of this world with holy ways of God.

 

Easter1A20.   Acts of the Apostles 10:34a, 37-43.  “God appointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.  He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.  We are witnesses of all that he did.”  Peter goes on to say,   “He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.” Peter and the Apostles are proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior from God himself.   As Isaiah 42:1a & b proclaims, “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit.”

John 20:1-9.   Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark.  Mary did not understand that Jesus had arisen; she was in the dark.  She ran to the men, assuming as had often happened that grave robbers had stolen Jesus’ body.  When Peter and John arrived and saw that the linens were still there; and, if the grave robbers had been there, that is what they would have stolen because of its worth to them, the Holy Spirit helped John to remember that Jesus had  spoken of his resurrection.  “He saw and believed;” even though “they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”  The earthly vault, the tomb, was powerless to keep Jesus locked into death.

Colossians 3:1-4.  “Think of what is above, not what is on earth.”  We also are able to break out of earth’s tomb of worldly human ways of thinking so to be joined by the power of the Holy Spirit into Christ’s resurrection into heaven.

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8.  This world leavens our lives “with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness.”  Leave that buried in the tomb of the death of this world to come alive to God’s living spirit of sincerity and truth.

 

Easter17.   Acts of the Apostles 10:34a, 37-43.  Peter, appointed by Jesus to lead the Church, speaks, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.” “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance.”  Here Luke, traditionally accepted as the author of the Acts of the Apostles, seems to see Jesus as man empowered by God but not God in himself.   Apparently for Luke that would be a later development.  The Apostles are witnesses to all he did while he walked this earth, to his resurrection to full life again, able to eat and drink.  Peter goes on to say: “he commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.  To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”  Both the Apostles and the prophets are witnesses to believing in him will bring one eternal salvation.

John 20:1-9.  Jesus had foretold at various times that he was to suffer, be put to death and then arise.  It appears that no one, not even Mary of Magdala nor the Apostles, took him at his word. The last line of this Gospel says, “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” One commentary states that the Greek from which this gospel was translated indicates that it appeared that Jesus miraculously slipped out of burial cloths, leaving them empty of the body that had been in them, with the cloth that had covered his head, removed and placed in a separate place.  The word tomb is mentioned in this gospel seven times, I believe, to indicate the empty tomb with the stone rolled back is a physical witness to the resurrection of Jesus.  Peter’s authority and leadership is clearly accepted by John, since he waited for Peter, more important than he, to enter first.  John goes into the tomb “and he saw and believed” that the tomb was empty.

Colossians 3:1-4.  “Seek what is above,” “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  After Jesus had told his disciples that he had to suffer and die and then Peter rebuked Jesus for thinking that way, then Jesus in turn rebuked Peter saying, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Matthew 16:18)  We are people who live in this world, not in heaven.  This world can, and easily does, drown us in its way of thinking, feeling and acting.  The Holy Spirit, who is far more powerful than our good intentions and will power, can enable us to have Jesus as our life.  With Christ as our life, one day he will share his glory with us.

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8.  “Let us celebrate the feast, not with old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  Yeast could be symbolically thought of as an evil, corrupting force; whereas being unleavened was thought of as growing in the purity of the “sincerity and truth” of Christ.  If we dine on the lamb, that is the paschal lamb that is Christ, the bread of our meal must be unleavened, i.e. pure, not corrupted by the evil of this world (Exodus 12:1-15).  We ought not to mix the sinful ways of this world with holy ways of God.

 

PalmA20.    Isaiah 52:13-53:12.   “Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.”  It is unknown whether Isaiah meant this for himself or for another.  However, it seems clear to me that God wrote this through Isaiah to refer to Jesus, since it fits him so perfectly.  We sinners have a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, born into this world to die for us on the cross.

John 18:1 – 19:42.  Jesus the Nazorean is the human name for Jesus.  He answers:  “I AM,” which is to say that not only is he human but also divine.  “When he said to them, “I AM,” they turned away and fell to the ground.  In doing so, unconsciously through the power of God, they recognized for the moment his divinity.  That was only for the moment since from that moment on, they we were to treat him viciously.  Simon   Peter was ready to put up a fight but Jesus , wishing to offer himself willingly, was ready  to be a sacrifice for our sins, saying, “Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”

Pilate asks Jesus, “What you done?”  Jesus answers that he claims to be a king but not of this world.  Jesus claims to testify to the truth.  I understand Pilate’s response, “What is the truth?” to mean that he believes there is no such thing as truth.  That particular group of Jews that were rabidly intent on killing Jesus was a select group that had much to lose if the ordinary Jewish people were left to follow Jesus and not them.  They pressed Pilate to execute Jesus or else they would make great trouble for Pilate with Caesar.  Pilate, out of fear of them, handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.  By forcing Pilate to acquiesce to the killing of Jesus, although it is out of an evil and vicious intent, they have unknowingly and unwittingly become a part in our redemption.  To those who think only as humans think, they seemed to have won.  However, they only have deceived themselves.  The truth is that the victory belongs to the Redeemer and we who are redeemed.  Because there is a God, in the end evil is always self-destructive.  The victory always belongs to God and to those who live in union with God’s Will.  God is the truth or the only genuine reality.  All else is a lie and will perish in the end.

Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9.  Jesus, the divine Son of God, is at the same time the human Jesus of Nazareth, who, because he is as human as we are, is able to sympathize with our weakness. “So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”  In his divinity Jesus was all-knowing and therefore was never in need of learning anything, but in his humanity he was as human as we are.  All through his life Jesus knew that that he was born to suffer and die for us on the cross but what we know in our minds needs more time to be accepted by our hearts.  Our human nature is to defend our lives and do our best not to have our lives taken from us. Nevertheless, Jesus learned from his suffering to offer up his life as a sacrifice for us in obedience to his Father’s will.  In Luke 22:42-44, Jesus said, “’Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.’  And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him.  He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.” “And when he was made perfect, (that is as any human being can become holy as God is holy) he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Jesus’ obedience on the cross has opened the entrance to heaven for us.  Jesus said in John 10:7a, “I am the gate for the sheep, and in John 10:8, “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”

PalmA.  Isaiah 50:4-7.  Here Isaiah prefigures Jesus.  “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.  The Lord God is my help.”  We speak of Jesus’ Passion because he was passive to the abuse and horrors others poured out on him for the sake of offering himself up as a sacrifice to redeem us from our sins.  It was God the Father’s will that he did this.  There is no shame in pleasing God.

Matthew 26:14 – 27:66.  Judas Iscariot, chosen by Jesus to be an Apostle, sells Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.  Jesus could have stopped this treachery easily but instead freely delivers himself to be offered as a once-and-for-all oblation for our redemption.  At the celebration of the Passover meal with his apostles, he offers himself up liturgically as a ritual sacrifice, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”  He gave the cup to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is the blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.”  Even though he himself was standing there, it was his  very own body and blood for the sacrifice for our redemption.  How is bread and wine his body and blood?  It is so because he, God, said so!

Rather they put gall in my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Psalm 69:22)  At the Last Supper, Jesus says, “I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.” (Matthew 26: 29)  The cup of wine at the Last Supper is a cup of Jesus’ life and love for us.  The wine mixed with gall given Jesus on the cross is the wine of hatred and envy.  The cup of Jesus’ prayer in his agony in the garden is a cup of pain and extreme sorrow.  “Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again, ‘My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done.’” (Matthew 26:42)  The very reason for Jesus’ coming into this world was our redemption through his passion and death.  Jesus in his humanity, recoiling at the approaching excruciating horror that he was to suffer, had made his prayer but was always willing to submit himself to his Father’s will .  Because of his own humanness, he recognized the reason for the Apostles’ failure to stay awake, by previously saying, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”(Matthew 26:41b)

There is a something of a parallel between Peter and Judas, in that both betray Jesus out of a faith in themselves and not God.  The difference is that, when Judas recognized that he had betrayed innocent blood, he despaired and hung himself because he, who was the basis of his own life, had failed and he did not have a spiritual life by which he could turn to God for forgiveness.  Peter, weeping bitterly, was open to having a merciful God that enabled him to find his way back to that same God.

The Jewish authorities first needed to convict him by their own law.  Jesus, saying, “From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven,’” offers them ample evidence of his claim to divinity and so they convict him of blasphemy.  However, at the same time they reject ample evidence of his claim to divinity in the multitude of miracles he worked and for which they tried to convict him by working some of those miracles on a Sabbath.

The Jewish authorities handed Jesus over to Pilate the governor, appointed by Rome to rule over the Jewish people of Jerusalem because the Romans had taken away from the Jewish authorities the power to execute anyone.  Pilate, knowing that his authority from Rome rested on his ability to keep the peace, “seeing that a riot was breaking out,” handed him over to be crucified by the Roman soldiers.  The soldiers tortured and belittled Jesus, taking great sadistic pleasure seeing him suffer at their hands.  Likewise, everyone who came by Jesus on the cross reviled and mocked him, acting as though he were helpless; when in reality he was willing offering himself up as a sacrifice.

Philippians 2:6-11.  The footnotes from The New American Bible, With Revised New Testament(1987), p1340, states: “Perhaps an early Christian hymn quoted here by Paul.  The short rhythmic lines fall into two parts, vv6-8 where the subject of every verb is Christ, and vv9-11 where the subject is God.  The general pattern is thus of Christ’s humiliation and then exaltation.” The footnote on v6 states: “Either a reference to Christ’s preexistence and those aspects of divinity that he was willing to give up in order to serve in human form, or to what the man Jesus refused to grasp at to attain divinity.”  The rest of the notes are worth consulting, especially that of v10 (”every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth”): “a reference to the three levels  in the universe, according to ancient thought, heaven, earth, under the earth.”

5LA20.    Ezekiel 37:12-14.  The Hebrew people had been taken away into captivity by the Babylonians but now they are released.  Now through Ezekiel the Lord God speaks who raises up his people from the world of their captivity that was like a grave for them.  God gives them renewed life by returning them to their own land.  The Church gives us this reading as a way to prefigure Jesus’ own death and resurrection that will raise us who were dead because of sin but now have a resurrection to new life because Jesus has redeemed us from our captivity to sin.

John 11:1-45.   When Jesus heard that Lazarus, whom Jesus loved dearly, was ill, “He said, ‘This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’”  He did not go immediately but “remained in the place where he was for two days.”  Then Jesus said, “Let us go back to Judea.”  Then his disciples warned him that the Jewish authorities were ready to kill him if he returned.   Jesus says in his own mystical way that the light of the world was with him, which is to say he knew that he was doing what God the Father wanted of him.  In last week’s gospel Jesus said the illness happened “so that the works of God might be made visible through him.”  Jesus again asserts that here Lazarus’ illness was deliberately allowed to progress to death so that the works of God might be made visible.  Thomas, ever-the-down-to-earth realist, says that, in returning now to Judea, death awaits them there. In Bethany Jesus meets Martha who is clearly disappointed that Jesus did not return to cure her brother but instead let him die.  Despite her disappointment in Jesus, Martha says, “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” Next Mary came expressing that same disappointment with Jesus, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Jesus, in his humanity, was deeply troubled and wept that he had to let Martha and Mary suffer such great pain in the death of their brother.  When Jesus came to the cave where Lazarus was entombed, he had the stone taken away.  Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”  “Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God.’”  Then Jesus, speaking to God the Father, said, “Because of the crowd here I have said,” “that you always hear me,” “that they may believe that you sent me.”  Then Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come out,” and Lazarus who was dead for four days, “came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands.”  The Jewish people, who saw “what he had done, began to believe in him.”  The glory of God was plainly visible to all.  Jesus was without a doubt the Messiah, the Christ.  The pain of death became the joy of the resurrection.  In Lazarus’ death and resurrection, Jesus was prophesying his own death and resurrection.  John 11:47-48 reads, “So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, ‘What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs.  If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation,” which is to say the chief priests and the Pharisees wound lose their authority to the Romans or to Jesus.  No thought was given to the fact that (John 9:16b) a sinful man cannot do such signs nor (John 9:31-32) that God only listens to a man who is devout and obedient so that he could open the eyes of a man born blind in last Sunday’s gospel.  The chief priests and the Pharisees were blinded by their desire to keep their authority and all the privileges that went with it. So they plotted to kill Jesus who was far more popular with the people than with the chief priests.

Romans 8:8-11.  “Brothers and Sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells within.”  We must understand the term ’flesh’.  Genesis 1:26-27 says God created man in his divine image and Genesis 2:7 says, “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostril the breath of life.”  John 1:14a reads: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  Luke 2:6 says:  “While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,”Jesus, who is God made flesh while still remaining God.  Flesh in itself is not bad because flesh was made by God and God saw that it was good.   What is bad is that we allow ourselves to be ruled by our flesh so that we become slaves of our flesh. Our spirit, which is God’s life within us, ought to rule us instead.  Biology, the science of physical living things, lists us as homo sapiens, that is the human animal.  God sees us, if we choose to belong to God, as his sons or daughters.  Our life is a choice we live daily.  Do we choose to be just an animal of this world, living in the flesh and not in the spirit; OR do we live daily as a son or daughter of God?

L5A.  Ezekiel 37:12-14.  “Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.” “O my people!  I will put my spirit in you that you may live.”  Where there is death, natural or spiritual from sin, God gives life.  “I will do it, says the Lord.”  Our God is very much alive, active and present in our lives.

John 11:1-45.  “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  Remember when Jesus said of the blind man last Sunday, “it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.”  Jesus gave sight to the blind man and now resurrects Lazarus so to give glory to Jesus and to bring people to believe in him.  “Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.”

Look how fully human Jesus is in his humanity that he weeps at the death of Lazarus and is so deeply perturbed and troubled throughout the whole scene of his dealing with the death of Lazarus.  How much Jesus loves!  He loves each one of us as he loved Lazarus.  Our God is not a sin tabulating machine, but a loving brother; a diligent, caring Father.

“Jesus told Mary, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God.” For Lazarus, Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  Jesus fulfills God’s prophecy in Ezekiel.  Jesus makes it clear that a person can die physically but still will live forever spiritually in heaven if one believes that Jesus is the One who can raise us from the dead because he is Messiah and God.

After Jesus decided to go to Bethany, which is close to Jerusalem, to be there for Mary, Martha and the deceased Lazarus,  “the disciples said to Jesus, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”  Jesus not only wants to resurrect Lazarus to give glory to God and to promote belief in him as God the Savior but also soon afterwards, to offer himself on the cross for our redemption, the reason why he came into this world.  After Jesus says, “’Let us go to him (Lazarus).’  So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go to die with him’”.  Jesus sends a strong message with the death and resurrection of Lazarus as to his own imminent death and resurrection.  The power of God conquers sin and death.  The victory belongs to God and to those who entrust themselves to him.

Romans 8:8-11.  “Brothers and Sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”  If someone is ‘in the flesh’, they follow what their flesh tells them to do, i. e. they obey the desires that come to them through the flesh or they belong to the desires of the flesh.  The Spirit of God dwells or lives in those who are baptized or invite the Spirit into their lives.  The Spirit gives us the desire to please God and leads us to reject the desires of the flesh.  He leads us to belong to God and to nothing else.  Those who belong to the Spirit live righteous lives that are in accord with God’s will for us.  The Spirit of God will then raise our dead bodies to eternal life.