I started working at my first church when I was a sophomore in college and I was so excited to have an opportunity to hang out with a core group of people who loved Jesus . . . because I loved Jesus and I loved people so this was the perfect match . . . we could sit around and talk about Jesus and worship Jesus and do mission projects for Jesus and maybe even introduce new people to Jesus.
But what I quickly realized is that within the church there are a lot of broken, devastated, completely wrecked people. I need to be honest with you . . . when I got into ministry; I was not at all prepared for the devastation of wrecked lives.
Which why I get so frustrated when pastors make every story a good story, and every verse a good verse, and every tale have a glorious ending and they don’t connect with people who are wrecked.
Just because somebody dresses nice and smiles on Sunday morning, just because we have a good laugh around the coffee pot, just because worship was amazing and a lot of people showed up . . . doesn’t mean that people aren’t dealing with a lot of pain and desperately want to connect to a God who has compassion on broken, wrecked people.
Because the reality is that your life is going to be wrecked. My life is going to be wrecked. And the more people you love, the more people you are willing to be in authentic community with, the more occasions you will have to be wrecked.
But what we learn this morning is that Jesus finds wrecked people. God comes to earth as the man named Jesus, and he goes looking for absolutely wrecked people and he has compassion for them.
Let's listen to our text: John 11:17-44
At this point of Jesus’ ministry, he was becoming controversial . . . He has just wrapped up a preaching tour where large crowds had been following him to see what he’s going to do next.
But Jesus told them that they were getting so caught up in the signs, the miracles that he was performing, that they were missing who the signs were pointing to and then he told them in very clear terms that he is God and all that he had been doing was designed to help them see that.
As you can imagine, this hasn't set will with the religious leaders, who are now out to get him.
So as we come to this text, Jesus is hanging out with disciples near the Jordan River because his time had not yet come and this was a much safer place for him to be.
And as he is there, he receives word that one of his closest friends, Lazarus, is dying in the nearby town of Bethany.
Now you would think that Jesus would immediately get up and go be with him. After all, he had met the needs of so many other people . . . but instead, Jesus decides to stay put. You see, what is to follow is a sign and the signs are designed to help people see more clearly who Jesus is. And so he waits.
And after two days of chilling out with the disciples, he says "Ok, guys let's get going"
Now, Bethany is only 20 miles away so he could have easily made it in a day but he takes his time and when he arrives, Lazarus has been dead for four days.
And as he approaches the city gates, Jesus is met by Lazarus' sister, Martha and she's pretty frustrated with him because it's too late. Her brother is dead and now she has most likely lost everything.
You see, in that day, women were vulnerable because this was a man's world and women had to rely on men to provide for them.
Martha has just buried the only man in her life, her brother . . . which means that she is without any means of economic support and relegated to the fringes of community.
In other words, this woman is absolutely wrecked so of course she's frustrated . . . but even as she questions Jesus, she makes a new commitment to him and affirms that she still believes God will give Jesus whatever he asks.
And so Jesus tells her that he brother will rise again and then he uses another I AM statement . . . Remember what that is. I AM is the name of God.
Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life and who ever believes in me will have life" and then he asks her, "Do you believe?"
It’s a crisis moment for her. It’s a moment of choice, and of sacrifice. And in this moment she lays down her anger at Jesus, she gives up her need for answers and guarantees, and she simply lets go – letting herself fall into a faith that offers no certainty and no promise of comfort.
After this, Martha runs into town to let her sister Mary know that Jesus has arrived and immediately she got up and ran to him, and a crowd of people followed her.
All of them mourning and grieving for these sisters. You see, funerals were a community wide event. The village had essentially shut down. Everyone is weeping and bawling. Lazarus' friends are weeping. All the families who know this family are weeping. They are embracing these sisters, because these women are wrecked.
And in the midst of this pain and suffering . . . Jesus just shows up.
But that’s how Jesus works. He seeks and he finds wrecked people . . . I want you to see that because this is not how we generally work.
Most of us, when we find out that someone is really suffering, really hurting, we almost have to force yourself to pursue them. Because we know that it’s going to be exhausting. It’s going to be devastating. It’s going to be hard work to love them. Emotionally, it’s costly.
But that’s what Jesus does. He seeks and finds wrecked people. I just want you to see that.
When he enters in the city and collides with her entourage, he was moved with compassion and he wept. Can we just pause there?
To me, these are the most powerful 2 words in all of scripture. Jesus, the author and creator, steps into his creation and grieves with it.
Now, if the crowd hadn’t hushed when he wept, I’m sure it does when Jesus tells them to open the tomb. The text doesn’t say but I’m guessing that more than one or two Jaws dropped.
You see . . . you’re not supposed to be exposed to a dead body because it’s ceremonially unclean. And by exposing yourself to it, it will make you unclean.
Not to mention that it's been four days and everybody know that by now, the guy is not just dead . . . he's really dead. You see, in that culture, they believed that the Spirit of a person would hover over the body for three days but on he fourth day, when the body began to decompose, it would depart.
Well, it's been four days so the spirit has left . . . and let's be honest a decomposing body smells.
But Jesus isn't concerned about religious rules, or superstition, or even the stench of death as he prays to the father thanking him for who he is and that through this sign people would believe that He is the resurrection and the life.
And then he gives a command . . . “Lazarus come out”.
The literal translation is this . . . it's this way. Come out of the grave and come to me this way because I am the resurrection and the giver of life.
And with this command Lazarus walks out of the grave.
Can you imagine the emotional transition in that moment? Lazarus gets out of the coffin, comes out and starts’ talking to everybody.
• Can you see their faces? Can you feel their joy?
• Do you think they were screaming with happiness, jumping up and down?
• Do you think tears of shock and joy were streaming down their face?
• She got their brother back, alive and well and restored to health.
And that’s what Jesus does. He touches dead people and brings life.
Ephesians 2:4-5 says it this way, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
In the same way that this man is physically dead, we are spiritually dead. We are absolutely wrecked people but because of God’s great love for us, he pursues us in order to bring us life.
You see, this story is about grace . . . this raising doesn’t happen because of a sister's plea or even their worthiness as friends. It happened because Jesus has compassion for them and in his compassion he extends his grace . . . period.
But in the midst of all of this, there is something else happening. A foreshadowing of things to come and a glimpse into what God intends for us.
Jesus does not just love these sisters, and raise a brother . . . he is also unveiling His kingdom . . . He’s showing his power over death and revealing a kingdom that has yet to come . . . it’s a kingdom in which there will be no more pain, no more suffering and no more death.
And as we read the story of the resurrected Lazarus, we are reminded of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The parallels are curious:
• Jesus comes as the only Son of God who is deeply loved by his father . . . this is the sisters only brother and they deeply love him
• And just as Lazarus died, Jesus died on our behalf
• And as Lazarus rose from death, so Jesus rose from death to conquer death for those who believe that he is the resurrection and life.
You see, we don’t worship a God who is immune to suffering. If you’re hurting, he knows exactly what you feel like, because he was present for the death of the Son and he felt it.
But his promise is, “Trust me. Stick with me. We need to get through this. We need to get to the other side of resurrection. I have worked out all things for Good. I have a plan. And I know right now, it is exceedingly painful because I myself have felt that pain but we can do this!”
So, if you are suffering, your life is wrecked, or it will be wrecked . . . I want you to remember Jesus and I want you to go to him for comfort and love and support and understanding and encouragement.
And I want you to be in community with his people. What we see is an entire community surrounding themselves around these sisters in the moment of their suffering . . . that’s what God's church is supposed to be about. You need others around you when you’re suffering and you need to present and available in order to rally around those who are suffering.
And God today would call us to worship him in faith because today may feel like a funeral day but a resurrection day is coming.
So today, suffer and weep as these women did, mourn and cry as they did, surround and support one another as the town of Bethany did, but by faith, trust that resurrection is coming, and this same Jesus, reaches down into death, and has life for you and for me.
And it will happen, and you will see it by the grace of God. We can’t earn it. We can’t work for it. We can’t plead for it. It just comes. What we can do is choose whether to receive it or reject it.
When Jesus comes with compassion in his eyes, we can wrap our funeral clothes tightly around us or we can change into our party clothes and celebrate – the choice is ours. The choice is always ours.