November 1, 2009

2009 11 01

The Dead Live

Isaiah 25:7-9

Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

This past week was just one of those where I should have just turned off the TV altogether. Leading up to Halloween, some of the cable channels start showing all the horror movies they can get their hands on. Now, I have to admit when I was a teenager, my buddies and I would watch those movies. Back then, the movies were just so bad, and the special effects were truly awful…that the movies weren’t scary…they were hilarious.

You would look and you could tell that this person was wearing a rubber mask, and that character’s fake blood was probably ketchup from the local grocery store. We would just watch and laugh because the movies were completely unrealistic, and they more stupid than they were scary.

Just like everything else, times have changed. The technology that they use to make movies has gotten better. So things don’t look as fake as they used to be. Unfortunately, the storylines have become more sick and twisted. The killings have become crueler more demented. I really don’t watch horror movies anymore, but bits and pieces of what I saw flipping though channels do have me worried for the next generation of youth and young adults who watch these things.

One thing that these movies do is that they devalue human life. The more that people, especially young people, see these depictions of torture and murder, the more desensitized they become to it. In their eyes, people become less human. They become objects to be manipulated. Hurting others is considered fun or a game. I think that we are seeing more of this in our schools and communities, and I know that this is not how God wants us to treat each other. I know that I have already preached to you that we are to love and care for each other. Every human being is highly prized and valued in the eyes of God. However, this is not my message to you this morning.

Not only do these horror movies devalue human life, but they also give our world a very skewed idea of life after death. One of the big sellers in modern horror movie plots is just an old idea that has been made over: zombies. Not only does some madman kill people, but due to some virus or evil magic, now they all reanimated as zombies. The zombies attack the living, turning them into zombies as well. This of course creates bigger problems for our movie’s heroes, and bigger profits for the movie companies. The dead come back to life and try to take over the world.

Maybe that sort of thing works in a movie theater, but it is not the message that God shows to us in John 11. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had been friends and followers of Jesus. Word reached Jesus that Lazarus had fallen ill.

^11:4 When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Jesus did not get up immediately to go visit Lazarus. In fact, he waited two more days before he and the disciples. During this time, Lazarus died and was laid to rest in a tomb. By the time they had arrived. Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.

In John 11:21, Martha went out to greet Jesus. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Mary also went out to greet Jesus, and she tells Jesus the same thing. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." It was a funeral scene. There were people gathered from far and wide. They were there to remember and commiserate and mourn Lazarus’ death. Moved by the spirit and by sadness, Jesus wept. He had loved Lazarus as much as anyone.

Maybe it was grief. Maybe it was anger. Maybe it was jealousy that Lazarus had loved Jesus more than his friends and his family. But some of the crowd began to speak against Jesus. "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" But Jesus went to the tomb. He called for them to roll away the stone that covered the entrance. But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

Martha did not get it. Jesus had just told her that he is the resurrection and the life. He told Martha that Lazarus would rise again. But she didn’t get it. Maybe we don’t either. Too many scary stories, old wives tales, and horror movies have our current world just as paralyzed with disbelief as they were back then. But Jesus insisted, and the stone was rolled away.

⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." ⁴³ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

And he did. Lazarus came out, still wrapped up in the cloths they had used to bury him. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." Even with Mary and Martha not understanding, and with some of the crowd speaking against him. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

⁴⁵ Therefore (because of what they witnessed) many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.

Just so you know, if you look in chapter 12, Lazarus was no ghost. He was no apparition, and he certainly was no zombie. He was alive as he had been before. They even threw a dinner in his honor. People would have been just as scared of ghosts and evil spirits then as we are now. If Lazarus had been a zombie or a reanimated corpse, the whole town would have run screaming from the area. Instead, they held a dinner to celebrate Lazarus new life.

This is not an easy thing to say. It is not an easy thing for a pastor to say…but for those who believe in Christ, we are better off dead. Hear me out. Do not think for one moment that I think that any person should go and take their life. That is not what I am saying. But when we die…those who believe in Christ…those whose sins are forgiven…will stand blameless in the judgment. These persons…these saints of God are finally home.

Remember when Jesus prays to the Father he says, ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

Jesus did not bring Lazarus back to life because coming back to the earth…coming back to this place is a good or great thing. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life to show us his power to save…his power to make things new. If Jesus could literally bring Lazarus back from an earthly grave…he can bring us back from spiritual darkness and death. Death is not death anymore. To die as a faithful saint on earth is to live as a rewarded saint in heaven…forever.

You see, that is what Jesus offers to each of us. A new life, right here and right now…a life of faithfulness, holiness, and righteousness. But the promise of new life goes well beyond what he offers us today. His promise extends into eternity. But what does that eternity look like?

^{Rev 21:1} Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

A new heaven…a new earth. Glorious splendor and the presence of God. We will be rejoined with the saints…with who have gone in faith before us. He will be with us, and we will be with him.

⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." ⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

In the movies, madmen and zombies kill and reanimate. In reality, Jesus died…he offered his life, so that we might live. In Jesus Christ, the dead are not dead, but the dead live. They truly live.

If you did not realize it by now, today is All-Saints Day. I am glad that the ladies played “When the Saints God Marching In” this morning. Most of us know the main verse, but there are many. I would like to sing for you one of them. Then if you know it let us join together in the more common one.

Oh When the new world is revealed

Lord, how I want to be in that number

When the new world is revealed

Oh, when the saints go marching in

Lord, how I want to be in that number

When the saints go marching in

I know this might sound crazy to some of you. When I die, there will be sadness. There will be people who will miss me and plenty who will not. But it will not matter, because I will be gone. Throw a party, dance a jig, sing some karaoke, celebrate my life, I will be with the Lord. I truly hope that we all are. But while we are still here, we can show the world that the dead live.