Sermon Tone Analysis

The story for this morning begins with a certain sense of urgency.

It is \\ easy to stand here now and talk about it with some sense of calm, but I can \\ assure you that there was no calm for Martha and Mary.

They were beginning \\ to panic.

Lazarus, their brother, was slipping fast.

Indeed, it looked as \\ though he would not make it.

\\ \\ Now, I want you to envision a person in your mind.

I want a face to appear \\ in your mind's eye.

Who would you turn to if you faced a serious crisis in \\ your life?

There are some people we would instinctively turn to in time of \\ trouble.

I want you to know that the person who came in Martha's mind was \\ Jesus.

She sent an urgent message to him: "Lord, he whom you love is ill."

\\ That is an interesting wording isn't it.

You see, love sees with special \\ eyes.

Mary was sure of one thing.

That Jesus' love for his friend would \\ compel him to come.

This is the situation that John paints for us at \\ Bethany.

There is tension, there is fear, there is a sense of anxiety.

But, \\ there is hope.

\\ \\ Now the scene shifts to the far side of the Jordan River.

Jesus is there for \\ a specific reason.

He had been in Jerusalem and a very dangerous situation \\ had developed for him.

The Jewish authorities had become so enraged with his \\ words that they had risen up against him and had even attempted to stone him \\ to death.

Indeed, John tells us that some stones were tossed.

So he retired \\ to an area where, we are told, John the Baptist had begun his ministry.

\\ Jesus is getting back to the roots of his calling.

While there large crowds \\ came to hear him.

\\ \\ Upon hearing the news of Lazarus's illness, we expect Jesus to drop \\ everything and come running, but alas, it does not happen.

He is only about \\ seventeen miles away.

If he really pushed hard he could make it by late \\ evening or by early the next morning.

In one of the most bewildering scenes \\ in all of scripture, however, Jesus did nothing for two entire days.

Surly \\ he must understand their anxiety.

Surly he must be eager to help.

But there \\ it reads: "He remained two days in the place where he was."

\\ \\ Why did this happen?

I can only respond to that by saying: I do not know.

\\ When I read this story I want to know.

Why did he delay?

Surly there must be \\ an answer to this.

But read the commentaries of all of the great minds: \\ Luther, Dodd, Calvin.

None offer an answer.

To this day it is still hard for \\ me to accept not knowing why.

How true were the words of the Apostle Paul \\ when he wrote: In this life we look through a mirror dimly.

If we had all \\ the answers then we would not need faith, for faith picks up where sight \\ leaves off.

The Book of Hebrews reads: Faith is the evidence of things not \\ seen."

In my mind I, understand that but I still cannot get out of my mind \\ the thought of Martha looking down the road that first night waiting for \\ Jesus to come.

Every time she sees someone her hopes are lifted as she \\ thinks: maybe that's him.

But God has his own schedule.

\\ \\ Two days later Jesus suddenly announces it is time to return to Judea.

He \\ said: I go to awake our friend Lazarus out of his sleep.

Now Jesus is \\ speaking theologically, which is the only significant way to speak, but the \\ problem is that we usually do not think theologically.

Since he is only \\ asleep, they questioned, why should he risk his own life by returning to \\ Judea.

More of a cooling off time was needed they argued.

Jesus must now be \\ blunt with them and tell them that he was only speaking figuratively.

John \\ words it by saying: "Then Jesus spoke out plainly.

Lazarus is dead.

I am \\ glad not to have been there; it will be for the good of your faith.

Let us \\ now go to him."

It was the twin that spoke out.

We will go and die with \\  you," said Thomas.

Clearly the disciples thought that it was a bad decision \\ but they are not ready to abandon ship yet.

\\ \\ Now John shifts the scene back to Bethany.

Lazarus is... \\ \\ [note: Monday night New York City marked six months since the Sept. 11 \\ terrorist attacks with moments of silence and a memorial of light \\ symbolizing the destruction of the World Trade Center and the thousands of \\ Americans lost that day.

This powerful sculpture of light will be lit until \\ early April.

The lights outline the shape of the world trade center towers.

\\ We will be incorporating this into the sermon.

It was a moving event and a \\ foreshadowing of the rebuilding of the area.

The tie in of course is that \\ Lazarus' resurrection is a foreshadowing of our Lord's resurrection.]

*A Twofold Death and Resurrection (Jn.

11:25-26)*

by Fred B. Craddock

Fred B. Craddock is professor of preaching and New Testament at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

This article appeared in the /Christian Century,/ March 21-28, p. 299, copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission.

Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org.

This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

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I am the resurrection and the life; they who believe in me, though they die, yet shall they live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26) .

The church clings to these words like few other sayings of Jesus.

The scene of Jesus with two grieving sisters, weeping at the grave of their brother and his friend, has offered comfort and hope unmatched by any other resource, biblical or nonbiblical.

Most Christian funerals allude to these words or this scene.

However, sometimes the popular appropriation of a text inhibits further exploration for richer and deeper meanings.

One is hesitant to remove an old chapel even if it is for the purpose of erecting a larger and more accommodating sanctuary.

Even so, a few comments will not diminish the blessing of this text to those who have clung to it in an hour of death.

John’s account of the raising of Lazarus (John alone reports it) is one of several sign stories in this Gospel.

A sign story consists of a miraculous act of Jesus usually surrounded or followed by a theological discussion of its meaning.

Such is John’s presentation of Jesus turning water to wine, healing a cripple at the pool, feeding the multitudes, giving sight to a man born blind and raising Lazarus.

At least two features mark sign stories.

First, Jesus acts according to his own time and not according to external pressures.

For example, Jesus separates himself from his mother (2:4) before acting at the wedding feast at Cana.

The reader should not, then, be disturbed by Jesus’ response to the urgent message about Lazarus’s illness (11:3-6) : Jesus stayed two days longer where he was.

In this Gospel, Jesus’ actions are "from above."

Second, to say this is a sign story is to say that its primary function is revelation.

Some truth about the meaning of God’s glory and presence in the world is made known through Jesus’ ministry.

For the stories to function this way, they must be seen to operate on two levels.

On one level Jesus heals a cripple, opens the eyes of the blind or raises the dead, but on another level he reveals a truth about life eternal which God makes available in Jesus Christ.

The story of the raising of Lazarus is prefaced by a statement of its purpose: it is not only for the glory of God but "that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it" (V.

4) .

This is to say, the raising of Lazarus will effect the Son’s return to God by means of his death and resurrection.

The reader, therefore, is alerted to what the characters in the drama do not know; that is, what is really going on here is not only a family crisis in Bethany but the crisis of the world, not only the raising of a dead man but the giving of life to the world.

On one level the story is about the death and resurrection of Lazarus, but on another it is about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The sisters want their brother back, to be sure, but Jesus is also acting to give life to the world.. Jesus declares this truth to Martha at the heart of the narrative: "I am the resurrection and the life."

With these two meanings in mind, the passion of Jesus bleeds through the surface of the story.

Jesus was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled" (v.

33) , he was "deeply moved again" (v.