WEBVTT 00:00.410 --> 00:01.870 In the name of Jesus. 00:02.530 --> 00:03.470 Amen. 00:04.530 --> 00:07.520 Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:10.210 --> 00:17.280 Lazarus, whose sisters are Martha and Mary, is ill. 00:17.810 --> 00:23.040 So his sisters, ascend for Jesus, saying he whom you love is ill. 00:24.530 --> 00:29.030 Greater love hath no man than this man, this Jesus. 00:30.410 --> 00:36.950 And yet, strangely, he waits. 00:40.430 --> 00:42.346 He waits not for a while 00:42.448 --> 00:50.910 only for two days he waits. 00:52.690 --> 00:57.310 He waits for Lazarus to die. 00:59.330 --> 01:01.200 Only then is he ready. 01:03.510 --> 01:09.726 Only then does he say to his disciples, let us go to Judea. 01:09.838 --> 01:15.322 Again the disciples react with understandable alarm. 01:15.486 --> 01:20.054 In Judea, those opposing Jesus will no doubt attempt, as they have 01:20.092 --> 01:24.280 before, to kill him, to kill them all. 01:25.130 --> 01:30.234 Aware of their trepidation, Jesus attempts to assure them it is no 01:30.272 --> 01:31.610 time for stumbling. 01:32.190 --> 01:35.660 It is instead time for the work of Jesus to be done. 01:36.270 --> 01:43.920 And so he declares, Lazarus sleeps, but I go to awaken him. 01:44.930 --> 01:49.120 But, as before, they fail once more to comprehend him. 01:50.130 --> 01:56.050 So Jesus makes plain his meaning, saying Lazarus has died. 01:57.110 --> 02:03.220 And despite their misgivings, he says once more, let us go. 02:06.170 --> 02:14.754 Days later, Martha, the oldest of the two sisters, hears that Jesus 02:14.882 --> 02:18.250 has finally arrived. 02:19.150 --> 02:22.330 But their brother is now long since dead. 02:22.990 --> 02:28.140 His corpse has already been in the grave for a long time. 02:28.670 --> 02:30.220 Four days. 02:32.130 --> 02:36.606 Martha goes out to greet Jesus, but Mary remains in the house. 02:36.788 --> 02:43.390 If only Jesus had come sooner, their brother could have been saved. 02:43.890 --> 02:48.926 But this many days later, the time for the hope of such things is from 02:48.948 --> 02:57.830 the perspective of Martha anyway, now long since past, it is too late 02:58.650 --> 02:59.570 for her brother. 03:01.210 --> 03:04.400 At least as regards the now. 03:05.330 --> 03:06.926 But what of the not yet? 03:07.028 --> 03:10.560 What of the resurrection that is to come? 03:12.290 --> 03:18.026 The experience of their brother's death has shaken his sisters. 03:18.218 --> 03:24.670 Yet Martha wavers not in her understanding of the late incoming Jesus. 03:25.690 --> 03:33.510 Instead, rather remarkably actually, she poignantly persists in her 03:33.579 --> 03:39.180 confident belief that Jesus is who they have taken him to be. 03:40.670 --> 03:46.300 That he has come too late for her brother changes nothing. 03:48.510 --> 03:54.734 What ultimately matters is not the present for Martha, but the future. 03:54.932 --> 03:58.800 Not what is, but what will be. 03:59.250 --> 04:04.370 Therefore, Martha resolutely declares, even now, I know that whatever 04:04.440 --> 04:11.329 you ask from God, God will give you. Extraordinarily 04:12.550 --> 04:18.600 she continues to believe that Jesus is what they have taken him to be. 04:19.130 --> 04:25.686 Through Jesus, the glorious future that Israel awaits will most 04:25.788 --> 04:27.640 certainly come. 04:27.950 --> 04:32.810 And when it does, her brother will rise. 04:33.310 --> 04:38.810 When it comes, all the dead will rise. 04:40.030 --> 04:42.602 Your brother will rise, declares Jesus. 04:42.666 --> 04:46.240 He is thinking of the now and the not yet. 04:47.730 --> 04:51.933 But Martha thinks that Jesus is speaking only of the day when all the 04:51.972 --> 04:54.290 dead will rise. 04:54.630 --> 04:59.474 So Martha replies, saying, yes, Lord, I know that he will rise in the 04:59.512 --> 05:02.100 resurrection on the last day. 05:03.990 --> 05:10.182 She has heard Jesus previously say that an hour is coming and is now 05:10.236 --> 05:14.710 here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those 05:14.780 --> 05:17.080 who hear will live. 05:18.750 --> 05:24.554 Therefore, Martha expresses her tremendous and abiding hope that her 05:24.592 --> 05:29.770 brother will rise when the rest of the dead rise. 05:30.450 --> 05:37.693 But what she does not yet know, and so does not now expect, is that 05:37.732 --> 05:41.789 her brother will rise sooner than she thinks. 05:42.610 --> 05:47.070 I am the resurrection and the life, declares Jesus. 05:47.650 --> 05:52.159 He means to be this for her brother not later, but now. 05:52.930 --> 05:54.640 Do you believe this? 05:55.130 --> 05:56.710 Asks Jesus. 05:57.770 --> 05:59.730 Martha's response is both marvelously 06:00.650 --> 06:05.630 witting and unwitting. As much as she is thus far able 06:05.700 --> 06:09.934 she takes the word of the word made flesh to heart and believes it. 06:09.972 --> 06:14.174 And she speaks a truth that is profoundly greater than she can 06:14.212 --> 06:21.214 possibly know when she says, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the 06:21.252 --> 06:26.200 Christ, the Son of God, the one who is to come. 06:28.010 --> 06:33.234 Then Martha goes to her sister, and Martha tells Mary that the Teacher 06:33.282 --> 06:34.758 is calling for her. 06:34.924 --> 06:39.674 When Mary hears this, she goes quickly to Jesus, and Mary repeats what 06:39.712 --> 06:41.980 Martha has already said. 06:43.150 --> 06:44.826 She says the same thing. 06:44.928 --> 06:50.409 Lord, says Mary, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 06:51.170 --> 06:56.654 In other words, she shows that her understanding of the moment is the 06:56.692 --> 06:58.826 same as that of her sister. 06:59.018 --> 07:01.920 Their brother is dead and gone. 07:03.190 --> 07:08.500 His body awaits the resurrection, as do they. 07:10.150 --> 07:17.590 Her grief, her sense of loss is too much for her to bear. 07:18.409 --> 07:23.000 A better day seems far, far away. 07:24.010 --> 07:30.170 So she and others with her weep and wail. 07:31.390 --> 07:35.834 When Jesus sees these things, both what they see and know and what 07:35.872 --> 07:43.146 they don't see and don't know, he is deeply aggravated in his spirit 07:43.258 --> 07:45.230 and greatly troubled. 07:46.530 --> 07:50.080 And he says, Where have you laid him? 07:50.770 --> 07:54.834 They respond to him, saying, Lord, come and see. 07:55.032 --> 07:58.980 But the moment is no time for him to come and see. 07:59.590 --> 08:03.300 The moment is a time for them to come and see. 08:04.470 --> 08:12.534 Neither is it a time for weeping in the company of the one who is the 08:12.572 --> 08:14.680 resurrection and the life. 08:16.010 --> 08:26.010 And yet, at this moment, Jesus also weeps. 08:28.750 --> 08:31.550 But he does so not out of sympathy for them. 08:31.620 --> 08:34.080 He knows what he is there to do. 08:35.650 --> 08:42.222 Rather, he weeps on account of their deeply distressing inability even 08:42.276 --> 08:48.160 now to see who He is and what it is that He has come to be and to do. 08:48.690 --> 08:52.990 It breaks His heart, their dim wittedness. 08:54.610 --> 08:57.030 And only He sees. 08:58.490 --> 08:59.860 Only He knows what 09:00.330 --> 09:02.320 soon must be. 09:02.930 --> 09:08.558 When the time comes for Jesus to go to the cross, only He will know 09:08.644 --> 09:10.400 why He must go. 09:11.730 --> 09:21.150 Only He will go utterly alone, utterly unrecognized, utterly forsaken 09:21.490 --> 09:23.440 will He be. 09:24.610 --> 09:28.790 And and so Jesus weeps. 09:30.170 --> 09:34.914 Some of them say was this one who opened the eyes of the blind, unable 09:34.962 --> 09:38.126 to act so that this other one would not have died? 09:38.258 --> 09:43.882 This just aggravates Him all the more. Aggravated all the more 09:43.936 --> 09:48.358 by their incomprehension, Jesus instructs them to remove the stone 09:48.454 --> 09:50.570 from the mouth of the tomb. 09:51.010 --> 09:56.046 As before, Martha unwittingly, responds, saying lord, by now the body 09:56.148 --> 10:05.154 reeks, reeks with the stench of death, where again the body has 10:05.192 --> 10:09.380 already been in the grave for four days. 10:11.190 --> 10:14.910 But Jesus responds, saying did I not tell you that if you believe, 10:15.000 --> 10:16.680 then you will see? 10:18.650 --> 10:24.360 Then will they see what they have been failing to see. 10:26.569 --> 10:27.414 At His word 10:27.452 --> 10:30.294 they take away the stone that is covering the mouth of the tomb. 10:30.342 --> 10:33.850 And in their hearing, Jesus prays to his Father. 10:34.190 --> 10:35.306 He does so 10:35.408 --> 10:40.569 so they would hear now, and then later see what they have been failing 10:40.650 --> 10:41.600 to see. 10:42.530 --> 10:47.440 With a loud voice He cries out, saying, Lazarus, come out. 10:48.290 --> 10:51.520 He calls him by name. 10:52.390 --> 10:56.942 And what follows is, of course, extraordinary. 10:57.086 --> 11:03.486 The dead man has ears that hear as almost do 11:03.518 --> 11:09.862 the dead man heeds the voice of the good shepherd, who calls him by 11:09.915 --> 11:10.520 name. 11:11.370 --> 11:15.973 He heeds the Word of the Word made flesh and is freed from the 11:16.012 --> 11:18.330 bandages of death. 11:19.950 --> 11:24.038 I am the resurrection and the life, declares Jesus. 11:24.214 --> 11:28.906 Declares He who is the way, the Truth and the life. 11:29.088 --> 11:35.920 Friends, do you too, even now believe this? 11:36.610 --> 11:41.662 Do you take His word to heart and believe it? The Word of the Word made 11:41.716 --> 11:42.590 flesh. 11:42.930 --> 11:45.760 Do you take Him at his word. 11:46.290 --> 11:52.960 Or does the experience of this life give you pause, leave you at times 11:54.050 --> 11:54.946 uncertain? 11:55.018 --> 11:56.982 Does 11:57.036 --> 11:59.060 a better day even now 12:00.330 --> 12:03.520 seem far, far away. 12:04.930 --> 12:12.318 If only Jesus would come, and soon, and act before it's too late, at 12:12.324 --> 12:14.080 least as regards the now. 12:15.810 --> 12:21.294 So we find ourselves perhaps often thinking the experience of this 12:21.332 --> 12:28.358 life, the seemingly late incoming Jesus, can shake a person really 12:28.444 --> 12:32.520 shake a person, can it not? 12:34.250 --> 12:39.434 Beloved siblings of our Lord Jesus Christ, waver not in your 12:39.472 --> 12:40.650 understanding. 12:41.070 --> 12:46.906 Instead, doggedly persist in your confident belief that Jesus is who 12:46.928 --> 12:48.860 you have taken Him to be. 12:49.470 --> 12:53.760 That He seems late in coming changes nothing. 12:55.490 --> 13:02.480 What ultimately matters is not the present, but the future. 13:02.950 --> 13:07.300 Not what is, but what will be. 13:08.230 --> 13:17.382 Therefore, be resolute knowing that whatever Jesus asks of God, God 13:17.436 --> 13:25.344 will indeed give it, and He asks for you. Through Jesus 13:25.392 --> 13:32.470 the glorious future that the Israel of God awaits will most certainly 13:33.000 --> 13:33.750 come. 13:35.319 --> 13:39.540 And when it comes, all the dead will rise. 13:40.680 --> 13:45.950 For who Jesus is, is what Jesus does. 13:46.319 --> 13:52.350 And what Jesus does is who Jesus is. 13:53.360 --> 13:57.160 In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.