Text: John 11:25-26, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Series A

Based on today’s readings you could think that today was a Sunday during the Easter season, not the Lenten season. Easter is all about rising from the dead and all of our readings for today talk about that topic in some way.

First, in the OT reading, the prophet Ezekiel is taken to a valley full of dry bones. He is led all around them and then asked, “Can these bones live?” Now the natural answer would be, “No way. Dry bones can’t live.”

But Ezekiel replies diplomatically, “O Lord God, you know.” In his time as a prophet he had learned that anything is possible with the Lord.

So God tells Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones and sure enough they come alive. Bone connects to bone and muscles and flesh come upon them.

But God was not finished yet. The bones were all put together but they were not alive so God has Ezekiel prophecy to the breath: “Come from the four winds, O breath and breathe on these slain that they may live.”

Ezekiel does so and the breath enters the bones and they become alive, a vast army.

Then God explains to Ezekiel what this means. The house of Israel had lost all hope. This is because they were in exile in Babylon, away from the Promised Land of Israel. They were cut off from life. But just because they were dead did not mean God couldn’t do anything. He has the power over death so he said, “Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves.”

People sometimes question whether or not the Old Testament teaches about the resurrection of the dead. This story from Ezekiel is one of the clearest indications that the Old Testament does indeed teach about the resurrection.

One of our Lutheran scholars points out that wherever in the Old Testament we find the divine promise of grace: “I will be your God” – and that happens a lot – the resurrection of the dead is taught.” (Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics, volume III, page 535)

Next we move to the epistle reading where again the resurrection of the dead is taught. In verse 11 of Romans chapter eight Paul writes, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

“He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you.” This is almost a repeat of what happens in the Old Testament reading. The dry bones were all put together but did not have life until the spirit entered them. In the same way, our mortal bodies do not have life until God puts his Spirit in us.

Because of the sin that dwells in our mortal flesh the Spirit cannot be given to us until we die. But this has already happened in Holy Baptism. In Holy Baptism our old sinful nature is drowned and dies thus killing our sinful nature and enabling the Spirit to enter into us.

Finally, there is the Holy Gospel for today where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. The reading not only has the miracle of raising Lazarus but also the reaction of the Jewish leaders. This was, for the Jewish leaders, the last straw. So many people were now believing in Jesus because of all his miracles that he was threatening to displace the positions of power and privilege that the Jewish leaders enjoyed. The Jews decided they had to kill Jesus.

Some scholars believe that this meeting of the Jewish leaders after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead was Jesus’ actual trial more so than his appearance before the Sanhedrin during Holy Week. At a trial you are supposed to have an open mind and these scholars believe that when this meeting started some of the Sanhedrin had not made up their minds about Jesus but by the end of the meeting they had all made up their minds – Jesus must go.

So then when Jesus was later arrested and actually appeared before the Sanhedrin it wasn’t really a trial at all since they had all already made up their minds.

Why they thought that killing someone who had the power over death would achieve their goals is a mystery. Yet if you look at all the people who oppose the Christian faith they are always convinced that violence and especially killing us is the way to achieve their objectives.

There are many reasons why the raising of Lazarus stands out among Jesus’ miracles.

First, it was done on someone Jesus knew well. Jesus did most of his miracles on complete strangers. That is not the case with Lazarus. Jesus was a close friend of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, and even wept at Lazarus’ tomb.

Another aspect of the miracle is that Lazarus had been dead for four days. His body was stinking as Martha points out. But Jesus’ power is unlimited. He called Lazarus right out of the grave. The dead man heard the voice of Jesus. This is how we know that even if someone chooses to be cremated God can restore their bodies to life in the resurrection.

This goes along with what Jesus says in  John 5:25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” So although the dead cannot hear our words, the dead can hear God’s Word loud and clear.

Jesus could have also relieved Lazarus of his grave clothes but he leaves that job to others. He tells them, “Unbind him and let him go.” That shows how much more important Jesus’ work is than ours. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. We unwrap him.

This story also features two of the greatest verses in the Bible: As he tells Martha before he raises Lazarus: vs. 25-26: “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.” He says this before raising Lazarus from the dead and then backs it up by doing this great miracle.

The one great difference with Easter is that Jesus rose from the dead never to die again. As far as I know there are no people around today who claim that they were part of that great multitude of people that were raised from the dead in the days of Ezekiel. And I would think that if Lazarus was still around I would have heard about or even met him by now. As we shall celebrate at Easter time Jesus rose from the dead never to die again.

Maybe the folks who picked out our readings for today thought, “Well, it’s close enough to Easter – just two weeks away – we can start talking about the resurrection from the dead now. The big difference with Jesus rising from the dead at Easter and all other resurrections stories in the Bible is that he rose from the dead, never to die again. And that is what will happen when the Lord opens our graves and takes us to eternal life in heaven.