Close your eyes and picture the scene.  A dimly lit hospital room.  A group of people milling about, looking pretty tired and rather concerned.  Family members.  In-laws.  Friends.  The steady hum of machines pumping air in and out of lungs.  Monitors beeping.  People speaking in hushed tones.  And two siblings closest to the hospital bed.  Leaning over and whispering into the ears of the woman lying there.  Their hands holding the frail, bony hands of the very woman who had brought them into the world.  The hands who had nurtured them, cooked for them, disciplined them, and held them.  Now with life draining from them.

The final moment is only hours away.  Or minutes.  As the family gazes into the gray and sunken face of their once vibrant mother, they wrestle with the realization of “I know it has to happen.”  But can’t help pleading inside: “Why does it have to happen?”

Have you been there?  Have you spent a sleepless night at a hospital at the bedside of a loved one who was leaving this world?  Listening to the machines pushing air into their lungs or keeping their heart pumping?  Have you watched an illness waste away the body of a friend?  A father?  A mother?  A sibling?  A child?  Have you been to a funeral?  A burial?  Gazing in disbelief at the casket that contains the body that contained the soul of the one you can’t believe is gone?  Have you asked the questions that don’t seem to have an answer?

Then you have been there.  Standing at the edge of life looking into the canyon of death.  Standing there puts life into perspective, doesn’t it?  Now what matters and what doesn’t matter are easily distinguished, aren’t they?  At that bedside vigil, is anyone concerned about who is making how much money?  Anyone caring about the new career promotion you just got?  Will anyone be impressed with your new wardrobe or your new haircut?  Anyone care about which team won what game?  Will it matter what kind of car you drive or what part of town you live in?  How much snow dumped outside?  Friends, as you face death, whether it be your own or that of a loved one, won’t all the things we spend so much time caring about and worrying about and bragging about seem so completely silly and unimportant?

The World Trade Center.  The Tsunami.  The children of Africa.  The evening news.  The obituary columns.  Death is all around us.  We try not to notice.  But sometimes you can’t help notice, especially when the tragedy is as big as the New York skyline or as close as the passing of a loved one.  No matter how we try avoiding it, these things bring it home.  Death is the clearest reminder of the saddest fact of all.  Our sinfulness has separated us from the God of life.

There is simply no more direct preaching of the Law than death.  Death, the separation of my body and soul, is the direct result of my sinfulness.  The selfishness I show, my concern for the material things drowning out my concern for God, my lack of love for others, my lack of patience, my greedy, lustful thoughts are proof positive that something is not right with me.  Something is broken.  Something has been disconnected from the original source of life that was supposed to keep me living forever.  Death is just not natural!  It is the consequence of our disobedience to the God who so loves us.  And that is why we struggle so much with death.

Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus, was dying.  His sisters sent word to Jesus, knowing He could help.  But instead of coming immediately, He waited two days.  He has a reason they aren’t aware of yet.  But God’s timing is different than our timing.  For good reason.  And by the time Jesus shows up, Lazarus has died.  The funeral is over.  And he has been buried four days.

Martha runs out to meet Jesus.  “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Lazarus was dead.  Her brother was gone.  And the one man who could have made a difference didn’t.  He didn’t even make it to the funeral.  Isn’t there something about death that makes us accuse God of not being there?  “God, if you were here, there would be no death!”  Well, friends, you know what?  God is here, alright.

God is the only One who can deal with our ultimate dilemma – death.  And only the God of the Bible has dared to stand on the edge of death, stare it down, and offer an answer.  Only the Son of God has faced off against death – and won.  Martha, “your brother will rise again.”  And Martha believed he would one day.  But Jesus wanted to show Martha what He truly can do for us.  With the grave in sight, the smell of death all around, and the sound of bitter mourning filling his ears, because one of God’s living creatures had been violated by the death that Satan brought into this world, Jesus made a bold claim for everyone there, for the devil himself, for you and me to hear and understand:  “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.”

Friends, Christ gives you and me life.  Life for our bodies.  Life for our souls.  He is the only One who can.  He wants you to put your faith in Him!  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.  Without God, life is hopeless.  Like at the hospital bed.  Without Jesus, your sins still separate you from God and make your death final.  But Jesus offers you life!  He says, I have taken your sins away!  Believe I have!  Believe in me!  Because then, you will live, even after you die!  As you peer into the empty tomb of Lazarus, you can know you will have one too!

Imagine you are in an apartment building that is on fire.  You are five stories up, looking out the window.  The fire is behind you.  Below are the firefighters waiting for you.  Can you trust the firefighters to catch you?  When we stand at the edge of death, whether it is our own, or a loved one’s, we can know that Jesus will catch us!  That is faith.  That is belief.  “Here I come, Jesus!  I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God!”

 “Lazarus, come out!”  If Jesus hadn’t said “Lazarus,” if He hadn’t limited that command to Lazarus, every corpse in the graveyard would have come forth!  Jesus has power over death.  Believe in Him and you will live.  You will be raised up after you die and live with God forever. After Lazarus walked out of that tomb alive, Jesus told them to take off his grave clothes and let him go.  Jesus has also given us life –right now.  Do you suppose we should also take off our “grave clothes”?

Carol was the organist at her church.  She was an outstanding musician, but she did something no organist should ever do.  She overslept on Easter morning and missed the sunrise service.  She was so embarrassed.  Of course, the pastor forgave her.  He teased her a little bit, but all in good fun.  However, the next Easter, her phone rang at 5:00 AM.  Jolted awake by the loud ringing, she scrambled to answer it.  It was the pastor, and he said, “Good morning, Carol!  It’s Easter morning!  The Lord is risen!  And I suggest you do the same!” 

We, too, can be resurrected.  Christ rises, and so can we.  We too can have new life.  We too can make a new start.  We too can rise out of those tombs that try to imprison us!  Jesus said, “whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  The first comfort this text gives us is that Jesus has power over death.  Believe in Him and we will live forever.  But secondly, we have life right now!  Because we trust in Him, we will live differently!  We live and believe in Him!  That faith in Him motivates us, empowers us to live differently!  Let’s get out of that tomb, take off those grave clothes, and LIVE the way God wants us to live!

Pastor Ed Young told of something that happened in his youth.  While he attended university, he got away from Bible study and away from church.  He had a friend named Walter, who was an atheist.  One Sunday afternoon, he asked, “Eddie, do you believe there’s a God?”  Ed said, “Sure, Walter, I believe there’s a God.”  Walter said, “You don’t live like it.”  Ed answered, “What do you mean?”   “You live just like I do.  I’m an atheist.  I don’t believe there’s a God, and I live like there’s no God.  We’re buddies.  You do everything I do.  You say there’s a God, and yet you don’t live like there’s a God.  Don’t you know, that if there is a God, getting to know Him and living the way He wants you to live must be the most important thing in life?”

Ed Young later said, “That was the greatest sermon I ever heard.  God used the mouth of an atheist.  I couldn’t answer.  I went to my room, dropped to my knees, and said, “Lord, I know you are there.  I believe Jesus is your Son.  I have gotten away from you.  Forgive me.  Lead me now.  I am yours.”  Friends, do you believe there’s a God?  You say, “Of course!”  Does the way you live your life support that?  Are you living and believing in Jesus?

When you do, when you are, when you truly live that new life by using the strength of Christ to share with others, to serve people, to give you hope, to calm your fears, to give you a reason to do what you do, all because you believe in Him, then you will really be living!

There was a nurse who let children listen to their own hearts with her stethoscope. One day she tucked the stethoscope into the ears of a four-year-old. Then she placed the disk over his heart.  “Listen,” she said, “What do you suppose that is?” Thump, thump, thump. He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap-tap-tapping deep in his chest.  Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin. “Is that Jesus knocking?”

Well, maybe so. Maybe Jesus is knocking at the doors of our hearts. Maybe Jesus is ordering the door rolled away from your tomb. “Lazarus, come out!” The story of the raising of Lazarus ends with these words, “Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.” How about you?  Have you put your faith in Him?  Do you trust him?  Are you willing to live with Him, in Him, through Him, because of Him now and every day?  “Lazarus, come out!”

“I am the resurrection and the life.”Jesus says.  But then comes the big question:  “Do you believe this?”  That question is not only for Martha, but for you and me.  Do you truly believe that your sins are forgiven through Jesus?  Do you truly believe that death is nothing more than the entry to a new and perfect life with God?  Do you believe this?  This isn’t a question to discuss in Sunday Bible study, or sitting here reflecting on how wonderful God is…

This is a question that really makes sense only in that hospital waiting room.  A question that makes sense when all of our props, crutches, and masks has been taken away.  Because that is when we have to face ourselves as we really are:  Flawed human beings headed toward final disaster.  Forced to see Jesus for what He claims to be: our only hope.  Martha’s answer was “yes.” She believed.  Jesus is the Christ.  He can do what He promises.  So she gave Him her hand and let Him lead her to the tomb of her brother.  She heard Him say: “Lazarus, come out!”  Do you?  (Then take off those grave clothes!)   Amen.