John 11:1-45
The 5th Sunday in Lent | 22 March 2026 | John 11:1-45 | Beth A. Schlegel |
Text English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles (or other version)
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
God Speaks and the Dead Hear and Obey
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Do you remember being a teenager?
My memory is often selective, but I do remember the headaches I gave my mother when I was engrossed in a book or in a TV show and she tried to get my attention.
Beth, it’s dinnertime – come set the table.
Beth, do you hear me? Turn off the TV and come set the table!
Beth! Put that book down and come here!
For her, it was like talking to a dead person.
Fortunately for us – and for Mary and Martha and Lazarus – Jesus did not have the same problem.
God speaks to the dead and they hear and obey.
It has been so since the beginning of creation when God’s Spirit hovered over the chaos and God spoke to the deathly darkness and said “Let there be Light”.
Sending the Spirit with the Word, our creator God brought all things into being, from nothing to something, from death to life.
In the prophet Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, God spoke and with the Spirit brought the bones to life.
At the tomb of Lazarus, where 4 days meant dead was dead and a body would stink with putrefaction, Jesus – God’s living Word embodying God’s life-giving Spirit – spoke to dead Lazarus in his tomb: Lazarus, come out!
And the dead man heard and obeyed. He came out, still wrapped in graveclothes.
Then the living also heard God’s Word with the Spirit: Unbind him, and let him go.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in the presence of the living as a demonstration of his power to give life to those who believe in him.
Lazarus is the demonstration model of Jesus fulfilling God’s promise made through the prophet Ezekiel:
…you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live…
On that day at Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus demonstrated the truth of his identity: I AM the resurrection and the life. I AM the Lord who opens graves and puts the Holy Spirit of God in the dead to make them alive.
Those who believe in me – even though they die – will live. And those who live and believe in me will never die.
When we hear the account of Jesus’ suffering and death from Matthew’s Gospel, we hear of this amazing response to Jesus’ dying on the cross and rising from the dead:
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Matthew 27:51-53
Wow! God speaks and the dead hear and obey!
Like Ezekiel’s bones, when God’s Spirit was restored to Jesus in his resurrection, those saints also received new life.
They shared with Jesus in the baptism of death and the new birth in resurrection.
They were the first that Jesus brought through death as a gateway to eternal life.
And from that time onward, baptism by water and the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is how Jesus calls people out of their graves.
As our Lutheran Large Catechism reminds us:
Christ has commanded: The one who believes and is baptized shall be saved. Therefore, we state it most simply thus, that the power, work, profit, fruit, and end of Baptism is this, namely, to save. For no one is baptized to become a prince, but, as the words declare, to be saved. But to be saved, we know, is nothing else than to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil, and to enter into the kingdom of Christ, and to live with Him forever. (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/holy-baptism/#lc-iv-0023 )
It is in Holy Baptism that we are drowned and so share in Jesus’ death, and we are raised up from the waters to share in Jesus’ resurrection. By the word of God with the laying on of hands and anointing, we receive the Holy Spirit and are reborn children of God and inheritors of eternal life.
So, we who have been baptized receive the promise, as St. Paul says in Romans 8:
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
You see what a precious thing it is to be baptized – that we live Christ’s life now and pass with him through the gateway of death to eternal life.
By God’s Word and Spirit, we have purpose for our life here and now, and hope for our eternal future.
We have reason to embrace the challenges of this life and the suffering of death because we know that Jesus has already called us out of death to life.
One of the most powerful hymns in our Lutheran tradition is “Jesus Christ, my Sure Defense” (Jesu Meine Zuversicht).
- Jesus Christ, my sure defense
And my Savior, now is living!
Knowing this, my confidence
Rests upon the hope he’s giving,
Though the night of death be fraught
Still with many an anxious thought. - Jesus, my Redeemer lives;
Likewise I to life shall waken.
He will bring me where he is;
Shall my courage then be shaken?
Shall I fear, or could the Head
Rise and leave his members dead? - No, too closely I am bound
By my hope to Christ forever;
Faith’s strong hand the Rock has found,
Grasped it, and will leave it never;
Even death now cannot part
From its Lord the trusting heart. - I am flesh and must return
To the dust, whence I am taken;
But by faith I now discern
How from death I shall awaken
With my Savior to abide
In his glory, at his side. - Glorified, I shall anew
With this flesh then be enshrouded;
In this body I shall view
God, my Lord, with eyes unclouded;
In this flesh I then shall see
Jesus Christ eternally. - Then take comfort and rejoice,
For his members Christ shall cherish.
Fear not, they will hear his voice;
Dying, they will never perish;
For the very grave is stirred
When the trumpet’s blast is heard.
How do you suppose Lazarus’ life changed after that day when Jesus called him out of his tomb?
How will our life change as today, Jesus calls you –and me – again from our tombs, and by his word of forgiveness, unbinds us and sets us free?
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
©Beth A. Schlegel
pastorschlegel@live.com
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, York, PA, USA
Christ Lutheran Church, Manchester, PA, USA