The Gospel according to John is my favorite book in the New
Testament. John wastes no words,
and everything he wrote is full of spiritual meaning. Many pieces of information we would gloss over—like the time
of day, location or number—show theological insight.
The
Gospel itself is divided into two parts: the Book of Signs and the Book of
Glory. This morning I would like
to focus on the first, as we prayed with two signs on consecutive weeks.
First,
a sign in Scripture works like signs in ordinary lives. They point to something beyond
themselves. For instance, you
don’t sit and admire a red octagon that contains the four letters S-T-O-P. Rather, you do something—you stop your
vehicle. Or, consider driving
north on I-35 and seeing a sign that says “Duluth 80 miles.” Do you get out of your car to celebrate
seeing this sign? Do you take a
picture? No. You keep driving, knowing your
destination is ahead.
The
signs (or miracles) in the Scriptures were all meant to point to Jesus as God
and the necessity to believe in him.
John’s
Book of Signs contains seven miracles.
This itself has meaning as seven
is a number of spiritual perfection.
(The universe was created in six days and God rested on the
seventh. We have seven sacraments.) I will list these briefly—no worries,
there will not be a quiz after.
The
first sign was when Jesus changed a copious amount of water into wine. In the second, Jesus healed an
official’s son who was near death and in the third he healed a man who had been
paralyzed thirty-eight years at the pool of Bethsaida. The fourth: feeding 5000 men (not
including women and children). The
fifth: Jesus walked on water. We
heard about the sixth sign last week as Jesus healed a man born blind. Today we read from the seventh—the
raising of Lazarus from the dead.
In
these miracles Jesus demonstrated his power over illness, hunger, nature and
even death. Yet while many saw the
wonder, few understood the meaning.
The
last sign—the raising of Lazarus—has special significance. In the course of the narrative we see a
touching side of Jesus. He had
friends. He was perturbed. He wept.
And
John takes great lengths to ensure the reader that Lazarus was definitely
dead. He wasn’t (as modern
skeptics may suggest) in a coma or some rare medical condition. He died. At first, Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.” His disciples gave the obvious answer—if
he was asleep he would wake up.
Yet Jesus explicitly stated, “Lazarus
has died,” and then interestingly notes, “And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe.” He knew exactly what he would do and why he would do it. And, always the practical one (and
worrier!) Martha pointed out, “Lord, by
now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus,
after ordering the stone to be taken away from the cave cries out, “Lazarus, come out!” And the once dead man comes out alive.
Yet
even the raising of Lazarus is not simply about the raising of Lazarus. In fact, sometimes I feel bad for
Lazarus as he eventually died a second
time. Rather, this seventh sign points directly to the greatest
sign of all. Jesus himself would
die and then rise again. And this
is the sign on which our whole faith is built.
As
we are nearing Easter, we must remember that Jesus is alive. He is the same yesterday as today and
still has power to work miracles today.
He has power over unemployment, illness, depression and death.
And
he instructs us as he did in this account, “I
am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will
live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Well,
do you?
No comments:
Post a Comment