Jesus Saves                                     John 11:38-44

John’s gospel’s whole purpose is to show the divinity of Jesus. Today as we finish our study of the death and resurrection of Lazarus, we will see this. We will see how Jesus saves, and we will see those things that falsely claim they can save you, but in reality,      still condemn you.

Last week we saw there is a crowd of people at Lazarus’ home, and they followed his two sisters, Mary and Martha, out to his tomb. It’s obvious the family was well known and well respected in Bethany, and Lazarus’ death was a tragedy for the whole community. As I went over this, I noticed there is no mention of any religious leader being present. I thought this was odd, you would think the priests would be present to offer spiritual comfort.

As I did some research, I found that at the time the Jewish priests had significant religious and social roles, but they didn’t attend to the dead or their families. Support and attendance of the dead was left to the community or extended family. The priests believed their involvement with the dead was forbidden, or at least greatly restricted by their purity laws.

As I read through this, I tried to see what these events from 2000+ years ago can teach us now. These religious leaders, those teaching and keeping the law, those who were supposed to know God and his ways, weren’t there. Jesus was. God is always there,     always with you, always involved in your life.

The absence of the priests shows us that religious leaders who see the rules above mercy and love, those religious leaders who see themselves above the very people they’re supposed to be caring for, are doing little to minister to others. It may be wearing a different coat, but we’re seeing the same thing today; you’re divorced, going to hell; living a different lifestyle, hell; not following the rules that I say are correct, sorry, hell. Many preach about God’s love, grace, and mercy; many claim to be venerated by God’s grace, but in reality, don’t understand it. They don’t live it. God gives all of us who believe, his immeasurable love and grace and mercy, and we are supposed to share it with others to lift them up, to introduce them to Christ. We are not to use it as a sword to cut others down.

Verse 39, “Take away the stone.” Lazarus has been there four days; this isn’t going to be pretty. This rolling aside the stone in front of Lazarus tomb is a foreshadow of the rolling away of the stone from Jesus’ tomb a month later.

In the New Testament, the stone represents the law that is written on stone, the Ten Commandments. The tomb represents our sin. And the condition of Lazarus’ body represents the condition of our soul while governed by sin. And in front of all this stands Jesus, our Lord and savior saying to move the stone aside.

We can understand this scene better by looking at some other verses; Romans 7:7-8, “For I would not have known what coveting was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.” Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard…You shall not murder…But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subjected to judgement.”

The stone, the law, was given to show us our sin. And Jesus explains that it’s not just our physical acts, I killed; it’s what is in our minds and hearts, I hate. By not following the law as God intended, with mind and heart, the stone will keep us forever apart from God, and the decay of sin will forever be on our soul.

Roll away the stone. John 3:36,  “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;” Romans 6:23,  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord;” Acts 13:39,  “And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.”

Jesus having the stone rolled away in the absence of the priests, show us that the law cannot save us, only Jesus can. By faith in Jesus, the stone is removed, and we will walk away from the eternal darkness and punishment caused by our sin. This is the greatest news the world has ever heard, but it does not mean we can ignore the Commandments.

Matthew 5:17, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law…I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” We need to honor the Commandments for they have been given to show us how to live with each other. We must try our best to live by them. Jesus lived the law to its fulfillment so if we fail, by our faith God sees us as succeeding.

Verse 40, “Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the Glory of God?’” There were many people in that crowd, and all of them saw Jesus call Lazarus out of the tomb, but not all of them saw it as the Glory of God. They may have seen it as a miracle by a man; maybe by a prophet. They may have thought it a trick of some kind. Unless they knew God in their life, unless they were open to what Jesus taught, they didn’t see this as a demonstration of God’s glory.

Here we are more than 2000 years later and someone recovers from an illness, someone escapes an accident unharmed, how many people see this as luck? You pray               and God answers, how many see it as merely a coincidence? How many walk through life and never see all that God does every single day? I know I can be so self-focused on what I need to do that I miss what God is doing in my life, I miss what God is doing in the world.

Verse 44, “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ’Take off the grave cloths and let him go.’”

When we accept Christ and the miracles of redemption and salvation happens to us, people around us still see us in our grave cloths. They still see the attitudes we had in our past. They still see all the mistakes we’ve made.

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone and the new is here.” Accept Christ and you are re-born, new and pure. Others may not see it, but that doesn’t matter, God sees it. And by your faith God has removed your grave cloths and let you go free.

There is a lot the account of Lazarus can teach us, even more than we’ve seen these past three weeks. Today we’ve seen how “religion” and strict adherence to the rules cannot save your soul. We saw how the law came from God to point out our sin and show us what should be in our hearts. How we fail and need Jesus. We see how without Jesus we are trapped within our sin, and only our Lord can free us. We’re told to look for and be aware of the Glory of God in everything, God is always working in our lives and in the world. And we see that by our faith in God’s Word, by trust in Jesus, we will walk out of sin’s darkness and into Christ’s light.

And finally, through Christ, God removes our grave cloths and sets us free.

Amen