Fifth Sunday of Lent - Unarmed: Hope Without Control

 

It’s The Fifth Sunday of Lent

The season of Lent offers us a time to consider how best to identify with Jesus during the forty days from the Cross to Easter.  

This series will teach us what it means to face injustice, evil, and suffering by laying down everything but love.  

What does it mean to be unarmed with nothing but love in our current culture?  What are the barriers we put up to protect us?

What happens when we feel like all hope is gone?  

Today, we are going to explore a story of Jesus raising a man named Lazarus from the dead, and we’re going to learn what it means to hope and trust in God when all hope is lost.  

HOPE IS NOT THE POWER TO PREVENT LOSS; IT’S THE TRUST THAT GOD IS AT WORK BEYOND IT. 

John 11:1-45

Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is dying. 

 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus[b] was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

• Jesus receives the news that his dear friend is dying.  And does nothing. 
• Then, after two days, Jesus tells his disciples they are going to Bethany. 
• They don't want to go because of the plots to kill him. 

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus[e] had already been in the tomb four days. 

• Jesus arrives on the fourth day after Lazarus died.  There is no more hope.  

18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 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.[f] Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,[g] the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

• Martha wavers between faith and doubt—She wants to believe. 

28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

• Mary is simply heartbroken—full of questions. 

33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 

• Jesus weeps—sorrow that stems from anger and compassion.  

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 have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because 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 looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

45 Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.

• This story foreshadows things to come, but it’s also a story for those who struggle with grief and loss and are filled with questions for God.  

Some Important Things to Know 

• We all have had moments when it feels like God didn’t show up.  
• Hope in the middle of hard times is grounded in trust that God isn’t done. 
• How can we learn to live into this kind of hope?

HOPE IS NOT THE POWER TO PREVENT LOSS; IT’S THE TRUST THAT GOD IS AT WORK BEYOND IT.