St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church + Benton Harbor, Michigan
The 5th Sunday in Lent, March 21, 1998
Romans 8:11-19
"Live Like Lazarus"
By Pastor Timothy H. Buelow
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, You’ve heard the Gospel lesson. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be there, that day in Bethany, the day of Lazarus’ Resurrection? Jesus had done miracles before, many of them. He’d made Lepers whole. He’d made the blind see. He’d even raised the dead before—but never after they’d already been buried. What people witnessed that day would have changed them forever. People who’d been interested in Jesus before had their last doubts removed. Many put their trust in him, John reports. People who’d been opposed to Jesus before desperately lashed out as if fully demon possessed—and plotted to eliminate Jesus at their first opportunity. But nobody was left unaffected. What about Lazarus, the man at the center of the whole scene? What do you think you would have felt like if you were Lazarus? You’d been ill—gravely ill. You knew that Jesus could heal you, if he wanted to. Your sisters kept telling you that, trying to comfort you. But Jesus was not even in the same territory and your sickness kept getting worse, until finally you closed your eyes in death.
The next thing you know, you hear Jesus’ voice calling you. "Lazarus, come out!" You wake up, wrapped like a mummy and make your way toward the light—which is all you can make out through the cloth around your face. You hear shouting and shrieking and crying. You hear pounding footsteps as people run up to you to release you from those tight burial cloths—and then you can see. You’re not where you were the last you remember. You’re not at home any more. You survey the scene and begin to realize what’s going on. You’re at your family’s crypt. There are crowds all around wearing funeral clothes. Your sisters run up to you and put their arms around you, hug you and kiss you, tears flowing down their cheeks. And then you see Jesus. You can see in his eyes that he’s been crying too. Like a press conference, people start asking a million questions. "What did it feel like to be dead?"
By the end of the day, things are calming down a bit and you’ve been told all that had happened the last four days. Finally, you have a moment to think. It’s almost unimaginable what has happened.
Do you think maybe that his experience changed Lazarus? He would never be the same again. Every moment must have been so much more valuable, yet at the same time he never again had to fear he’d ever run out of time. He knew first hand that death is not the end of life. No fear could ever have overwhelmed him. If his dear Savior could raise him from the dead, what could ever frighten him?
In our Epistle lesson today, Paul urges each of us to Live Like Lazarus. To live like 1. We’ve been raised from the dead. To live like 2. We will be raised from the dead.
1. We’ve Been Raised From the Dead
Paul isn’t asking us to use our imagination, when he urges us to live like We’ve been raised from the dead. Not at all. It’s a fact as sure as Lazarus’ resurrection that we have already been raised from the dead. Without faith, without Christ we were nothing but walking dead. It’s not just a figure of speech when the Bible tells us we were "dead in trespasses and sins." To live without Christ is to live in total hopelessness. You may not remember a time when you weren’t spiritually alive, but think about it. If you had no hope of life after death, it would be all you could do to keep yourself from paralyzing depression. What would you do with your feelings of guilt? Blame others? Tell your conscience to shut up? What would you do with those daily reminders that you’re getting older? Have plastic surgery, spend a fortune on cosmetics? Arrange to have your body quick-frozen when you die, hoping some future generation could cure you and bring you back?
How helpless you would be without the knowledge that an all-powerful and all-loving Savior hears your prayers. You’d be desperate that the American Heart Association would find a solution to heart disease and that the American Cancer Society would finally make that killer breakthrough. You’d be panic-stricken about the new bacteria that are immune to antibiotics. You’d be desperately afraid of the potential of war and you’d be stockpiling food in your basement for Y2K. Yet all the while, you’d know you were really helpless.
And how useless your life would be. What permanent good would there really be from all the work you put in in your lifetime? Solomon wrote: "My heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune." (Eccl. 2:20-21)
How horrible to be one of the living dead. But we’re not anymore, praise God! The day we were baptized we were raised from the dead just as dramatically as Lazarus. Paul wrote "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Ro 6:4) You were dead, but now you’re alive.
Lazarus would never be the same again. We can’t be either. Paul says in our text: Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. We want to Live Like Lazarus lived the rest of his life, fully committed to the one who had raised him from the dead. Every step he took, every bite he ate, every breath he drew, he knew he was living on borrowed time—someone else’s time, God’s time. How could he waste those precious moments? How could he devote them to sinning or idleness or worldliness? He lived each day with a clear vision of what lay behind and what lay ahead. He lived each day without fear. He lived each day with prayer. And Paul tells us to do the same. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
We’ve been made alive by the Spirit. We’ve been raised from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness as Sons of God. We are obligated to live for the one who raised us. We are obligated to "put to death the misdeeds of the body." As Christians we want to live each moment in communion with Him who has given us life, and who will raise up our bodies from the dead on the last day. Which brings us to the second important thing Paul wants us to remember.
2. We Will Be Raised From the Dead
Live Like Lazarus, remembering that we will be raised from the dead.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. You have been marked with the Holy Spirit to be one of those who will joyously rise from the grave on the last day to live forever with the Lord in heaven. We’re going to experience a scene just like the day in Bethany when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. You won’t have to imagine what it must have been like to be Lazarus. You’ll experience it first hand. The very hands you have in your lap right now—the very eyes and ears you’re using right now will be resurrected, only better. Lazarus’ resurrection was fantastic, but he was still mortal. He was still susceptible to disease. He would die again. He still lived in a dusty village. When we are resurrected we will have glorified bodies, glorified positions in a new, glorified world. That’s why Paul says the whole creation is waiting in eager expectation for that day!
We will know joy beyond our wildest dreams and hopes. At the grave of Lazarus, even Jesus himself wept. In heaven there will be no tears. There will be no pain, no suffering, no aging, no itching, no anything that to detract from our pure joy! We can scarcely even imagine what it will be like, but it’s sure worth trying!
Our text continues: "Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." As eternal people, with such joys ahead of us, we’re willing to suffer with Christ on our way there. Why? Because we’re not worried about what could happen to us—"What can man do to me?" (He. 13:6) "If God is for us, who can be against us." (Ro. 8:31) Whatever suffering we may need to endure is really only for a short time, and not even worth being mentioned in the same breath with what is to come.
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. How can we not be just as eager and excited?
My eternal friends, we’ve already experienced one resurrection—we were dead, but now we’re alive. We’re going to experience another one—we’re going to be there when we and all the dead are raised together. Through faith in Christ, we’re going to be assembled at the right hand of God, and be invited to occupy the new heaven and new earth. How can this not affect the way we live and believe each day? Can you sin with eternal resurrection hands? Can you use your eternal ears and eyes for anything less than eternal things?
Last Tuesday we had a funeral, and as is our practice, we read the following prayer at graveside: O Lord Jesus Christ, who will come in majesty to judge the living and the dead and call forth all who are in the grave, either to the resurrection of salvation or to the resurrection of damnation, we implore you to be gracious unto us and to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness, so that when we shall depart this life, we may rest in you and, on the last day, be raise up to life everlasting and inherit the kingdom which you have prepared for all who believe in you. To you be glory and praise, now and forever.
Let this be our prayer today as well. Amen.