Sermon Notes from Pastor Steve...
It was almost 3 years ago when I had the opportunity to climb out of Lazarus' Tomb. I was on my second Holy Land trip, and in an unplanned detour, we had the opportunity to visit the site that's traditionally thought to be the tomb of Lazarus. The site is hard to get to, because it's located within the Palestinian Autonomous area, and getting there requires going through a bunch of checkpoints, so a lot of people just avoid the hassle and don't bother.
And when you get there, it's not all that impressive. Centuries ago, a mosque replaced a church on the site, which blocks the original entrance to the tomb. So, you have to climb down a set of stairs cut into the rock on the backside to access it. Once you're there, you find out that the Crusaders built a lot of gaudy façade that's since deteriorated, so it's kind of hard to figure out what the original tomb looked like. (But as I'll point out for those going on the Holy Land Trip in 2016, when a biblical site doesn't look like you imagined it, and it isn't all that impressive, that's a sign that it might actually be the real site!)
But once you get there, you can go into the tiny 2 square meter chamber that, at least since the 4th century, early Christians believed was the tomb of Lazarus. And being able to climb in and out of what actually may be the tomb of Lazarus is really cool!
But even if it's the actual tomb of Lazarus, it still it isn't all that impressive.
And in fact, in the story of the raising of Lazarus, Lazarus doesn't do anything all that impressive, either. I mean, the guy is dead! He's been laying there in the tomb for 4 days, just like any other dead guy. And even after Jesus raises him from the dead, he doesn't even get a speaking part in the story!
Lazarus, as the story points out, is dead and can't do anything impressive. So the impressive thing about the story - the thing that makes this story a pivotal moment in the Gospel of John - is what Jesus does, even with a guy who's dead and can't contribute anything to the miracle himself.
But when you visit the site today, the church that's built next to the tomb is named "St. Lazarus." But in what sense is Lazarus a saint? We often think of "saints" as people who, moved by God, said and did things that made God's glory and love known in the world. They were people used their God-given abilities to do things that made a difference. They were people who, sometimes just by their muddling through, helped others to experience the love and presence of Jesus in their lives.
But Lazarus was different. Lazarus was dead. He didn't do anything, or say anything, and even after Jesus raised him, he couldn't really even move until others unbound him from his grave clothes.
And yet, the power and presence of God was made known to people through him, precisely because he was dead. He couldn't contribute anything to the miracle. Nobody could say he got better partly on his own. And nobody praised Lazarus for taking a gift of God and making it into something impressive.
Instead, Lazarus was simply a person through whom the pure love, power and presence of God was revealed in a way that couldn't have happened if he hadn't been dead. People came to see and experience God's power of life over death because of what Jesus did through Lazarus. And in that sense, Lazarus is a saint, because he became the conduit through whom others experienced the love and power and glory of God.
Lazarus had quite literally died to himself. And because of that, God's glory and power could be seen through him.
And maybe that's the best definition of a saint. A saint is somebody who's willing to die to self so that Jesus can work in and through them. Sometimes, the greatest saints in our lives have been people who didn't want to draw any attention to themselves, or even were people who were unaware that God was doing something significant through them.
And as we think about all the saints on this All Saints day, maybe Lazarus is one of the most important examples of what it means for us to be saints. For all too often, people mess up being conduits of God's love and power in the lives of others because they get in the way. And very often for us, the first and most important part of being a modern saint is the willingness to die to ourselves so that God's glory can be seen through us.
And dying to self doesn't mean we don't try to be faithful or try do God's will. But like Lazarus, who was literally dead, it does often mean being willing to:
