I preached this sermon at the funeral of a child who died in utero, just a few weeks before she was to be born.
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We are here to grieve and mourn and to support Aaron and
Amanda. Gaining a little understanding of what is going on can be helpful. So,
I'm going to use a familiar text to help you to get a handle on what God is
doing so that your grieving is not like that of so many, without hope. I'm
going to talk to you about what happened at another death, the death of
Lazarus.
Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were dear friends
of Jesus. And while Jesus was well known by many, He didn't have many dear
friends, not like Lazarus and Mary and Martha. Lazarus becomes ill and
eventually dies. Jesus arrives a few days after his death, and He finds Mary
and Martha in the depths of grief. And John reports how Jesus responded to what
He was seeing.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the
Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and
greatly troubled.
Now, 'deeply moved and greatly troubled' might sound tame.
The words John used weren't tame. So, to say it differently, Jesus was angry.
Really angry! And doesn't that make sense? Death had, once again, done its ugly
work. Evil had arrived and cursed these people. And, as a result, the lives of
Jesus' friends were changed. One was dead in a tomb and the other two were
being crushed by the sorrow. Death had come and Jesus' friends would never be
the same.
Jesus then, goes to the tomb. He knows that the body of His
friend is in that tomb. He sees His two friends, Mary and Martha, overcome with
grief. And John again reports what he saw.
And Jesus said, “Where have you
laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.
And again, this makes sense. Sadness overwhelms Jesus
because of what He is seeing and the tears flow. Jesus was angry and was
overcome with sorrow because of this death.
But wait a minute. Couldn't Jesus have stopped this from
ever happening? Surely He could have. But He didn't. In fact, when He first
heard about Lazarus' sickness He purposely didn't respond. He stayed where He
was. Purposely. Jesus let him die. He didn't even have to make the trip to
where Lazarus was. All that Jesus had to do was to say the word and His friend
would have been healed. Death would have been avoided. No sorrow. But He didn't
do that. Jesus let Lazarus die.
But then what about that anger and those tears? Was that
just an act? Was Jesus being hypocritical? He could have healed Lazarus and
kept Mary and Martha safe from the grief of this death, but He didn't. Was it
all an act? No, it was all real. The anger was real and the tears were real.
Jesus had an important goal in this situation. He wanted to bring about a great
good. He wanted to reveal a bit of the power of God, a bit of what the age to
come would be like. And we know that because when Jesus got to the tomb, He
stopped crying. Instead, He shouted, 'Lazarus, come out!' And out of the tomb
walks Lazarus. Jesus had raised him from the dead. And everyone there saw a
little bit of what Jesus and the Gospel are about: the power of God to undo the
evil of death. And what happened with Lazarus was only a little taste. Jesus
revealed the Gospel that day. And that has changed the lives of untold
multitudes of people from that day to this. But to do that, Lazarus had to die.
Jesus had to use the evil of death. He hated that part of what had to happen.
And that's why He was angry. It tore Him up to see His friends crushed with
grief. And that's why the tears flowed. But the goal was achieved. A great good
had been accomplished. Lazarus was alive again, raised from the dead. Some of
the power of the Gospel had been revealed.
Nothing has changed, that day to this. Jesus still wants to
reveal the power of the Gospel to change people's lives. But to do that Jubilee
had to die. Jesus hates having to do it this way. It makes Him angry. And He
weeps with you in your grief. And yet, the day is coming when even more of the
power of the Gospel will be revealed. All the dead in Christ, including
Jubilee, will be raised out of their tombs, never to taste death again.
Aaron, Amanda, Jesus weeps with you. He grieves over what He
has done. Yet, just as with Lazarus, one day Jesus will say, 'Jubilee come
out!' And you will never be separated again.