Life and Death Promises

"LIFE AND DEATH PROMISES"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

March 30, 2025

John 11:38-57   NRSV

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.

46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 So from that day on they planned to put him to death.

We are deep in the middle of the time of year when Christians follow the stories leading up to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.  These are stories of life and death.  This story of the raising of Lazarus leading directly into the plot to kill Jesus is a fascinating and troubling one.  Together they point to God’s presence in both life and death promises.

You might ask, why in the world would giving life to someone, giving life back to someone, result in people wanting to kill the guy who was the life-giver?  I have been mulling that question over and over.  To answer that I have to ask, what was John trying to say to those who first heard or read his words?

In the first part, the raising of Lazarus, John was telling his hearers several things.  He was saying that Jesus had the power over life and death.  He was saying Jesus’ power came from God, not any other source, and that Jesus knew he was one with God.  He was also saying that all these things we call “miracles,” were “signs” to reveal the glory of God.  But why did this sign, this miracle of life – giving result in the plot to kill Jesus?

Well, in part, the answer is right there in the text.  Some people went to the religious leaders to “tattle” on Jesus. Those leaders were fearful that Jesus’ was going to upset their plans, their power, their place.  I remind you that the chief priests, and their council, called the Sanhedrin, served only because the political powers under Caesar allowed them to.  Their job was to keep the people under control so that they would not revolt against Caesar.  And the people of Israel under Roman occupation were repeatedly starting uprisings and rumors of revolts.  Would-be Messiahs would try to liberate Israel from Roman rule.  So Caiaphas and his cabinet of Roman-approved flunkies were scared to death any time someone might cause Rome to come down on Jerusalem with the whole Roman army.  Ergo, Caiaphas’ little speech about better for Jesus to die than for the whole nation to be destroyed. 

I think there are two messages going on here.  One, is that John is reminding us this is how people in power act.  They will do anything, including kill people, to keep anyone from threatening their situation.  They will bully people, they will threaten people, they will kill people.  Two, John is telling us that Jesus, because of his “oneness” with God has the power of life and death in him.  And John is telling us Jesus if fulfilling God’s life and death promises.

I hope you believe, as do I, that God is the life-giving Source.  God is Creator, giving life to all that is and all that will be – human life, natural life, galaxies and universes.  When science tells me that “the number of galaxies in the observable universe is estimated to be between 200 billion and 2 trillion, and the number of universes is a topic of ongoing scientific debate and speculation,” I can’t help but give glory to God and believe in a Creator.  But maybe that’s just me.

As a bit of a history buff, I know that eras and movements and nations come and go.  We’re living in a time where it feels like an era, perhaps a nation, perhaps even human existence seems to be teetering on a Faultline that is ready to crack.  I read something about this that intrigued me to think maybe fear is not the right response to what is happening.

She says, “There are moments in history when it feels like the very architecture of reality is cracking apart. Not just political structures or cultural norms, but the deep stories—the myths—that hold our sense of meaning together.”  A lot of us are disturbed and dismayed at the chaos we seem to be living in.  She explains that political movements and things like “Christian nationalist ideology … are not just pushing policies or fighting culture wars. They are fighting for the survival of a failed myth. The myth is that only white “men lead, women serve, and everything in nature—including human nature” has to fit their idea of what has always been – in their minds, but in fact, hasn’t.  Any “deviation is dangerous.”  And they cannot envision a different but better reality.  I would say they believe in promises of life for few, but God’s reality is a promise of life for all.

Reality is about truth.  Too many of the beliefs that things in the past were better are just plain false.  The falsehoods used to push back to something that never was or never was true will fail.  The truth is that humans are more complex than just “binary myths of male and female.  God is not a monarch in the sky, but Presence moving in all things. History is not a march toward racial purity but a dance of unfolding mystery.  The current push to return to a past that never was cannot succeed because it is not based in truth, or in reality.  In other words this push will collapse, because it is not part of God’s life and death promises.  It is not based in truth.

“Theologian Dorothee Sölle once described ‘God’s revolution’ as the undoing of what never should have been. The Spirit doesn’t shore up myths. It breaks them open. It liberates us from illusions that bind.”  God’s revolution is seen in the sign of Lazarus, dead but alive, of Jesus crucified but risen.

Lazarus has been raised, Christ has been and will be raised.  In God’s vision  life and death promises will be fulfilled.  Lazarus surely died again, but Christ will yet be raised again every time we truly celebrate Easter.  Those who represent death are doomed to fail.  If we stand for life, straining for it like Martha and Mary, we will see God’s glory.  Those who are ready for a new reality will see Easter. 

God’s promise for life will not fail.  God’s promise for death is Easter.  Easter will come, and Easter is God’s life-giving vision.  Christ risen is God’s vision for life.  Can you see God’s real vision?  It isn’t just for life after death.  It is for life before death.  Some may believe that God only has a vision for life for some, for a few. I believe in a God whose vision promises life for all.  Which vision will you place your faith in?  AMEN.