We are drawing near the climax of
our Lenten season. Next Sunday will be Passion and Palm Sunday, and two weeks
from today, we will celebrate the premier Sunday of the Christian calendar, the
mother of all Sundays: Easter! It is interesting that today, with Holy Week and
Easter so near at hand, we have one of the longest of lectionary lessons: 45
verses from the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John.
For the preacher or teacher, this
scripture passage has material enough for several Sundays. Nevertheless, it
tells just one extended story. Ordinarily, the gospels pack any number of
healings, parables or conversations into a lesson as long as this one, but here
we have just one incident in several parts. We are going to focus on a single
phrase, near the climax of the story: In the language of the Common English Bible the phrase reads, “Jesus
shouted with a loud voice.”
The family where Jesus was at home
Our scripture lesson is a beautiful,
exciting story but with some strange elements. Jesus had a special friendship
with a family of siblings in the village of Bethany, two miles from Jerusalem: the
family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. These three folks were very dear to Jesus;
he seemed to find unique security in their home and hospitality.
One day, as our lesson reports, the
brother, Lazarus, grew ill. The Bible says nothing about the nature of the
illness, only that the sisters sensed its seriousness and sent the news to
Jesus. They didn’t ask Jesus to come; they simply told him that Lazarus was
ill. They appeared to have
...approximately 1,303 words remaining. You are not logged in. Please see options at the top of this page to view complete sermon.
