In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
When He is working with His creatures, the Lord does not do anything without preparation. Always He is preparing the way for the works that He is going to do. That has been the case from the very beginning. Today we have an example of this preparation. The raising of Lazarus from the dead after he had been in the tomb for four days is a preparation of the hearts and minds of those who follow the Lord for what is to come – His own Resurrection from the dead on the third day. It is not as though Jesus had never raised anyone from the dead before, but anyone else who had been raised from the dead was very briefly dead and people could say : “Oh, he was just in a coma”.
However, Lazarus was already in the tomb and decomposing. He was certainly dead, and there was no doubt about it. We cannot make the excuse of a coma with Lazarus. Lazarus was “dead as a doornail”. The Lord, the Giver of Life, came and spoke the word, and Lazarus came to life. He went on to be a leader of the Church. The Lord works very hard at preparing. Clearly there was careful preparation for the resurrection of Lazarus. When it happened, it was something that no-one in the world had ever seen. Nevertheless, it was not quickly that the Lord’s followers understood what was going on. When He Himself was speaking about His own Resurrection, they always tried to detach it from reality, and thought in vague terms just as Lazarus’ sister had said : “‘I know that he will rise again on the resurrection at the last day’” (John 11:24). However, Jesus had something much more immediate than that in mind.
It is the same thing with resurrection as with teaching. Not only did Jesus Himself raise people from the dead, but great prophets in the past also raised people from the dead. Elias and Elisha are two famous examples (see 3 Kingdoms 17:23 and 4 Kingdoms 4:35-36). However, in none of these cases was the person dead long enough to be decomposing. All through history, there have been plenty of teachers speaking about God and His love. There have been many great, enlightened men and women throughout the history of creation, who have been speaking for the Lord to His people, and telling them what He is like and Who He is, and how much He loves His people, and how His people should behave. Always His people do not pay attention. Always, predictably, His people “do their own thing”. Always, predictably, His people detach themselves from facing God. Even when Moses came down from the mountain, they could not stand to look at the glory on his face and even made him put a veil on his face as a woman in those days put a veil on her face (and in Muslim countries today, women still veil their faces). They made him veil his face because they could not stand to confront the glory of the Lord which was present in Moses and shining from him so that anyone could see it. It was not like Saint Seraphim of Sarov : only Motovilov and only very few others could see the glory shining in him. However, with Moses, everyone could see it and they could not bear it.
People, in their sin, usually put a distance between themselves and the Lord. Thus, they keep the Lord at arm’s length, so that He does not bother them too much. That is how sin operates in our lives. Every time that we are putting the Lord at arm’s length, and keeping Him away like this, we are being just like those Israelites, and just like those followers of Jesus, and just like the Pharisees who were so hard-hearted. We will not let the Lord in. We will not let the Lord work. We will not let the Lord bring that Resurrection into our lives now because we are afraid of what might happen. We are afraid of what the Lord might ask us to do and what He might ask us to be. We are afraid to be different. We are afraid to stand out. The Lord does not ask us ever to do anything bad. He sometimes may ask us to do things that appear strange or difficult, but He never asks us to do anything bad or anything that will endanger our souls. He will never desert us. He always looks after us. Even if someone kills us – big deal. He loves us and gives us eternal life. That is where our hope is.
It is easy to be dull and to keep the Lord far away. We do it only because we are sinful and rebellious and selfish and stubborn. We do not really want to do what the Lord wants us to do every single solitary moment of our lives. We want to be able to do what we think the Lord wants us to do a few days out of the week at the most, and even only a little part of them. We start looking at our watches when His worship goes on longer than we think it should. We get impatient instead of letting ourselves rejoice in being in God’s presence, in being with the One we love. Our attitude in worship and in life is supposed to be like that of people who are deeply in love with someone. People who are deeply in love with another person never want to be separated from that person. They always want to be near the person that they love. When they are not immediately close, they always somehow feel the reality, the nearness and the presence of that person. That is how it is supposed to be between us and the Lord. We are supposed to have that sort of love for Him. It should be love that rejoices in being in His presence whether it is here, or at home, or while driving, or while we are working in the garden or while we are making bread, or while we are doing whatever we are doing, whether we are in offices or digging ditches. This is the nature of true Christian love.
When we can rejoice in being in His presence, rejoice in His worship, rejoice in glorifying Him and praising Him, then we will know that our love has taken at least a baby step towards being what it should be. We will know that His Resurrection life is truly, actually working in us. However, He is not going to force us. Lararus could be raised from the dead because Lazarus loved the Lord. It is not only just because the Lord loved Lazarus that He raised him from the dead. It was because Lazarus also loved Him. Therefore, Lazarus was able to hear the Lord’s voice and come forth.
There are many people whom the Lord is calling and calling and calling and calling, but they are the living dead. They are like zombies. They walk through this life looking after themselves and no-one else. They cannot hear the Lord call. If the Lord’s voice came with a trumpet call, blaring so that everyone could hear it, these people would not hear it. They would refuse to acknowledge that it was the voice of the Lord. They would say : “Oh, it’s the spirits calling” before they would acknowledge that it was the voice of the Lord. They would find every possible way that they could find to keep the Lord away because they do not want to have Him interfering and messing up their programmes and lives. They would stay in the tomb because they refuse to hear the Lord’s call. They will not accept His love.
You and I are here today offering our praise to the Lord. As we come to receive Him, let us be like Lazarus this morning and come out of our dead ways. Our lives are often dead ways : dead ways of thinking, dead habits, hard-hearted customs, hard-hearted pre-dispositions, negative thinking, and all sorts of junk in our lives. Let us hear the voice of the Lord speak to us : “Come out of those deadnesses. Come out of that dead space in which you are. Come out to life. Come out and live. Come out and be filled with the Spirit and live in the Kingdom. Do the work of the Lord. Give life to others”. Therefore, as He gives Himself to us, let us take His hand ; let us love Him, and let us be filled with His Resurrection life. Let us glorify the all-holy Trinity : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.