“No Counterfeit Resurrection”
Text: John 11:1-53
3-26-23
In the name of Him who is the resurrection and the life, dear friends in Christ. I suspect that some of you are wondering why in the world we’ve had two extremely long Gospel readings the past 2 weeks. Last week was the whole 9th chapter and today it’s the whole 11th chapter of John. Well, it’s pretty hard to get the full impact of the miracles that took place in these readings if you chop out parts. In fact, I’m quite pleased that these readings were assigned back to back, because the raising of Lazarus builds off of the healing of the blind man. Not only that, but chapter 10 is the bridge between them. Don’t worry, I’m not going to risk a revolt by reading it to you. Although I’d encourage you to read all 3 of them in one sitting on your own.
The reason why I say the raising of Lazarus builds off of the healing of the blind man is because of the investigation of the miracle by the Pharisees. Do you remember how that went? They heard about this blind guy who was healed by Jesus, but they weren’t quite sure if the miracle was a counterfeit or not. That’s what they were trying to determine when they interviewed the formerly blind man as well as his parents. They wanted to know if he really was born blind because that would be quite an amazing feat. And if it were true that he was born blind, then they wanted to know the details of how Jesus had pulled it off. After all, Jesus had done it on a Sabbath, and in their expert opinion He had broken the Law. Therefore this miracle must be a counterfeit!
That’s healthy, isn’t it? I mean, we ought to be skeptical of things that seem too good to be true, right? Like the old saying, “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” In other words, look out for counterfeits. Let me give you an example. There was a fella named Ole who lived up in Minnesota. Money is tight so he decides to print some for himself. He’s hiding in his basement cranking out counterfeit bills when his good buddy Sven comes over to visit. Ole shows Sven a fresh bill off the press. Sven looks at it for a minute and says, “Ole, this is great. But where are we going to get rid of all these $18 bills?” Ole says, “We’ll take them over to North Dakota. They’ll never notice!” So, they drive across the border to a gas station. Ole nervously goes to the cashier, hands him an $18 bill, and says, “Can you give me change for this?” The cashier looks real hard at it and then says, “Sure! What do you want? Two 9's or six 3's?”
Well, the possibility of a counterfeit miracle was no laughing matter to the Pharisees. They certainly believed the Messiah would perform miracles, but they had to investigate to see if these were the real McCoy. Even though all the evidence pointed to a genuine miracle when the blind man was healed, they still weren’t convinced. And they weren’t so sure that all the rest of Jesus’ miracles were verifiable either. That helps to explain some of the details of what happens with Lazarus.
Jesus was on the east side of the Jordan river, which was at least 20 miles from Bethany. He was there because the Jews had threatened His life back in chapter 10. Anyway, a messenger comes to tell Him that His good friend Lazarus is on his deathbed. Jesus tells His disciples that this illness wouldn’t end in death. Notice, He didn’t say Lazarus would not die, but that this wouldn’t be the end result. Instead, God would be glorified through it. Now, there’s every indication that Lazarus was dead by the time the messenger headed back to Bethany. And yet, Jesus delays 2 days. How come? Well, His intention wasn’t to make the sisters, Mary & Martha, suffer in grief. No, as you will see, it was part of the plan to show that the miracle which was about to take place was no counterfeit resurrection.
You see, Jesus had raised other people from the dead. But they hadn’t been dead for very long. So a skeptical mind might say, “Well, they were just unconscious and He revived them.” Haven’t we heard of such things today where people were thought to be dead because their vital signs were undetectable, and yet, they were revived? Not so with Lazarus.
The other Jews who were at the tomb expressed their pessimism that it was too late. They pointed back to the man who had been healed of blindness and said, “If Jesus could do that, couldn’t He have prevented Lazarus from dying?” Sure, maybe. But now, Lazarus was dead for 4 days and in their minds there’s no way Jesus could help. You see, the Jews believed that after a person died their soul hovered over them for 3 days. Once the soul saw the body begin to decay then it would leave. Lazarus was dead and in the grave 4 days which dashed all hopes. In fact, when Jesus shows up at the tomb and tells them to open it Martha protests. I prefer the King James version because she says, “Lord, by this time he stinketh…” In other words, it was a forgone conclusion that by now the body had begun to decompose and it was too late.
Jesus then tells Martha to let go of her fatalistic thoughts and hold on by faith to her hope that Jesus could bring her brother back to life… not just on the Last Day, but right now. The stone gets rolled away and Jesus calls the dead man out of the grave with the simple words, “Lazarus, come out!!” With life once again flowing through his body, he obeyed the voice of Jesus and was raised back to life. Many of the folks there were astounded. They were certain that this couldn’t be a counterfeit. And many of them put their faith in Jesus. Sadly, the Pharisees and high priests refused to believe it was genuine. So they advanced their plot to kill Jesus. That was the nail in their coffin so to speak. They had so hardened their hearts to Jesus that they wouldn’t even believe when Christ Himself rose from the dead.
Like I said earlier, it’s not all bad to be skeptical when we hear such things nowadays. Especially with so many charlatans and fakes out there. I read a really sad story about a church in Pensacola, Florida where the pastor claimed to be able to perform all kinds of miracles, including raising people from the dead. Back in 1998 the father of an infant who had just died heard about this and drove 350 miles to the church with his child on ice in a cooler, hoping to have her raised from the dead. Guess what? The fake healer couldn’t bring her back to life. What a cruel hoax that this grieving father got sucked into.
Having said that, it may shock you to hear me say that there IS a resurrection miracle that takes place here in our church semi-regularly. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be “born again” in Holy Baptism. And St. Paul makes it clear that in the holy waters of Baptism, Christ takes us from spiritual death to life. That’s what Jesus was talking about when He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Like Lazarus, you and I have heard Jesus call us out of the grave; the grave of sin and eternal death. When I was Baptized, Jesus said “Donald, come out!” And He said the same words to each of us who have been Baptized. It’s a genuine miracle of spiritual resurrection
Sadly, like when Jesus raised Lazarus, there are people who say our Baptisms are a counterfeit resurrection. Someone once told me that their relative doesn’t like my preaching because all I ever talk about is Baptism. I don’t deny it. But that person denies the power of Baptism and the miracle that takes place there. Let me ask you, if you were Lazarus and were raised from the dead, would you keep silent about it? Of course not! And neither can we keep silent about the mighty miracle of resurrection God has performed in us.
But there’s something else to consider here: Once Lazarus came out of that grave, do you suppose he periodically crawled back into it to spend some time laying around in the darkness? No way! He lived his new life to the fullest, proclaiming the miracle Christ had done for him. How about you? Now that Christ has called you out from the grave of sin and given you new life in Him, do you go back and spend time in that darkness? Well, you certainly do every time you willingly go back to your old sins of the flesh. Paul tells us that “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” He urges us to leave that dead way of life behind and to live in the new life that is ours through Jesus.
Make no mistake, Lazarus died again and his physical body was placed in a grave again. But his soul lives on because of his faith in Christ. That’s true of all believers in Jesus. St. Paul assures us, “If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Our physical bodies will most certainly die someday. In Romans 6:23 Paul explains that “The wages of sin is death.” But since we have the righteousness of Christ poured out on us, we are alive spiritually. And we have God’s promise that on the Last Day He will resurrect our mortal bodies. That’s no counterfeit resurrection. It’s just as sure and certain as your spiritual resurrection in Baptism. That is the hope we have by faith in the promises of God revealed in His Holy Word. May we now live each day, proclaiming the good news of our spiritual resurrection, even as we look forward to the resurrection of our bodies to eternal life. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!