March 21, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Death is slummin’
Two fly Betties named Mary and Martha had a brother named Lazarus, a homeslice of Jesus the Messiah. Lazarus was whack—he had a bad illness—so Mary and Martha gave Jesus the 4-1-1, saying, ”Lord, the one you sweat is ill.”
Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s bounce.” So they went to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and found that Lazarus was in the tomb-—death had ganked his life. “That’s killed,” said Jesus, “but I don’t give any props to death. Mary and Martha, raise the roof! Your brother will rise again!”
Jesus decided to step with death. He dropped some information on his heavenly Father, then cried out to Lazarus, “What’s the dilly, homeslice? Come out!”
The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to the people around him, “Death is slummin’. Now unbind him, and let him go.”
“Death is slummin’.” Say what? Does this story make any sense to you? If so, you are conversant in kidspeak, the high school and college slang that is sweeping the nation. If it sounded like gibberish, let me give you a quick vocabulary lesson.
“Two fly Betties”—two very attractive females—were named Mary and Martha. They had a brother named Lazarus, a “homeslice”—a close friend—of Jesus the Messiah.
Lazarus was not right, so Mary and Martha gave Jesus the “4-1-1”—some inside information—saying, “Lord, the one you love is ill.” Jesus and his disciples went to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and found that Lazarus was in the tomb.
So Jesus decided to “step” with death—to fight it. To attack it with all his heart, soul, and strength. And you know the rest of the story: Jesus battles death—for Lazarus, for himself, and for us.
Confronting Death
For the past four Sundays, we have looked at Christ’s journey toward Jerusalem. On his way there, he has confronted a number of challenging experiences. When Christ fought Satan, he showed us that we do not live on bread alone and thrive only on physical or worldly comforts, but we are called to follow God’s ways. When Christ confronted Nicodemus, he taught us that worldly reputation is pale and unnecessary when we follow God’s ways. When Christ confronted the Samaritan woman at the well, he reminded us
that nothing that we have done in our checkered lives is too shocking to God’s ways. And when Christ confronted the man born blind, he taught us that when our faith in Christ is tested and sometimes, repeatedly, our faith becomes stronger to participate in sharing God’s ways. Today, Jesus fights the death of Lazarus. Of all the episodes of human life, the most feared and dreaded is dying.
Chinese Funeral
The very first funeral that I can remember was for my father who died almost forty years ago. As a young boy, my memory of the wake was frightening and scary. In those days, the Chinese in Boston practiced many of the rituals that they knew about from the villages in China. They didn’t know of anything else.
My brothers and I were all dressed in black and we were told to sit on a floor mat on the side of the coffin. Then some strange woman whom we had never met before sat with us and started wailing. She told of how terrible it is for my father to die leaving all of us poor children behind. She cried late into night of how fate can be so merciless and cruel. When she did this, it led others in the room including all of us sitting on the mat to also be sad. After the funeral, we were required to wear black armbands to high school for a whole month. But the worst part of all of this was not being allowed to shampoo for the same period!
When this happened to me, I was confused over what death meant. My father was revered as an honorable father and a leader in the community for what he did on earth. At this Chinese funeral wake, when incense polluted the air we breathed, the chicken and roast pork displayed with the haunting thought that the dead might get up to eat, and the blackness of our clothes melting into the blackness of the evening, I wondered where was eternal life?
It is the grace of God that my father was also a Christian. The next day was a bright and sunny morning with a chill that was still present in a typical day in May. Our family grew up at First Baptist. My father first learned his broken English there. And we all attended Sunday school and BYF at this very historic Baptist church. We who were Christians insisted that we should also have a Christian funeral. When our pastor shared that Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die,” I felt God’s presence at that moment. And perhaps all those who were there also felt God’s mighty power over death.
The fears and mysteries of death that we experienced the night before dissipated. The pastor proclaimed how Christ fought death and won.
The Death of Lazarus
When Lazarus was sick, Mary and Martha sent a message to their friend, Jesus to come and save their brother. They already believed in Jesus as the Messiah and knew that if there were anyone who can heal Lazarus, it would be Jesus. But we read that Jesus
deliberately waited two more days after hearing about Lazarus’ illness before going to Bethany. He did this to make the point that he can go up against death and win. We are not to understand Jesus’ delay as being uncaring or disinterested, but rather he was simply following through with his role in this divine drama.
While Jesus was arriving in Bethany, Martha goes out to meet Jesus first. You can almost hear her saying, ”Where were you, Lord? Where were you when we really needed you?” She was angry at Jesus for being too late to save Lazarus. When Mary who was very sad over her brother’s death saw Jesus, she was blaming him for Lazarus’ death, “If you got here on time, he would not be dead now!” The death of Lazarus was causing a friendship to end. Death was driving a wedge between Jesus and Mary and Martha.
By now Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. In the ancient world it was widely believed that the soul hovered near the body for up to three days before departing. It is now the fourth day, the soul has already left Lazarus. And then there was the stench—a recognition that as human beings, there is the reality of death to the physical body.
In the Ring with Death
Against this backdrop of a divine drama: Jesus deliberately waiting two days before coming to Bethany; Mary and Martha angry and blaming Jesus for Lazarus’ death, and the stark reality that when death happens, we return to the earth, Jesus picks a fight with death! This fight is not like the one between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis where there is a draw! Where there was no winner who came out of the ring that night. When Jesus picks a fight even staring down death in the face, he fights to win.
Only one side can emerge victorious: Jesus or death. Either Lazarus comes to life and Jesus is the champion or the dead man continues to rot and death wins the day and Jesus looks like a fool. It is a battle to the finish; all twelve rounds. No technical knockouts. Winner takes all. When Jesus steps into that ring with death, someone or something has to lose.
When the stone was moved away, Jesus looks up into heaven and thanked God for always listening to him. He then yelled out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” With that Jesus laid a KO on death with one right hook. Death was knocked out cold. It is the death of death. Jesus pumps his fists in the air and then says to the crowds, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Even those who spend big bucks on expensive ringside seats felt they got their moneys worth. The Scriptures say that many of the Jews who were mourning with Mary believed in Jesus after seeing what he did to death.
By raising Lazarus, Jesus proclaims that he is the one who gives life. At the very end of life, we are reassured that even death has lost its sting. Christ is victorious over Satan’s temptations, over Nicodemus’ dependency on social status, over the Samaritan woman’s
dark secrets and biases, over the blind man’s spiritual blindness. And now Christ fights death and wins.
Dry Dead Bones
But let’s not wait until we come to the end of our lives before we know the meaning of life. We have a lot of living to do today, but there are parts of our lives that are dying. We have some dry dead bones today.
The prophet Ezekiel was called by God to bring hope to a people broken by a decade of exile. They were spiritually dead—dry bones filled the valley. The vision of the valley of bones is frightful and scary just like my father’s wake. It is a vision of our death and the grave. Like we were told to not look back when we left the cemetery, we want to turn away and not look. There are dry bones all around us. Skeletons in our closets. Bones in our basement. Everywhere we turn, there are more dry bones. War in Serbia and Kosovo. Marriages fail. Relationships are broken. Violence and death saturate the nightly news and our entertainment.
We feel it in our bones. Anger and aggression and anxiety eat away at us. They dry us out. Our lives become a valley of dry, dusty bones baked under the heat of our shortcomings.
There is a dryness deep down in our bones. A dryness that won’t go away. A thirst that cannot be quenched. Some try sipping from false streams, the polluted rivers of power, possessions, sex, drugs, alcohol, music, hobbies, and even legalistic religion. Nothing we reach for, nothing within our grasp, can touch this eternal thirst. Who will give water to our dry bones? Who will breathe life back into them?
The only answer to our dry dying bones is Jesus Christ. In Jesus who died and rose, these bones can live. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
After our family returned home after the committal service for my father, there were again many women in our house. These women I recognized. They were all my mother’s friends who worked at the sewing factory. They were cooking up a storm. One of the most memorable things that we did upon returning home was to take a ladle full of sweetened cold water. We were told it symbolized the quenching of thirst and refreshment for happy living. For me as a Christian, it also meant living water for my dry bones. I can relate with the Samaritan woman at the well when Jesus said to her,
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those
who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The
water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up
to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
Jesus’ Life Threatened
Raising Lazarus back to life becomes the primary motive for his enemies to want to kill him. Picking a fight with death and winning was front page news not just on the sports pages. Caiphas, the high priest, saw this miracle to be so dangerous that he feared the Romans would come and destroy the Jewish temple and nation. He said, it was better for one man, namely Jesus, to die for the people than to have the Romans destroy the whole nation. They gave out orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him. This threat to his life led Jesus to stop walking around publicly.
The miracle of raising a dead man to life was so threatening that the chief priests wanted to also put Lazarus to death since it was on his account that many of the Jews were deserting and believing in Jesus.
When Jesus fought it out with death and won, he put away all of our fears and fright about death. As people in Lazarus’ time began looking for Jesus and believing in him, the dreaded fears they have about dying dissipated. But raising Lazarus from the dead was just a precursor to an even more divine drama to come.
For all of humankind, for all the Lazaruses in the world, for all of us, you and me, Jesus had to pick a fight with death again. This time it will not involve his friend Lazarus. This time Jesus himself will be in the ring again fighting all his way to the cross on Calvary.
Like Lazarus, Jesus will die, leaving close friends weeping; like Lazarus, Jesus will be in a rocky tomb.
Like Lazarus, Jesus will rise to new life, walk past gravestones, and emerge into the bright sunshine with no need for burial cloths.
Like Lazarus, Jesus will be given new life so that all will be able to see the glory of God.
This victory over death in the life of Lazarus is more than a preview of Easter; it points us to our destiny as well. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus promises this to Martha. Jesus promises this to each one of us. “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” If we believe in Christ, if we join Martha in confessing Jesus as “Messiah, the Son of God,” we will experience a victory of our own. Victory over all those dry bones of illness, sin, suffering, and death. We will be raised to new life, as Lazarus was, and restored to full and eternal relationship with our Lord.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ fought it out with death and he was declared the only winner. When Jesus was declared the undisputed world champion over death, no one has come close to challenging his crown. He wears it eternally!
I don’t have those fears of a Chinese wake anymore. Jesus Christ “step” with death and won. Let me close with a slightly revised poem by Julia Esquivel
I am no longer afraid of death,
I know well
its dark and cold corridors
leading to life.
I am afraid rather of that life
which does not come out of death
which cramps our hands
and retards our minds.
I am afraid of my fear
and even more of the fear of others,
who do not know where they are going,
who continue clinging
to what they consider to be life
which we know to be death!
I live each day to kill death;
I die each day to beget life,
and in this dying unto death,
I die a thousand times and
am reborn another thousand
through that love of God
from our Lord,
who nourishes hope and trust
all the days of our lives!
Let us pray.
Dear God, as Jesus revived Lazarus by fighting it out with death and won, may our ministry give to others the promise of new life. You fought death on the cross and won, O God. May the living truth of Christ be heard all across our land. Amen.