February 18, 2015
Ash Wednesday

“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill”. But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of G*d, so that the Son of G*d may be glorified by means of it.” John 11:ff

How can a death bring about the glory of G*d, we wonder? Isn’t death the one thing we all want to avoid above anything else? We spend lots of money trying to look younger, feel younger, be healthier and add years to our lives. Very few people I encounter are gleefully counting the days until they die. We can only assume that Lazarus was not looking forward to death, but was looking forward to Jesus coming to his side. His only hope, he knew, was in the presence of Jesus. And when Jesus held off for two days before even leaving to come to his side, Lazarus eventually would lose his battle. And the sisters of Lazarus were indignant. Oh they don’t throw many invectives at Jesus, but they do hit him with the inevitable “If you would have been here, Jesus….”

But Jesus was there – he was there in thought, in anticipation, if not in body. He knew that his actions would have a greater impact on the world if he waited just a little longer. After all, which impacts us more: witnessing the healing of someone close to death, or bringing someone back from the dead? Both in 1st century Palestine would have been amazing – someone coming back from the grave – unimaginable. Who else but G*d could make this happen?

We have become so skilled in the medical arts today that we expect miraculous healings even in the most difficult situations. Every day we see stories about people who have been brought back from the brink of death, it is almost routine. But we have not reached the point where we expect people to come back from the dead on a regular basis. Of course, from our Ash Wednesday perspective, “we are dust and to dust we shall return.” In other words, we are already dead because of sin. But because of the events of the cross, G*d has finally, once and for all, given us what we need to wash out, blot out, and remove permanently the stains of the sin in our lives. And here’s the good news: the cross acts just like “Tide Stain Release”, that magical laundry cleaner – it seeks us out, or I should say Jesus seeks us out – and removes our sin. Oh we can try to hide from it, but we can’t forever – eventually G*d makes G*d’s presence known to us through the Holy Spirit. How? Well, that can be as mysterious as the way the “Tide” laundry product works. But it is not important how we might experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, as much as knowing it is the will of the Father to want to “Wash us Clean through and through”.

And so the journey of Lent begins. Like Lazarus, we know that only Jesus can raise us to new life – and like Lazarus, Jesus says the new life he gives is for the glory of G*d. So we begin Lent with the reminder that our only hope is in Jesus Christ, who daily washes us clean and raises us to new life.

Pastor Dave