“Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” John 11:38-44

“Saved By The Bell”

What does it mean to be “saved by the bell?” Well, for this explanation we must go back to England. If you look at a map, you’ll see that England is rather small. And when you live in a small territory, if there is a large population, you soon run out of places to bury people. So they devised a solution — to dig up the existing coffins out of the ground and take the bones to a bone house. They would then reuse the grave. Now, this sounds like a simple enough solution. However, while digging up the old caskets, they soon realized something profoundly disturbing — an average of about one in twenty five coffins that were dug up to be reused were found with horrific scratch marks on the inside. This, they determined, must mean that somehow people were being buried alive!

So, in order to avoid this happening in the future, they started placing a string on the wrist of the corpse before it went into the coffin. This string would lead through the coffin, and up through the ground and was tied to a bell on the ground. This way, it was thought, if what they thought was a corpse was indeed someone who was still alive, they could ring the bell and have a chance to be dug up.

The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is certainly a story of someone who was saved – but not by a bell. He was saved by the only person on earth who could bring someone back from the dead – who had been in the tomb four days. In Jewish religious thinking of the time, the spirit of the deceased person stayed by the tomb for three days before moving on: “For three days after death the soul hovers over the body intending to reenter it.” (Lev. Rabbah 18:1)

For Lazarus to be in the tomb four days, then he was really, really dead. There would be no being “saved by the bell” – or saved by anything – or anyone. Except of course, Jesus, who is the “Resurrection and the life”.

The story of the raising of Lazarus certainly is a miracle – but the resurrection of Jesus is not just a miracle – it is the salvation we all need. And so to be sure we believe and trust in the resurrection of the dead, Jesus said that he was “the resurrection and the life.” Yes we may all die, but we will all live…into eternity.

Pastor Dave

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” Matthew 6:5-13

“Break a Leg!”

How many times have we heard someone shout, “Break a leg!” to someone going onstage? This is a phrase that seems to be counter intuitive. Certainly, you don’t want someone to actually break their leg during a performance. So, what is going on here?

Eric Partridge in his Dictionary of Catchphrases suggests that the term originated as a translation of a similar expression used by German actors: Hals- und Beinbruch (literally, “a broken neck and a broken leg.”) The German phrase traces back to early aviators, possibly during World War I. So, how did this “wish for dreadful injury” turn into one for good luck? It is suggested that it is a reverse psychology of sorts. Popular folklore is full of warnings against wishing your friends good luck. To do so was thought to tempt the fates – actually thought of superstitiously that it might tempt evil spirits to do someone harm. Instead, they would wish their friend bad fortune.

The Greek word “Hypokrites” comes from the world of acting – where a “Hypokrite” was someone who “put on the face of another” or was a “pretender”. Jesus accused the Pharisees of being hypocrites, people who acted one way, but lived their lives in another way – usually in the opposite way of how they pretended to the world.

Jesus wants us to live our lives the same way all of the time – to be genuine and honest and humble – whether people see us or not. If we say we are Christians, then that should define how we live, what we say, and whom we love. As the song says, “They will know we are Christians by our love…..” There is no way to fake that kind of love and Grace.

Pastor Dave