January 13, 2022 — “Saved By The Bell” (John 11:38-44)

“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.

Let us pray,

Lord Christ, you are the resurrection and the life – you are the light of the world – you are the Good Shepherd. Help us remember that even though we all die, we will live through your love and grace. Amen.

Pastor Dave