CHOOSE LIFE

Dr. Richard J. Henderson March 9, 2008

click for printable version

Ezekiel 37: 1-14
John 11:1-45

Introduction

A man I knew was battling a serious disease. One day he went for yet another test. That evening his close friend came to see him; "How did the tests come out?" The man answered, "Bad, really bad." Then the friend asked, as only a long-time friend can, "Do you mean you're dying?" The man turned to his friend and said, "We're all dying. It appears that mine will be sooner, rather than later."

Those words are a truth that not many of us want to face.

Death is the great leveler. Whether we have achieved a great deal, or people have trouble thinking of anything of substance we did, we go just the same. Whether we are a household name or an unknown loner, we go just the same. Whether we are one of the wealthiest people in the world, or we are a poor peasant, we go just the same.

That doesn't keep us from trying to deny death though. The philosopher Ernest Becker wrote a book called The Denial of Death, in which he details the way in which we try to deny the reality of death. We amass huge fortunes, as if we can take it with us. We try to make a name for ourselves, masking the reality that we will be forgotten in a generation.

The chaplain at one of our major universities was walking with a student through the hallway under the chapel where oil portraits of his predecessors hung along a wall. The student asked, "Who are those old guys?" He explained about the ones he knew and their great accomplishments. The student wasn't the least bit impressed.

The chaplain said quite some time later, when the university called to have him sit for his portrait, it was all he could do to not answer, "Why bother. Who cares?"

We do a lot to deny death, and we aren't happy when its reality breaks through. There is a sentence in the Presbyterian funeral service that says, "While we live, we are always being given up to death." We don't like the reality of that thought. The sentence continues, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!"

I

Jesus' good friend dies. Lazarus lives in Bethany where his sisters, Martha and Mary, live. He has been sick for a while and has been getting worse. The remedies they've tried didn't work; he became weaker and more frail. And then he slipped away.

When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has is already dead. Jesus cries when he finds out that his close friend, Lazarus, is gone. Jesus feels all the emotions we feel when someone we love dies. Lazarus has been prepared for burial - cloth strips have been wrapped around his arms and legs and face. He has been in the tomb now for four days. The decay process has started. Lazarus' sister announces (you have to love the King James Version here) "He stinketh."

Jesus has the tomb opened and then, with a loud voice, he shouts, "Lazarus, come out!" In a few minutes Lazarus appears, the cloth strips hanging from his arms and legs. Then Jesus orders, "Unbind him and let him go!"

It seems like this is a foreshadowing of what is to come for Jesus in just a couple of weeks. Except there's a major difference: Lazarus has been resuscitated; Jesus was resurrected. Lazarus lives, but he will die again. He hasn't reached eternal life - at least not yet.

II

Jesus is on the side of life, against death. Jesus is about the forces of life, not the forces of death. Jesus is for vitality, action, involvement, healing, caring, and against killing, death, and destruction. When Lazarus dies, Jesus cries.

Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus pleads with God to have his death taken away: "If it be your will, take this cup from me - but not my will but yours be done." Jesus doesn't want death, he wants life. All the miracles and healings and actions of Jesus' ministry point to life, energy, and strength, rather than death.

III

Some of us are not physically dead, but lead dead lives. Maybe an addiction eats away at our souls or maybe we are stuck in the same rut of despair. Maybe we can't let go of the past - something that happened to us, or something that we did that we can't forgive ourselves for, so we live life by taking one shuffling step after another as if both our legs were numb. We face the day, not with excitement and joy, but as a routine we have to make it through. Living feels like death in life.

I went to school with a kid whose ambition was to go to Harvard. He told us in elementary school, "I'm going to go to Harvard." We believed him; he had good grades and worked hard. When we were seniors, he applied to Harvard and even though he had exceptional grades, he was turned down. His life fell apart.

People said, "There are other good schools, you can get a great education somewhere else." None of it mattered. He had made Harvard his whole life. When he didn't get it, his life came apart at the seams. At eighteen the spark went out of his life, and he spiraled downward.

Some of us live with strong doses of death in life.

IV

Jesus wants to give us life - real life. God's son wants to pull us from death in life to authentic life. He said, "I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly." As Jesus said to those near the risen Lazarus, "Unbind him and let him go." He says the same to you and me. Jesus has broken the chains of addiction tens of thousands of times; he has pulled people from despair, and lifted us out of the ruts we've been living in. Christ is able to put the past in perspective and show us a new, hopeful future.

The God who breathed life into the dead men's bones in Ezekiel can breathe new life into you and me. The One who forgave the very people who nailed him to the cross can forgive anything you have done. Jesus wants us to have what Paul calls, "The life that is life indeed." It is real life: deep, exciting, passionate life.

The book of Deuteronomy says, "I have put before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life!" That is Christ's word for us, also.

Jesus doesn't just offer life after death; he offers life before death. In fact, Jesus indicates that eternal life begins in the here and now. Our life with God begins in this life when we commit ourselves to God, and it just gets better in the life to come.

V

Choosing life isn't always easy. Sometime the rut we're living in is comfortable and less demanding. I heard a story from a prison chaplain on the radio this past week. One of the inmates in the prison had served 40 years for murder. He was now a quiet, gentle, soft-spoken man. He was eligible for release and he was afraid. He confided to the chaplain that he had already planned the crime he would commit - where no one would get hurt - but he would be arrested and sent back to the prison world he knew so well. He was afraid he couldn't make it in the outside world.

Sometimes, we are like that. We'd rather stay in the destructive life we know than venture into a life of responsibility and accountability. Life in a rut doesn't demand much of you. Death walking through life may not be exciting, but no one expects much of you either.

An Alcoholics Anonymous leader once said, "Sometimes, when you finally stop drinking, become sober, break free - then you have another problem - what to do with your new life. When you are drinking, you don't have to think about what to do with your life, the bottle tells you every move to make. When you get free and get your life back, the ball is in your court, and that can be more than a little frightening."

Choosing the life God offers isn't easy, it's demanding. But rather than pulling you down like weights on your ankles, life in Christ offers hope, joy, excitement, and adventure. It means really being alive.

Conclusion

I've been reading a lot about the poet and memoirist, Mary Karr. She was raised in a dysfunctional family. She was sexually abused as a child and as a student. She naturally developed a suspicious, cynical attitude about life. Her view of reality was what she calls, "the focal expression of my own grief-sodden inwardness." When she converted from atheism to Christianity she said it was a change to realism.

She began to see that reality was grace, mercy, and love. She learned about forgiveness - giving it and receiving it. Now she is no soft, swooning romantic, she is tough, hardened, and clear-eyed. But she realizes that reality has to do with God, what God did in Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. She has turned from death to life.

Amen

© Richard J. Henderson 2008