Do you believe this?

Sermon for the Vigil of Easter

John 11:20-26

Now that we’ve walked together through the Word of God, through, basically, the whole salvation story, from the creation of the world in perfection, to the fall into sin with the promise of rescue through the woman’s offspring, to the destruction and salvation of the Flood, to Abraham, to Israel’s crossing through the parted waters of the Red Sea, to the prophet Isaiah, to Ezekiel, to Daniel, to the book of Romans, to John’s Gospel, the same question Jesus posed to Martha near the gravesite of her brother Lazarus is also posed to you: Do you believe this?

Specifically, do you believe that Jesus is both the Son of God and the Redeemer promised to Adam and Eve, that all the world’s history was pointing ahead to His coming, that He died for your sins and rose again to life on the third day? Do you believe this? Believe it!

And what about what St. Paul says about your baptism into Christ Jesus—that when you were baptized God united you to the death of Christ and buried you with Him in the tomb, so that you also may rise from the dead, as He arose, and so that, even now, you might live your new life for God, and not for yourself? Do you believe this? Believe it!

And what about what Jesus Himself said to Martha? Her brother Lazarus had died a few days earlier. And Jesus had allowed that to happen, had not come running when He was told that Lazarus was ill. He told her that her brother would rise again, and she took comfort in that, thinking that she would have to wait till the Last Day for it to happen. But Jesus had other plans. Better plans. Yes, Lazarus would rise at the Last Day. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. But then He added this: Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

This is like what Jesus said earlier in John’s Gospel: He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Well, that was Lazarus, wasn’t it? He had believed in Jesus, together with his sisters, Mary and Martha. That means that Lazarus had already risen from spiritual death to life, that he, as a believer in Jesus, already had eternal life. So in a very real sense, even though he died, he never really died. His soul was still very much alive, and kept safe by Jesus until the day of the resurrection of the body. And, if Jesus should choose to raise up his dead body before the Last Day, He could do it, and, in fact, He would do it. Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Do you believe this? He asked Martha. Do you believe this? He now asks you. The fact that you’re here this evening, keeping this Easter vigil, indicates that you do. And well you should! Because He who is the resurrection and the life, even though He died, yet was He raised back to life. And if He was able to take up His life again, after giving it up for the life of the world, then He most certainly is able to give you life, to sustain your life, and to see you safely through the sleep of death into the joyful waking of the resurrection to life. Christ has risen, and so have you, and so will you who call upon the name of your crucified and risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.