John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

1. __________ always seems to have the last word.

2. Jesus comes to turn the tables on __________ because He is the __________ and the __________.

3. All of this took place for the __________ of God, that is, to prepare Jesus for the __________.

Scripture Readings
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Romans 8:1-11
John 11:17-27,38-53

Take It With You!

Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the message to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with what we are hearing.

Lazarus comes forth from the tomb. In two weeks Jesus shall enter the tomb. The powers of death - the folk at the Pentagon, the religious establishment, the fickle crowd, the guardians of the status quo - will at last have their way with Jesus. The raising of Lazarus is a kind of preview, a glimpse of Easter, an opening skirmish between death and life. When Lazarus strides forth from the tomb, it provokes fierce hostility from Jesus' critics. If you don't know why, then you don't know much about how the powers of death hold on tight to their grip over our lives, the ways in which the way of the death wants to pull our heart strings, make us pay.

The whole world is a graveyard, and death is omnivorous. In the face of death, we like the disciples, adjust. Jesus weeps (v. 35). We adapt; Jesus is "greatly disturbed" (vv. 33, 38). Jesus just hates death. Maybe the only illness that leads to death (v. 3) is the illness of adjustment, adaptation to death. Once Lazarus is raised, the deadly powers-that-be move into action, and the serpent's egg plot to kill Jesus is hatched. And yet, Jesus is free.

-William H. Willimon, The Intrusive Word: Preaching to the Unbaptized, pgs. 13-14.