Broken Hearts

The Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 5-6, 2014
John 11:17-27, 38-53

“Restored in Christ: Broken Hearts”

Just about everyone has seen the movie, “The Wizard of Oz.” In the days before cable or direct TV, DVDs, and Netflix, options to see this 1939 movie classic were pretty limited. This was about the time of year when it would be shown on TV. Some of you may remember those by-gone days. It was like you had one opportunity during the whole year to watch this movie, so you really had to plan ahead and make sure you were there in front of the TV, otherwise you’d miss it until next year. All of that seems long ago and far away as technology has opened up almost limitless possibilities for movie watching. One scene toward the end of “The Wizard of Oz,” shows all of the main characters saying good-bye to Dorothy before she returns home to Kansas. The wizard had bestowed courage on the cowardly lion, given a brain to the scare crow, and presented a heart to the tin man. And as they are each saying their tearful goodbyes to Dorothy, the tin man tells her: “Now I know that I have a heart because it’s breaking.” What’s it like to have a broken heart? Overwhelming grief and pain can make us feel like our heart is breaking if we have to leave friends behind, move away, or when death separates us from a loved one. Broken hearts hurt – there is no other way to put it. And that is what’s before us in the Gospel lesson today: Mary and Martha’s broken hearts at the death of their brother, Lazarus, and not just Mary and Martha, but Jesus’ heart also. Jesus comes to mend those broken hearts and give hope as no one else can do. That’s the theme for the message today on this Fifth Sunday in Lent as we continue with our weekend Lenten sermon series, “Restored in Christ.” Today we focus on “Broken Hearts” and how those broken hearts are restored and made whole in Christ. May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Two weeks from today is April 20, Easter Sunday – the high festival of the Christian year. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting close! In today’s Gospel lesson we get a sneak preview, a foretaste, of what’s to come. Like Easter Sunday, we celebrate resurrection and new life today as Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. And let’s be clear here: Lazarus wasn’t just dead, he was really dead – four days in the tomb. That’s pretty dead, so when Jesus asked for the stone that sealed the tomb to be removed, the ever-practical Martha just has to tell Jesus (in case he didn’t know already), “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39). I think the King James Version of the Bible really got it right here with this verse: “Lord, by this time he stinketh…” And how! Remember, there was no embalming of the deceased here. The custom for Jewish burial was and is for burial to take place within 24 hours of death. So you can well imagine what an overpowering stench of death and decay must have poured forth from that open tomb when the stone was removed. We can picture everybody who was gathered there simultaneously lifting up their sleeves over their noses to keep from smelling this! There is great irony here because in restoring Lazarus to life, Jesus seals the deal on his own death. The closing verse from today’s Gospel lesson makes that abundantly clear: “So from that day on they made plans to put him to death” (John 11:53). 

Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, and in his humanity as true God and true man, Jesus felt the pangs of grief and a breaking heart just as much as any one of us. The shortest verse in all of Scripture is found here: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). But this same Jesus who wept from a broken heart at the death of a good friend is the very One who broke the power of death and triumphed over it. He is that One who fulfills the Word of the Lord from Ezekiel: “Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people” (Ezekiel 37:12). We who live this side of Jesus’ resurrection know that He really is the resurrection and the life; that He really has risen from the dead. We know this, but when we face the grim reality of death in our own lives, it still hurts – it hurts a lot. Like Mary and Martha, most of us have stood at the graveside of a beloved family member, friend, co-worker or neighbor. We shed tears. We grieve at our loss and feel like our hearts are breaking. I remember standing at my dad’s graveside nearly 20 years ago and hearing these very words of Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). When our hearts are breaking, when words fail us, when we have no strength of our own, Jesus’ blessed promise speaks to our hearts as nothing else in this world can. Having spoken to Martha, Jesus then asked her a question: “Do you believe this?” (John 11:25). And that’s a very important question not just for Martha, but for each one of us today. Jesus asks you and me: “Do you believe this?” At the end of the day, at the end of our life, at the end of the world, no one can believe for us. Each one of us must answer Jesus’ question for ourselves. Jesus asks us today: “Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life? Do you believe in me, that even though you die, yet shall you live, and that everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die? Do you believe this?” My prayer is that each one of us will echo Martha’s beautiful statement of faith and trust: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” (John 11:27).

If our faith doesn’t speak to our broken hearts in the face of death, it’s not much good, is it? A faith that can’t answer the question, “What happens when I die?”, isn’t much of a faith at all. This is the good news of God in Jesus Christ, who suffered and died upon the cross to take away the sting of death, and then rose in triumph over death and the grave. We worship a living Lord! And because he lives, we too shall live. This is the good news that brings healing and new life to broken hearts. This is the good news that we bring to the world. As we anticipate celebrating Christ’s resurrection in just two weeks on Easter Sunday, who are those people in your life who need to hear this good news? Who are those people you know who are struggling with broken hearts? Invite them to come with you to church at Easter so they can encounter him who is the resurrection and the life, who heals broken hearts and makes them whole. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). To this, we can only say, “Amen.”