03/30/2026
03-22-26 The Fifth Sunday of Lent
So, you are a King?
The First Lesson: Ezekiel 37: 1-14
The Valley of Dry Bones
1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
P: The word of the Lord
C: Thanks be to God
The Psalm 130 My Soul Waits for the Lord
A Song of Ascents.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
The Second Lesson: Romans 8:1-11
Life in the Spirit
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 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.
P: This is the word of the Lord
C: Thanks be to God
The Gospel Acclimation:
P: The Gospel is written in the 11th chapter of John beginning at the 1st verse.
All: Glory be to you, oh Lord.
The Gospel: John 11 (selected verses from the story of Lazarus)
I Am the Resurrection and the Life
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” 45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
P: The Gospel of Our Lord.
All: Praise be to You, O Christ.
Message: A Pardon from the King
On 5 September 1717, George I of Great Britain issued a royal proclamation known as the “Act of Grace.” It was intended to end piracy, offering clemency to those who surrendered by a specified time. In December 1718, extension of the deadline was suggested to keep pirates from entering Spanish service during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. The wise took the offer because piracy was punishable by death. In reality, the Act of Grace was only a temporary stay of ex*****on, because of a superseding law decreed by the King of king’s in the garden of Eden. Back then there was only one law: don’t eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die. We did…and no earthly king can change the death sentence the King of kings decreed. Not even the King of kings will overturn that law… so all humankind must die.
After the rebellion of stealing the King’s fruit in the Garden of Eden, when Genesis says of the patriarchs “…and he died…” in Hebrew it literally means “…and he was executed…”. The penalty for breaking the King of kings’ laws has always been death. But, like any king, He can always graciously withhold that punishment (temporarily) and in the Gospel Jesus did just that. I’m not sure Lazarus would have called this stay of ex*****on an act of grace.
We don’t know what happened to Lazarus when he died because it was before Jesus’ death. Jewish commoners believed their souls would went to sheol which they believed to be a waiting room for souls, with a good section and a bad section to await the end of time and resurrection. Jesus called the good section of sheol “the bosom of Abraham” a paradise where the “other Lazarus” went in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The Pharisees believed a soul waited for a year in Gehenna the bad part of sheol for a year for purification before being sent on to paradise to await resurrection at the end of time… very similar to the concept of purgatory.
But Lazarus was a special case, and the Bible doesn’t tell us the details. Instead, John focuses on the consequences of the pardon Jesus gave Lazarus. Recently, we have seen a lot of controversy on both sides of the political aisle over pardons. Presidents have almost the same absolute power to grant pardons for federal crimes under article II of the constitution as kings. That doesn’t mean everyone is happy with the pardons granted, questioning if some who have been let pardoned are really deserving.
If the Sanhedrin discussed Lazarus’ not deserving being raised from the dead, John doesn’t say, just that they too focused on the consequences. They feared, “If we let Jesus go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” It is notable that the Romans destroying Jerusalem as their secondary concern. Their primary worry was that Rome was going to be replace them as the religious leaders; the same fear they had about Jesus. Whether or not Jesus ascended to the throne of David… the Pharisees lost their positions because either Jesus or Rome would replace them.
And this could now happen if the common rabble believed Jesus could bring the dead back. They would follow Him fearlessly as Messiah. They only way left to survive Jesus was to get rid of Him. If we read further into chapter 12, we see the Pharisees eventually decided the best way to turn the adoring crowds against Jesus was to get rid of the best bit of evidence He was Messiah: Lazarus.
If this sounds silly, because how do you kill the followers of someone who has the power over life and death, we don’t hear in English what anyone speaking Aramaic/Hebrew heard when the story of Lazarus was repeated. Lazarus in in Aramaic/Hebrew is the name (Eliezar)… meaning “God helps me.” Jesus, in Hebrew/Aramaic is Yeshua meaning “God saves.” Every time a Jew told the story of Lazarus to another Jew, it sounded like: (God saves) raised (God Helps me) from the dead. Jesus didn’t have to claim He was the Messiah or God. Just repeating the story implied both. Who else could bring the dead back to life?
What the Romans as an army of occupation heard was a little more of a practical problem. Fanatics were already willing to die to get rid of them. But fanatics who believed they could be miraculously resurrected,
represented a much greater threat. And if the Sanhedrin didn’t nip this in the bud, they must be powerless to do so and in needed to be replaced by someone who could mollify the rabble and keep the crowds under control.
Today, we as followers of Christ face the same sort of fear, hatred, and desire to eliminate us and our beliefs. A lot of unbelievers hate us for promoting the hope of resurrection and life eternal. In case you’ve never heard this, we are accused of only believing in this because our lives are so miserable, we delude ourselves and others to hope for paradise, an unhealthy and irrational belief for the utterly hopeless. They believe their lives are wonderful and superior to ours because they are not frustrated and stymied by all our rules that take the joy out of life. Yet the JAMA Psychiatry (hardly a Christian publication) cites weekly attendance at church is a huge deterrent to su***de. So who’s miserable and who’s happy and well adjusted?
Evidence like that, just like the evidence of Lazarus, the widow of Nain’s son, and Jairus’ daughter must be disproven. Some scholars think John never mentions the other incidents of Jesus raising of the dead and only tells of about Lazarus is because it was the only event of raising the dead was that was beyond the three days. Jews believed a spirit remained with the body for three days and was only truly dead after that time. Since bodies at that time were buried within 24 hours of death, the others Jesus raised from the dead never made it to a tomb. Skeptics could claim these people were not really dead. John slammed the door on this as Jesus purposely waited until nobody could make that claim. This is evidenced by the family mentioning the smell if the tomb was opened.
Decaying bodies do not smell good. Family members at the time of Jesus earthly ministry waited a year after internment to collect the bones and put them in an ossuary or stone box for permanent storage to let the smell die down. When Lazarus came out of that tomb, he would have smelled of spices and rotten meat, if not him, then his burial wrappings. Facing this sort of undeniable evidence from some witnesses, John 18:15-17 tells us the Sanhedrin was discussing a plan to kill Jesus and Lazarus. We can understand Jesus being the target of their hatred… but Lazarus? He didn’t do anything but get a pardon he didn’t ask for and probably didn’t want.
Then again, think of some of the pardons we have heard about in the news lately. You can ask anybody on either side of the political spectrum, and they can point to someone who didn’t deserve a pardon. And there are those who threaten those pardoned with death… just for getting a pardon. Church tradition says Lazarus fled Jerusalem to avoid being murdered. Somehow, that just doesn’t seem reasonable.
I would like to think that Lazarus would have laughed at the Sanhedrin. After all, no matter what they did to him… he knew Jesus had the power to bring Him back.
Of the pirates who accepted the pardon offered by George I, at least five returned to their lives of crime and were executed. Those who accepted the pardons also died… but they lived longer. Everyone who gets a pardon for a death penalty still dies. Just like the blind man last week, it was more important, Lazarus was raised to eternal life for keeps, not temporarily. If a king can spare you in this life (for a while), the King of kings can spare those who accept His grace in eternity. But those who accept His grace are not expected to return to their lives of sin here on earth. We are supposed to show we have accepted His grace and are productive citizens in His Kingdom. We do that by using the extension of earthly life He gives us to bring others into the Kingdom. Tradition says that what Lazarus did as an evangelist. Jesus says that’s what we should also do, not find someplace safe to live out our lives, but in anyplace tell what Jesus has done for us.
