5th Sunday of Lent

 

Life and Death

As we draw closer to Good Friday and Easter Sunday

We draw closer to what really matters.

To Life and Death!

Everything else is secondary.

Because what good is it if you are dead!

Israel found itself in exile in Babylon.

Jerusalem and the Temple were burned to the ground.

The King and his family were killed.

Nothing was left.

They were as good as dead.

And Ezekiel comes along and says that God will open their graves and have them rise from them.

And resettle them back to the Promised Land.

And God did!

God brought back to life the dead Kingdom of Israel

And restored it to the Promised Land.

But what good is a Kingdom?

What good is all the money in the world;

If you are dead?

So Jesus comes along and says that He is the Resurrection and the Life.

That anyone who believes in Him will live forever.

And He raises Lazarus from the dead;

From the grave where he had laid for 4 days.

He said “take away the stone!”

And He called Lazarus out of his grave.

One day,

Jesus will return

And He will say to everyone in the grave, in every cemetery

“Take away the head stone!”

And they will rise from the dead.

And the only question for us,

Is the same question that Jesus asked Martha.

“Do you believe this?”

Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life?

And everything

Life, death and eternity

hinges on our answer.