"Why did Jesus die?"

Although Lent doesn’t officially end until Easter Sunday, this is the last Sunday where Lent is on the church calendar. Next week starts Holy Week, beginning with the triumphal Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem and culminating with Easter. We have gone from the mount of transfiguration, to the Samaritan woman at the well and now we are entering the valley of the shadow. Next week we will begin to climb Golgotha’s hill. We have seen Jesus’ power over sin, Satan, sickness and disease. This week we look at Jesus’ power over death itself.

Of course Jesus’ death IS the focus of the Lenten season, but we keep the cross and the empty tomb at the forefront of our attention all year long. This is why we hold our services on Sunday (and not Saturday). Our services are mini-Easters. But before we can get to Easter we have to go thru Good Friday. So why did Jesus die? That sounds like a duh question. You know, one of those questions that deserve the "no duh" answer. It’s a no-brainer. Right? Of course, we can all answer, He died for me. So let’s look at our lessons for today and see how they fit into Lent and answer today’s question (why did Jesus die)? These lessons are not randomly chosen. They are generally linked by something. Do you see it? Can you guess what the link is? What binds all three of them together? What is common?

It looks like Death, doesn’t it? Just look at all them bones in Ezekiel or how about Lazarus? These passages certainly have a lot of death in them. And this week we are looking at why Jesus died (ain’t that about death). It sure looks like it. But wait a minute you say. I don’t see anything about dead bodies in Paul’s reading today. So how can death be the theme

What is the theme of our passage from Paul? What is Paul talking about? Paul says that "through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death". The law of sin and death is the natural self. What we are by our very nature. The law was powerless to save us. It could only condemn us. That is the purpose of the law. To show us we cannot earn our salvation. Only through the innocent suffering of Christ could the Spirit of life set us free. We no longer live under the law. We live under grace. Our sin stained lives are covered by the perfect life and innocent death of Jesus.

Now can you see something besides death that links these lessons? I submit to you I believe the link is life not death. LIFE! (All right lets have a show of hands. How many of you picked up on the life idea?) That’s all well and good you say, but we are looking into why Jesus died? What does that have to do with life? Well what does it have to do with life? It has everything to do with life. He died to bring you and me newness of life. That’s right Life not death. This is what Paul is talking about. This is why there is no condemnation for those of us who believe in Jesus. He died to give us life. Jesus was the only sin offering that actually worked. All the spotless lambs, bulls and doves sacrificed for all those years could not atone for our sins. Only the man who could live a perfect life could do that. And that man was Jesus. This is the Gospel.

Speaking of the Gospel, let’s look at our Gospel lesson for a few minutes. Lazarus, Martha and Mary were good friends of Jesus. He stayed at their home at least once before. Remember Martha was upset because Mary didn’t help in the kitchen. She stayed and listened to Jesus. So when Martha complained to Jesus in Luke chapter 10 verse 41 He told her "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." So why did Jesus delay in going to Bethany and save Lazarus? They were good friends. Jesus had already shown he had the power to save him. Why wait. Lazarus was deliberately left in the tomb for four days, as proof positive that he was dead. D.E.A.D! Every Jew worth his salt, knew that for the first three days your spirit sorta hung around your body just incase it could find a way back. But after four days your spirit was irreversibly gone and you were dead. D.E.A.D, dead!

We are not told why Jesus delayed in going to Lazarus, but if I may, I’d like to interject a little conjecture here on my part. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus may have been catching some flak over his previous resurrections. Maybe the Pharisees were spreading lies about them and telling people they were faked. After all, Jairus’ daughter was dead for only a few minutes or hours and the young man in Nain may have been dead for three days (we are not specifically told when he died). But because they may not have been dead for the officially sanctioned and certified time, the Pharisees could still say these two were not really dead and their resurrections were fakes, but not Lazarus. He was officially dead. In fact he was beginning to stink. There was no doubt here and this time there were a lot of people from Jerusalem mourning with Martha and Mary since Bethany lies in the shadow of Jerusalem and apparently Lazarus was a popular fellow. But Martha, Mary, the disciples, everyone there didn’t quite see that Jesus had the power to raise Lazarus right then and there; even

It just boggles my mind that there were people there who did NOT come to faith in Jesus. They continued to prove that miracles inspire awe and not faith. Some of them ran off and tattle-tailed on Jesus to the Pharisees. This was a typical tactic of the Pharisees. They kept "watch" over these upstart messiahs and prophets or anyone they deemed worth watching. And when they got this news, it staggered them. They immediately called a meeting of the Sanhedrin (the supreme court of the Jews, 70 judges – mostly Pharisees plus the presiding judge – the chief priest, Caiaphas). These fellows were at a loss as to what to do about Jesus, but not Caiaphas. He knew that if the crowds went with Jesus, they were out of a job and all the perks they were getting (like the best seats in the house or when they spoke everybody listened) and Caiaphas wasn’t about to this give up. But his reasoning was far more prophetic than he realized and John tells us this plainly in our text for today. It really was better for us that Jesus dies. Even though the Jewish nation and the Sanhedrin would cease to exist in just 40 years, the nation that Jesus died for continues on to this vrey day. It is His church.

OK, well that Paul thing is fine and dandy and I can fit Lazarus in pretty well too, but they don’t seem to fit with all them bones. Where is does life fit in that valley of dry bones? Ezekiel was told to prophesy to those dry bones. Dry bones, why emphasize dry bones? Dry bones means the bones had no flesh on them and it takes some time to do that, in fact, a lot more time than just four days. This was to show that these men were most defiantly dead. We can all agree with that now can’t we? Even the Jews would agree those men were dead. But Ezekiel did what God told him to do and as he was prophesying he heard a strange rattling sound, like bone against bone. That’s because it WAS bone against bone. The next thing he knew, the bones had flesh and sinew, but not life. So God tells him to call on the breath and have it come from the four winds in his next prophesying and life entered the bodies and they became living men, thousands of them, a vast army. Whew! What a dream.

So what does that have to do with us here and now, some 2600 years later? Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones was first told to the Israelites living in bondage in Babylon. The nation of Israel was dissolving. It was being assimilated into Babylonian society and loosing its identity. Fewer and fewer people were observing the Passover and even less were reciting their newly added line (I believe it was said at the end of the sader) "Next year in Jerusalem". Things were so bad the Israelites decided that only 10 men were needed to start a synagogue. Israel was disappearing. They were giving up hope. Ezekiel’s message to the Israelites was that God can do anything and you will be a free nation once more. The dry bones were symbolic of the Israelites in Babylonian captivity and like in the vision Israel will be reborn. Ezekiel was telling them if God can take dead dry bones and remake them into new living people, He can certainly free us again. So, what does that remind you of? It seems to me, this is analogous to our Baptisms.

Our natural tendency is to sin and to sin means to die and to die means you’ll leave behind just some dry bones. But when we hear the Gospel and accept the gracious gift God offers us we become truly alive, just like the bones when Ezekiel spoke to them. So Paul can say "your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness." That righteousness is the life, death and resurrection of Christ. It is to this rebirth in the spirit that our lessons point us. All those dry bones are us before we came to the life saving faith in Christ Jesus. Without Jesus’ atonement to God we are just dead dry bones. Our bodies are dust (whether you want to call it star dust or good ol’ Earth dust) we are still just dust. And in the end, we will all return to dust. In fact, everyone you know or love, or have heard of, or have seen will return to the dust from whence we came.

Why did Jesus die? Jesus died to give us newness of life. The dry bones were given a new life. Lazarus was given a new life. Our rebirth in the spirit gives us a new life. This is the grace of God. God restored Israel and now thanks to Jesus’ death, God has made us sons and daughters of Abraham, brothers and sisters of Jesus and thus heirs of eternal life with our God. God has restored us to God.

We know why Jesus died, but it is just as important to know that he was raised from the dead. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! He is defiantly NOT dead! He lives! I know my redeemer lives. He lives so we can live. He lives to bring us a peace that is so incomprehensible to this sin filled world. Jesus went to the cross premeditatedly, deliberately, freely, doing his Father’s will to the very end. Even though it meant the most humiliating and despicable death mankind has ever devised. He did it. So why did Jesus die? He died for you and me. Amen.