373. Tuesday after Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Lord, increase our faith. Amen.
John 11, 20-27. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
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There was mourning in the house of Martha. The two women had buried their brother, and been left to weep over their bereavement. Worst of all, they were assailed by unbelief; and the soul was like a storm-tossed sea. “Why did the Lord not come? Is he also faithless? Could he also be one of those friends who fail when trouble comes. Impossible! Why, then, did he not come? He had said: ‘This sickness is not unto death.’ Yet our brother is now dead. We can, then, no longer trust in that which Jesus says! Yet, after all, there can be no guile in his mouth. Nevertheless, Lazarus is dead!” — The Jews could give them no comfort; it was necessary for the Lord himself to come. He sometimes appears in one of his servants, but his own real presence is necessary; for he alone can loose the bonds of the soul, even as he alone can deliver the body from death. He came to Bethany; and the words of Martha show us what thoughts were struggling for mastery in her. They are the selfsame thoughts which cause my own sick heart to waver between submission to the Lord and accusation against him, between belief and unbelief. The words of the Lord, however, light up the heart, humble, comfort, heal, and quicken. Jesus says not only that Lazarus “shall rise again”; but he adds: “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” And now he has given me also faith. I am certain that Jesus is the Son of God; that he died for my sins, and rose again for my justification; that he is the Lord of life and death; that in baptism he has made me a member of himself, and that in the holy supper he gives me his own body and blood. Himself gives me the grace of the Spirit to believe and to gain victory in the fight against unbelief. We have, then, brethren, the life eternal in us. He who said, that Lazarus should rise again, also said: “Whosoever believeth in me shall never die.” The last is as certainly true, as was the first. Do you not already feel that your heart clings to him, and that his love holds you fast? Yet, we do not build our hope of life on our feelings, but on his eternally true and faithful promise. Though I die, yet my soul is with him; and he shall resurrect my body also. Whether here or yonder, Christ is my life; and that which he has said remains in force forever: “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Blessed be thy name, Lord Jesus! Grant us grace to believe in thee with our whole heart. Amen.*
I shall see God with these eyes,
Shall behold my blessed Savior;
I, the selfsame, shall arise,
In my flesh see God forever;
Then shall wholly disappear
Frailties that oppress me here.
What now sickens, mourns, and sighs,
Christ with him to glory bringeth;
Earthly is the seed and dies,
Heavenly from the grave it springeth;
Natural is the death we die,
Spiritual, our life on high.
[TLH 206, LSB 741, ELH 532; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.