Every now and then the disciples actually stumbled upon the truth. When that happens, it is wise for us to pay attention. So when the sisters send word to Jesus that Lazarus whom He loved is ill but Jesus appeared to do nothing, they were relieved. After all, by this time everyone who was anyone knew that there was a price on Jesus’ head. Jesus Himself appeared to minimize the seriousness of the illness by saying that “this will not lead to death.” Everyone was happy. Nobody had to die – not even Lazarus. Until he did.
Then, when Lazarus had already died, Jesus got a wild hair about heading to Bethany to be with Mary and Martha in their grief and being glad He die not go earlier but now will wake the dead. In exasperation, Thomas mouths off with the most profound statement he had ever made. “Let us also go that we may die with Him.” Now just maybe Thomas had gotten a shot of the Holy Spirit in that moment because what Thomas said became a promise in the mouth of Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me even though he die, yet shall he live.” And they have become a litany in the words of St. Paul. “If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him.” And, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Lets take that one step further. These words must be your own confession as well. They are the words of a people brought to baptismal waters to surrender the life that is marked for death so that they may take up the life that death cannot touch. They are the words of a people who meet God first at the step of the altar to confess their sin and unworthiness before approaching the altar with anything to give to or ask of Jesus. They are the words of a people who come to a table set with bread and wine to eat of Christ’s flesh and blood, proclaiming His death until He comes again. These are the words of a people who go to the cemetery watching the body be planted in the earth and truly expect to see the dead again. ndeed, that is why we are here – to die with Christ.
It may seem an odd thing to say but it is the most profound prayer of the faithful. Let us die with Christ, let us die for Christ, let us die in Christ. The whole shape and purpose of Lent is to proclaim that there is life only for those willing to die with Christ, to die for Christ, and to die in Christ. In a world filled with people who want to be spiritual without being religious it makes no sense. In a church with crucifixes and crosses everywhere, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
We are here to die with Christ. It begins in our baptism in water when quite apart from anything we say or do, the Lord claims us as His own, complete with all our sins and flaws. He even claims our sins and failings as His. He cleanses us not symbolically but in water that really washes clean to the soul. His blood has become the fountain with the power to cleanse what no amount of good works and good intentions could ever do. Lent is traditionally a baptismal season – a time when those to be baptized are instructed and a time when those already baptized are refreshed in what it means to be the baptized people of God. We have died the fearful death with Christ so that the terror of death is over. Death is not a friend but it has become a tool in the hands of our Savior, a door through which those whom He has made righteous may enter into eternal life. Baptism may not be a necessity for those who never have the opportunity to be baptized, but it not optional for those who do. We are baptized with Christ, His presence in the water like a magnet to draw to Him all our sins and even our death.
We die with Christ every day. The baptismal life rising up from the waters of the womb of our birth from above gives us a new identity. Every day we die with Christ and rise with Him to live the new life of holiness, righteousness, and purity. Every day we surrender to Him the sins for which our blood cannot atone but His blood has, once for all. Every day we fight against the desires of the flesh, the temptations of the world, and the enticing schemes of the devil. It is not easy. It would be far easier to go with the flow and fade into the background of the world, accepting its values and purpose over that of Christ. It is not easy and we will certainly fail but His forgiveness lifts us up from the dust of that failure and gives us hope to try again, living the sober, upright, self-controlled lives a people who have been set free from their bondage to others to live only for Christ.
Let us die for Christ. That means counting the cost of discipleship. That means not running when we discover the momentary pain of denying our whims and desires and beating down the flesh to be faithful to Christ alone. No one said it was easy and Jesus did not ever say it would be anything but a fight and a struggle to walk worthy of Him. But that is what we do. Let us die for Christ. Sometimes that is not even metaphorical. Christians die for their faith. They die because they stand too close to Jesus in a world that loves all things in moderation – even faith. They die because we have real enemies who can take our lives but not our soul. The world is not our home or our friend. It can offer wonderful gifts, blessings, and comforts but hidden within is too often the cost of discipleship.
There are martyrs for the faith every day who give up something more than a favorite food for Lent. They surrender their lives for the sake of Him who surrendered His for them. We dare not as if this does not happen anymore. It happens for most of us in the home, in the workplace, in the marketplace, on the internet, in the public square, as well as the heart. But for some it still happens when death is the cost of discipleship. Let us die for Christ.
Let us die in Christ. At some point in time the Church stopped talking about a Christian death. It was conveniently forgotten from our prayers and so it was hidden from our life as well. The prayer was to die well, to die a Christian death, to die in Christ. When we stopped praying like this, the inevitable happened. Death became something we thought we might tame, something we might welcome, and something we might even control. Let death hold off long enough so we can do all the living we want and it might not be so bad. Let death come to relieve us from suffering it might be a friend. Let us choose death when living becomes too much for us and it might be the answer. Thanks be to God that Jesus does not think like we do. He came to swallow up death for us so that we would never befriend death or try to tame it or even choose it when we are tired of living. He came to die so that we who live in the valley and under the shadow of death might have death overcome for us once and for all.
Let us die in Christ. That is our prayer. A lifeless child in a weeping mother’s arms or a father buried by his wife and kids or someone cut down in the prime of life or one whose faith shows the marks of age and the scars of many battles in life. We die in Christ by dying in the faith, trusting that death is not the end, and with the hope of Christ’s resurrection to spur us on toward our own joyful resurrection. The Church manifests this hope by putting a body in the ground and telling the mourners that it will not stay. Christ will raise that body and transform it like unto His own glorious body and death will be erased forever.
This is what Mary confessed to Jesus. “Yes Lord, I believe You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into the world.” Dying with Christ, for Christ, and in Christ. That is our only hope. What happens to those who die with Christ, for Christ, and in Christ? A voice booms, “Lazarus, come forth.” This was the miracle to prefigure the greater miracle of our Lord’s Easter triumph. But hidden in the man whose hands and feet were bound with linen and whose face cloth wrapped around his features is the prototype of Christ’s resurrection and ours.
So let your prayer today be with Thomas. Let us die with Christ, for Christ, and in Him. The Lord’s expedient death to tie up loose ends has become the powerful death to end the reign of death itself. The enemies of God made their plans more urgent to kill Jesus and He taunts them, “Bring it on.” He knows that to kill death He must die. What are we to do? As the baptized people of God, forgiven of their sins, and fed upon the bread of life, we are not afraid of what the world can do to us. “Bring it on.” For you know that for you to live, you must die with Christ, for Christ, and in Christ. In the end you are losing nothing and gaining everything. Thomas got it right. Let us die with Christ.
If we have died with him, we shall also live with him;
if we endure with him, we shall also reign with him;
if we deny him, he will also deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.
(2Tim 2.11-13)
Amen
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