Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen.
Nobody knows but Jesus.
Nobody knows the troubles I've seen.
Glory, Alleluia!

[I know it’s not traditional to sing the A word during Lent,
But somebody’s been raised from the dead.]

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen.

The people of Israel were exiled in Babylon
when Ezekiel prophesied.
They were far from home,
their nation laid in ruins.
Their nation was as good as dead.
They seemed to lay in stinking tombs,
and the prophet sent by God proclaimed:
“I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.”
In the midst of their suffering,
God made a promise:
“I will put my spirit in you that you may live, …
thus you shall know that I am the Lord.

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!

Mary and Martha both seemed to agree.

They had only recently seen their beloved brother die.

They were still in mourning when Jesus arrived,
a few days too late to do anything about it,
and while they were happy to see him,
their hearts were still broken by their loss.

Both said the same thing:
“If only you had been here,
our brother would not have died.”

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!

Jesus knows what they’re talking about.
He could have been there,
but he deliberately chose not to be.
He chose to wait a few days,
and he arrived too late
or so it seemed.
While it was not too late to save Lazarus,
it certainly was too late to spare his sisters the pain and agony
they experienced as they watched him die
and buried him in a tomb.
Their sadness rubbed off on him,
and Jesus wept.

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!
Nobody knows but Jesus.

He had been in the tomb for four days,
“by now there will be a stench.”
Then Jesus called upon the Father,
the God who had promised the people of Israel
that he would open their graves
and have them rise from them,
the God who had promised
to put God’s own spirit in them that they might live
the God in whom there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
And knowing that the Father always hears him,
Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
and the dead man came out of the tomb.

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!
Nobody knows but Jesus.

Watching the news, reading the newspapers,
it is obvious that too many people
are living in stinking tombs today.

Whether it’s the war in Ukraine
or the murders in so many places around our own country,
whether it’s the poverty that afflicts too many people in our world,
or the tragedies caused by climate change,
brought about by our lack of care for all of creation,
whether it’s the personal sadness from a broken heart
or the guilt we bear because of our own sinfulness,
from time to time we all experience the stench
of those stinking tombs.

Whether we’re buried in them
or we’ve seen someone we loved suffering,
dying, and being buried in one of them,
we all know what a stinking tomb is all about.

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!
Nobody knows but Jesus.

We’ve all had those days,
when like Martha and Mary,
we’ve wondered where is Jesus when we need him,
when it seemed that HE was taking His time
coming to our aid,
when it just seemed too late to do anything
but cry out, “If only you had been here!”
and to mourn over what had happened
to us, to those we love,
even to strangers who seem to suffer so needlessly.

Next Sunday, we’ll hear Jesus cry out,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”
It seems that even Jesus has felt that way
from time to time.

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!
Nobody knows but Jesus.

Yes, Jesus knows the trouble we’ve seen.
Jesus has wept for those He loved.
Jesus has had a broken heart,
and hanging on the cross
He felt alone, abandoned, forsaken,
and soon after that He would be buried in a tomb.

And a few days later some of his friends
would go to that stinking tomb,
only to find that it was empty,
that God had raised him from the dead,
that he had been untied and set free.

If you have been or are experiencing the stinking tomb,
if you are mourning for someone or something in your life
that has been lost,
if you feel alone, abandoned or forsaken,
if your heart is broken,
know that your God knows what it is like.

Know that Jesus has wept at a tomb
and been buried in one.
Yet when he felt alone, abandoned and forsaken,
the Father was still with him,
otherwise He’d still be in that stinking tomb.

Our God knows what we’re going through.
Our God knows what we’ve been through.
Our God knows what we’re yet to experience,
and through it all,
the promise he made Israel
through the prophet Ezekiel
still stands:
“I will open your graves
and have you rise from them.”

The promise Jesus made
as He encountered Martha
on his way to the tomb still stands:
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will life
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

Just as no stinking tomb could hold Lazarus that day,
and just as no tomb could hold Jesus for very long,
so no stinking tomb can hold us forever either.
We are all destined for eternal life.
We are all going to be raised to new life.
The spirit of God has already been breathed into us,
and nothing, nothing can separate us
from the love of God poured out for us in Christ Jesus, the Lord.

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!
Nobody knows but Jesus.
Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen!
Glory, Alleluia!