What’s the Folded Napkin All About? (Part Two)
(John 11: 38-44; 20: 1-7)
I asked you last time: What’s the big deal about the writer
of the Gospel of John going to all the trouble to tell us in verse 7
that the napkin, which was placed over the face and head of
Jesus, was not just thrown aside in the empty tomb like the grave
clothes, but the entire verse tells us that the napkin was neatly
folded and placed separate from the grave clothes. I didn’t
answer in part one of this sermon with the following statement,
but I should have: dead men do not fold napkins. The neatly
folded napkin was a Resurrection Sign. The risen Jesus cast off
his grave clothes and neatly folded the napkin and set it aside.
This was a sign that He was alive.
If you weren’t here for part one of this sermon, the
significance of the sermon, part one, was that, if you were rich
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enough to have servants, a servant would prepare your dinner
table exactly the way you wanted it and would not touch the
table to clear it until you were through eating. When you
finished your meal, you would wipe your fingers and mouth and
clean your beard with the napkin and wad it up and toss it onto
the table. That was the signal for the servant to clear the table.
But, if you folded the napkin neatly and set it on the table, that
was the signal that you weren’t finished—that you were coming
back. And I ended that sermon with the words: Hallelujah! Jesus
isn’t finished, he’s coming back. He’s coming back for you and
for me.
This is Ascension Sunday. As the Resurrected Jesus
‘Ascended’ into heaven while his disciples looked on, two men
in white robes (albeit, angels), said to them: Men of Galilee, why
do stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been
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taken up from you into heaven, ‘will return’ in the same way as
you saw him go into heaven (Acts 1:10-11).
Now for part two of the sermon. Also, in the Gospel
according to John we read the story about The Raising of
Lazarus. According to the Bible, Lazarus was probably a man
of means. We know he had a house and two sisters whom he
supported, Mary and Martha. And we know that this family was
very special to Jesus. On various occasions in the gospel
accounts we find Jesus as a guest in Lazarus’ home. So Lazarus
would have a fine tomb, like the one Jesus had borrowed from
Joseph of Arimathea (notice, I said Jesus borrowed Joseph of
Arimathea’s tomb)? Also, Lazarus would have the same kind of
linens wrapped around his dead body, tightly, with a turban or
napkin covering his head and face.
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There is a stark difference between the resurrection of
Jesus and the raising of Lazarus, and the linen wrappings tell the
tale. But first, look with me at some of the story that we didn’t
read. Jesus was some distance off when told that Lazarus was
sick unto death and did not come to the rescue, healing Lazarus
before he died, which Martha was quick to point out to Jesus
when he finally arrived. Jesus missed Lazarus’ funeral. Lazarus
was already sealed in his tomb.
Arriving at Bethany, Jesus immediately encountered three
problems: First, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
In popular Jewish belief, the human spirit hovered near the body
for three days, then departed as the color of the corpse began to
change and there was an unpleasant odor. Normally death would
be irrevocable and all hope abandoned for one buried four days.
Second, many of the Jews from nearby Jerusalem had come to
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console the family, suggesting perhaps the prominence of the
deceased. Although these mourners were not particularly hostile
under such delicate circumstances, they obviously had close ties
with the leadership intent on destroying Jesus. Jerusalem is
where Jesus’ nemesis lived. Even though they sympathized with
those who would destroy Jesus, Lazarus was prominent enough,
that even though he was a follower of Jesus, those who
sympathized with the powerful Jesus-nemesis of Jerusalem
attended the funeral. Third, Martha was not only in the midst of
the week of deep mourning that followed Jewish funerals (there
was no time to mourn before the funeral since burial was on the
day of death), but she was doubtless frustrated and perplexed
over the failure of Jesus to be there soon enough so her brother
would not have died.
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The point Jesus was going to make by bringing Lazarus
back to life was that he was the Son of God and would glorify
his Father by bringing back to life a man who was certainly
dead. He had been in the tomb for four days. Only God can give
life. And Jesus and God were one. Only God creates life.
How did God create creation? According to the first two
chapters of Genesis, God spoke creation into being. Speaking –
the spoken word – Jesus is the Word of God. How does the
writer of John begin this Gospel? In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
How did Jesus bring Lazarus back to life? ‘Lazarus come
forth!’ Jesus spoke Lazarus back to life. Verse 44 reads (and this
is the difference between the raising of Lazarus from the dead
and the resurrection of Jesus): the dead man came out, his hands
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and feet bound with cloths and his face wrapped in a cloth and
Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’
Lazarus emerged from the tomb wrapped in death, bound
by death if you please as the wrappings are symbolic. I am
wondering, what death are you shrouded in? And I ask myself
that same question on occasion. We have to recognize the death
we’re shrouded in, in order to be set free – unbounded to live as
God wants us to live.
Now I don’t know about you, but had I been there, I would
have been so frightened that I would have fainted, had a heart
attack, or ran faster than I have ever ran in my life—in the
opposite direction. I would have had to change my pants—
seeing a dead man walking out of a tomb all wrapped up like a
mummy—like he was when laid in the tomb?!
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When Jesus said unbind him and let him go, I’m wondering
who would have been brave enough to approach Lazarus and
remove those strips of cloth from his body? Remember the
resurrection story: when the disciples peered into the empty
tomb they saw the cloths that Jesus had been wrapped in lying
there as if Jesus just rose from them, and in my mind’s eye I can
see Jesus sitting where his body had lain, neatly folding the
napkin and setting it aside.
It’s significant that Jesus did not take the cloths of death
off of Lazarus’ body. He asked others to do it. And he’s still
asking others to do it today. Christians, disciples who follow
Jesus, are to bring people to a saving knowledge of who Jesus is.
Jesus is still asking us to unbind people from sin and death to set
them free. I mentioned earlier Masters and Servants. I hear a lot
of talk within the church that Committee members, Trustees,
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Choir Members, etc., are volunteers. Biblically speaking, that’s
erroneous. We are not volunteers. We’re servants. We serve a
risen Savior in and through the church – which is the body of
Christ in the world. Everything that we do as a church, on these
grounds and off these grounds, should be bringing people to
Christ and setting them free from whatever death it is that holds
them hostage. May God help us to do so! May God help us to
take our focus away from ourselves and place it on winning
others for Jesus.
Amen.
Charles Lee Hutchens, D.Min.
Bethlehem United Methodist Church
Climax, NC
May 17, 2015
Sources: Ben Burke, Chattanooga, Tennessee, student, Southern Baptist Seminary Extension in
his Easter posting on Facebook, 2015.
William E. Hull, John, The Broadman Bible Commentary #9, Broadman Press: Nashville,
Tennessee 1970.