John 11 - Part 4

Read John 11

It’s back to a familiar story.  Jesus kept doing incredible, unbelievable works, and some believed and some felt threatened.  The Sanhedrin met to discuss the matter.

Jesus had become more than a disruption.  He threatened the security of Israel as this ruling council knew it.

If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.

The religious leaders were worried about their status with the Roman Empire.  If the religion of the region did not threaten the security of the state, then the Romans considered them harmless and generally let them go about their business.  If you throw in an occasional, Caesar is god or Caesar is king, you had some job security.

This was their predicament.  If this Jesus movement kept growing, the Romans might consider it a threat and put it down violently.  On the surface, that sounded exactly like what the ruling religious leaders wanted, except they would all lose their jobs.  The Sanhedrin would be considered incompetent and unnecessary.  The Romans would tolerate them only as long as they kept the peace.

Nobody in Jerusalem really liked the Romans but they were tolerable in the current arrangement.  People complained about them and their taxes and their pagan ways, but they were tolerable.  If the Sanhedrin could not stop the build up of these followers of Jesus, the Romans might just take matters in to their own hands.

Listen to the words of the Chief Priest.

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all!  You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

It was better for one man to die for many than it was to let the growing support for Jesus continue.  Jesus had to die.  It was for everyone’s good.

While it seems that Caiaphas framed this statement in purely political terms, his words were in effect prophecy.  God sent his Son to die for our sins so we would not perish. Caiaphas said more than he realized.  Finally, he got to speak the words of God.

While bringing Lazarus back from the dead may have been the tipping point in the thinking of the religious leaders that they had to kill Jesus; this meeting set the plot in action.  The Sanhedrin issued a BOLO for Jesus.  If you saw him, you were to report him to the nearest Pharisee.

It was time for Jesus to keep a low profile, at least until the Passover.  His time had almost come, but there was still much more for Jesus to do in these last few days.

Amen.

John 11 - Part 3

Read John 11

Jesus arrived at the tomb with friends and family and a crowd of onlookers.  What a bonus.  Many came to comfort Mary and Martha and then Jesus arrived.  Something always happened when Jesus was around.

The tomb was a cave with a stone in front of it.  Jesus directed that the stone be moved away.

Martha, the sister who earlier professed that Jesus was the Messiah said, “But Lord.”

But…

What a powerful word.  I believe, but…

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

and born of the virgin Mary.

Have you gotten this far without a but what about?

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended into hell.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

But…

It’s hard to profess a belief without a but thrown in somewhere.    As a child, I loved to watch the Chicago Cubs.  Ron Santo, Fergeson Jenkins, Ernie Banks  and Billy Williams topped the list.  There’s three Hall of Famers in that bunch.  Over the years, I watched the Cubs less but always caught their banners at the beginning of the season.  Huge banners that stretched across multiple seats read:  We Believe.  They were usually back in storage by June, but you have to love the sentiment.

Four years ago, the Cubs won the Series after more than a hundred years of coming up short.  This year they haven’t lost a game and it’s mid-June.  You just have to love those banners:  We Believe.

Martha, only minutes earlier had told Jesus:  I believe.

 You can’t blame Martha for balking here.  She knew what she knew and what she knew was that her brother was stinking something awful.  He had been in there for four days.  The spices used to anoint the body are not much more than 24-hour deodorant. 

Lord, do you really want to open that tomb?  I might pass out from the smell.

How did Jesus respond?

Didn’t we just have this conversation?  I told you that if you believed you would see the glory of God. Think back to the start of this chapter.  Jesus told his disciples that what was going to happen—why they waited and why they left when they did—would be to the glory of God.

So, the stone was  taken away.  We don’t get an account of the open tomb smell.  We do get Jesus offering a simple but public prayer to his Father.  Father, I know that you always hear me, but what I am about to do is so that those gathered here may see your glory and believe that you sent me.

So, Jesus called out, Lazarus.  We are told it was a loud voice.  I want you to think on something that often goes overlooked.  Why did Jesus have to call Lazarus by name?   Who else would he be talking to?

Think back to chapter 5 and what Jesus told those who were listening before so many departed.

All who are in their graves will come out at the command of his voice.

So, when Jesus said Lazarus, it effectively, Lazarus and only Lazarus, come out.  This isn’t hard theology but something to chew on, especially if you are one of those people who profess, I believe.

Had Jesus been less specific, there might have been a really big resurrection at that moment.

It could have been that Jesus was just being formal or using the name of the dead man caused more to pay attention, or it could have been that the time for the resurrection had not yet come.

Lazarus obeyed.  Had he known he was going to be resurrected, he might have put on some better burial clothes.  As it was he had something of the mummy look going for him.

So, Jesus told his sisters to get him cleaned up and put some new clothes on him.  Surely Martha had been correct, he was stinking to high heaven, or at least enough to warrant a new set of clothes.

Jesus had waited until Lazarus was dead—good and dead—so that there would be no mistake that the power of God was at work through Jesus whom God had sent.

How do you do more than giving a man who was born blind his sight?  You raise a man from the dead.  You deliberately wait until there can be no doubt that this man was dead and then you put the glory of God on display to the gathered crowd.

As you finish the chapter, you see that many came to believe in Jesus.

Cool story.  Fantastic miracle. It's an interesting piece of scripture to chew on, especially that part about calling Lazarus by name, but is there anything for us.

Here is my challenge.  Do your best not to use I believe and but in the same sentence.

I believe, but…

We are so skeptical by our human nature.  Let’s take on more of God’s nature and when we speak of him with the words I believe, let’s not qualify them with any more verbiage.

I believe!

Amen!

John 11 - Part 2

Read John 11

By the time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.  Bethany was only a couple miles from Jerusalem so many Jews had come to comfort the sisters. 

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him.  She was courteous in her greeting but exasperated that he had taken so long.  If you had only been here.

It’s not Martha’s fault that she thinks Jesus is restrained by time and space.  Most people would have thought the same.  There’s one notable exception in the gospels when Jesus healed the servant of a Centurion without having to visit him physically.  The Centurion understood authority more than most of the Jews. There is a similar account in John but without the verbiage on authority.

Martha is still limited to her life experience.  She loves the Lord and believes him to be the Messiah, but her thinking hadn’t caught up to her beliefs yet.

Had Jesus desired to heal Lazarus and remain at the Jordan, he could have done it.  Remember that Jesus noted upon first hearing the news about Lazarus, he noted that what transpired was so that Jesus might reveal God’s glory.

We saw the same thing with the man born blind.  The hopeless situation would be opportunity for Jesus to show the glory of God.

But Martha had some inkling of hope.  She was despondent because Jesus had arrived too late; yet she said even now God will give to you whatever you ask.  Was she thinking the impossible?

Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise again.

She replied, I know.  He will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Her brother was surely a believer and she expected to see him again, whenever that day would come.

But it was time for another I am statement.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

She replied in her faith.

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Jesus asked her do you believe?  She replied, I believe in you and who you say you are.

Martha answered the question that the religious leaders would not.  She affirmed that Jesus was the Messiah, something those who should have recognized him could not bring themselves to do.

Now it’s Mary’s turn.  Her sister told her that Jesus was here and asking for her.  She went straightway to see him.  Those comforting her thought she was headed to the tomb so they followed.

Mary came to Jesus who was still on the outskirts of town and fell at his feet sobbing.  Lord, if you had only been here.

Martha and Mary were both hurting.  Jesus knew what he would do, yet he felt their sorrow.  He felt their loss.  Jesus saw the pain of those who had come to comfort these women. 

Jesus was God.  Jesus was human.  Jesus endured all sorts of things for his mission given him by his Father.

Want to know what Jesus was not?  He was not stoic.  Jesus wept.  Many of you know it as the shortest verse in the Bible.

I think we should see it as a glimpse into the humanity of Jesus.  We do not have a Savior who cannot sympathize with us.  Jesus lived the human life.  I suspect with good cause, that Jesus had been hungry—even after the 40 days in the wilderness, he was thirsty—not just while in Samaria, he got sweat in his eyes while walking on a hot day, and I would expect that his feet were calloused from walking so much, except when he walked on top of the water.

We know that Jesus was tempted but did not sin.  We see also that he felt the hurt of losing a loved one.

We know that Jesus experienced physical pain in his final hours, but when he came to raise Lazarus from the dead, he felt the pain of loss.  He didn’t have an on/off switch where he just turned off the pain.

Jesus wept.

While Jesus wept, nothing would keep him from his mission given him by his Father.  At that moment his mission would take him to the tomb where Lazarus had been for four days.

The Jews were, of course, engaged in their favorite sport—arguing.

Look how much he loved him.

He opened the eyes of a blind man, surely he could have saved Lazarus.

You might wonder what would have happened if they had just been witness to what Jesus was doing.  Perhaps arguing would have given way to belief.

So, a crowd was headed towards the tomb to see what Jesus would do.  The Jews arguing, Martha having professed that Jesus is the Messiah, and Mary was showing him where her brother lay.

What do we take home?

First, we must always be ready to answer the question that Jesus posed to Martha.  Do you believe?

I pray that in good times, bad times, and impossible times, we will profess that we believe. 

The second thing is that we would do well to remember another I am statement that we have come across in John.  These words are powerful.  They don’t need a sermon to buttress them.  We should be able to reach for them whenever we need them.

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

While Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead to bring glory to God, the greater miracle is that through him, we too may have life.  Even though these bodies will wear out or just stop working from other causes, we will still live.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life.    Remember his words.

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Amen.

John 10 - Part 1

Read John 10

I really enjoyed John 9, but the discourse at the end of the chapter between Jesus and the Pharisees continued into the next chapter.

How do we know?  The chapter begins: Very truly I tell you Pharisees.”  There’s not much room for discussion about who these words are aimed at.  Don’t check out of this message for there is always application for us.

God’s Chosen People went into exile in Babylon after repeated warnings not to worship other gods.  The warnings went unheeded and people had a 70-year hiatus.   Actually, the people endured captivity once again but while they were away, the land enjoyed a Sabbath rest.  

After the captivity and return, worshiping other gods seems to have diminished among the prevailing offenses of God’s Chosen People.  We see religious orders emerging—Pharisees and Sadducees.  Of these two, the Pharisees gained their status by knowledge of God’s word.  There were already scribes during the captivity.

The Pharisees were the smart guys and Jesus had just told them that they were blind.  It could be worse.  He could have called them robbers or thieves. That was coming later.

Jesus uses the shepherd and the sheep as a metaphor.  There is a gate in and out of the sheep pen.  That’s the only legitimate point of entry and exit.   There is a gatekeeper.  He only responds to the shepherd.

The shepherd uses only the gate.  He calls his sheep and they follow him.  They will not follow a stranger. In fact, they social distance themselves from the stranger.  The sheep know the voice of the shepherd.

Now that we are in chapter 10, let’s see if it gives us a little insight into the previous chapter.   Let’s go back to the scene with the second appearance of the man born blind who now can see before the Pharisees.  They asked him the same questions they did the first.

The man replied:  Why are you so interested?  Do you want to be his disciple too?

What happened next?

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.  Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The Pharisees had assumed the role as shepherds of God’s Chosen People but the people did not know their voice.  The Pharisees spoke as strangers not as the voice of God.  They knew the rules, came up with some new ones, but they did not know God’s heart.  The people could tell that they were not their own shepherds.

We often think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and he is and we will get there soon, but Jesus also identifies as the gate.  Whoever enters through him will be saved.

Our lives will be all about him, coming and going and finding green pasture because of him.

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.

It seems like a unique metaphor, but consider its presentation not in the first person from the words of Matthew.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Jesus denounced the religious hierarchy and replaced it with a relationship with God.  He was the way, the only way.

He is the way, the only way.

Had the Pharisees truly received God’s written word, they would have recognized the Word that came in the flesh.

Many people were beginning to see how estranged from God the religious leaders had become.  The Pharisees did not know his voice.

We too must make sure that we do not become religious.  We must not become self-righteous. We have our traditions and practices that come with being God’s child.  He wants us to put everything we have to use for his glory, but what we create and grow accustomed to must not supplant our relationship with God.

We must seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness first.  How do we do this in this crazy world?

We must know his voice.

Amen.