John 12 - Part 3

Read John 12

The Jews had been scattered across the known world for various reasons in their past.  If there were enough Jews in a certain town, they built a synagogue.  Should someone not from Abraham’s seed desire to become a convert to the Hebrew faith; there were hoops to jump through, but it could be done.

Some Greeks, probably converts to the Hebrew faith, had traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover.  I say that they probably had been converted because no Greek would travel to Jerusalem during Passover week unless he just wanted to sleep out under the stars.  This was no time for tourists.

The Greeks wanted to see Jesus.  Philip and Andrew brought the news to Jesus, surely thinking that he would be pleased that men had traveled far to see him.  Instead, Jesus didn’t give them the time of day, or maybe he did.

He said that the hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Do you remember all those instances where his time had not yet come?  Now that time was upon him.

Jesus explained that if a single wheat seed tried to hold on to its life, that’s all that it would ever be.  If it fell to the ground, it could produce many other seeds. 

Whoever loves their life will lose it.  That’s the stuff of self-mutilation and suicide and determinism and all sorts of fatalistic thinking, in the world’s perspective.  The world must keep account of wins and losses.  Who wronged you and how were you recompensed?  Look out for number one.  Get as much as you can.

Whoever loves their life will lose it.  From God’s perspective, we are like the seed.  We are only one see so long as our life is only about ourselves.  Only when we give up so much of our life—I’m not talking shelter, food, water—but self-gratification, self-centeredness, self-righteousness.

Until we give up so much of our all about me thinking, we will never know more than what we are, just a simple seed that sits on the shelf never to be planted.

Jesus would talk more later on in a more private setting with his disciples.  Do we satisfy ourselves alone or do we serve God?

It was time for Jesus to head to the cross.  He will have a little more time with his closest followers but his hour had come.  In that moment, we see Jesus wrestle with his human nature again.

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!”

His Father in heaven said, “You’ve got it.”  The people schooled only in Brontology thought it must be thunder. 

Jesus told the people that the voice from heaven was for their benefit.  What would come next would define human history for eternity.  Judgment was upon the world.  It was time for the light to condemn the darkness. 

The bad news was that so many were still in darkness.  Jesus would be lifted up on a cross.  He would die a gruesome death and his blood would be spilled for the atonement of sins.

To which the people only comprehended that Jesus would die.  Hey!  The Messiah is supposed to live forever.  What gives?

The people still didn’t get it.  They obviously didn’t visit Lazarus to view the evidence of who Jesus was.  And once again we return to light and darkness.  Jesus is the light of the world and he is about to leave this world for a time.

The time had come to believe in Jesus.

This has always been our choice in our time.  We didn’t have to wait for Jesus to go to the cross.  We didn’t have to figure out what lifted up meant.  When we were born, the atoning act that removed our sin had already taken place in our time.

Our choice has always been to believe.  The work of salvation has already been accomplished.  Our task is to believe.

Two millennia ago, everything was happening before the eyes of the people in and around Jerusalem.  You might think that if you had been there, it would have been so easy to believe.

I say that knowing the whole story today, we are without excuse as to believe and we have been commissioned to take this story to the world so they might believe also.

If you haven’t looked around lately, the world needs a Savior now more than ever.

It’s time that we call upon everyone we love to believe.

It’s time that we call upon everyone that we know to believe.

It’s time to believe on the One and only Son of God, the only sacrifice that could and did save us from our sins.

It’s time for everyone to believe.

Amen.

John 12 - Part 1

Read John 12

Let’s start off by saying there might be a chronology issue here.  Chapter 11 references Jesus being anointed in Bethany as if it already occurred.  Chapter 12 mentions the anointing taking place after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.  So, is there confusion here?

No, there is the telling of the story of Jesus by John.  This is not a newspaper story that piecemeals information day by day, but a complete account.  I could look back at my history, ok ancient history, and say that I attended and graduated Mangum High School.  I got a bloody nose playing baseball on my birthday.  The school sits right across from where I preached a revival, which just happened to be on the Gospel of John.

All the statements are accurate but not referenced for chronology.  I got a bloody nose in a pick-up game at recess while I was in the second grade.   I graduated when bell-bottom trousers were the fad and The Streak by Ray Stevens was the number 1 song.   I preached in the church across the street from the school—a Cumberland Presbyterian Church—the same year we did Good News 2012 here, whatever year that was.  There were a few intervening decades.

Now back to John’s gospel.

In telling the story in hindsight, the chronology might not be as important as the identification of the location and cast.  We see the same thing in the gospel accounts where Judas Iscariot is labeled as the one who betrayed Jesus throughout the accounts.  John notes that this would occur later, but it defines him through gospel accounts.

The story doesn’t get told until John has the whole story and then he adds references that help the reader identify with what’s happening sometimes when and sometimes where.

In land navigation, there is a tool known as resection.  This helps you locate where you are by taking back azimuths from at least two known points and then drawing them on a map.  Where the lines intersect is where you are.

Most people will never use this and now with GPS, most people don’t’ know how to do this, but when you spent a lot of time in the middle of nowhere’s located throughout the world, it’s a good skill to carry around with you.

It’s also what we see in this first part of John 12.  John is pinpointing location and characters, not exact chronology.

That established, Jesus was at the home of his three friends, or at another location in Bethany depending upon how you try to reconcile Mark’s and Matthew’s accounts.  Jesus was the guest of honor.  Ya think!

Son of God, the Christ, Messiah, and yes, the very One who raised Lazarus from the dead was the guest of honor.  Of course, Jesus is the guest of honor is a home where people know him to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Most of Jerusalem and Israel were looking for a different sort of Messiah.  Those gathered on this special evening knew the Messiah that God had sent.  Perhaps the hosts knew better than his disciples.

Then Mary took a pint of perfume called Nard and poured it on the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.  I’m sure that stopped the casual conversation at the dinner table.

A pint isn’t a lot, unless it’s a pint of perfume.  In this case, it was expensive perfume.  It’s the kind that you just dab here and there, unless you are anointing the body of Jesus.

And it was Nard.  OK, that doesn’t mean anything to us today.  Nard came from a flower in the Valerian family.  It was the roots, not the flower that was ground and distilled and used for aromatic and health purposes.  So, Mary was into essential oils and must have used her points to get some really expensive perfume.

Judas noted that it was worth a year’s wages.  He seemed indignant that it was lavished upon Jesus.  Do you know how much food we could have given to the poor?

There is a rabbit trail about Judas here and how he helped himself to the general fund that we won’t venture down very far at this time, but in the example of things not being necessarily chronological in the telling, ask why was he not relieved of his duties as treasurer.  It’s more likely that this detail was added in the telling at some later point.

But Judas is making a point of this nonetheless.  It was a valid statement.  Many poor people could have been fed.

Think to the man born blind.  Jesus used that exact time and place to show God’s glory.

Think to Lazarus in the tomb 4 days.  Jesus could have come earlier but he didn’t.  He took that exact time and place to show God’s glory.

Mary took this exact time and place to anoint the body of Jesus for his burial.

But he wasn’t dead yet!

Jump ahead a few chapters.  Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea brought 75 pounds worth of cloth and spices to wrap the body of Jesus before leaving him in the tomb.  Why was what Mary did necessary?

This anointing prepared Jesus for burial.  He told his followers that the poor would always be among them but they wouldn’t have him for much longer.  His time had come.

His time had come.

Where were the disciples when the body of Jesus was prepared and placed in the tomb?  They were scattered and afraid, gathering only in fear of being found.  This was the only time that the disciples would have to see their Master prepared for burial.  They would be hiding in fear in only a few days.

Jesus told his disciples to leave her alone.  She is doing the exact thing that has been appointed to her.  There was timing with the woman at the well.  There was timing with the man blind since birth.  There was timing with Lazarus.

There was timing in Mary pouring very expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus and wiping it with her hair.  Mary surely had the best smelling hair in Bethany for all of Passover week.

What was the timing?  The time for the Unblemished Lamb to be sacrificed for the sins of the world was at hand.

His time was at hand.  Here are a couple more things from this pericope.  Let’s deal with the statement that you will always have the poor among you. 

Is Jesus directing that there will always be poor people?  It this a predestined condition?

On the contrary, God wanted no poor among these Chosen People.  All they need do was abide in his law and directives. The poor are one symptom of these people’s disobedience.

They tell us that we still live in a broken world.  We are charged to help the least of these among us, but so long as the world lives by sin, we will have no shortage of people who need help.

The next item is about destroying evidence.  Lazarus was getting more than 15 minutes of fame.  He was the star attraction in Bethany.  Many had seen him in the tomb.  Many had seen him resurrected by Jesus.  Many more came to see him and subsequently believed in Jesus because of this miracle.

If you walk on water, there is no evidence.  Nothing got posted to Facebook or YouTube.  But when you raise a man from the dead, that evidence is before you every day.

The man blind from birth that Jesus healed was also evidence, but evidently it didn’t meet the threshold that required his death.  The religious leaders would just try to discredit this miracle, but a dead man who now lives was another story.

The religious leaders had already decided to kill Jesus and were trying to figure out how to do this and make it look legitimate.  Now they decided they needed to destroy the evidence of his most recent miracle—Lazarus.

We don’t know if this happened.  Non-biblical sources indicate that Lazarus and his sisters might have moved to Europe.  But at this point in the gospel, Lazarus was a liability to those who would kill Jesus.  The religious leaders needed to tie up some loose ends.

To wrap up:

Jesus has been prepared for burial.

The poor are an ongoing sign of the world’s brokenness.

The plot to kill Jesus now included a plan to tie up a loose end named Lazarus.

There is much more to come.

Amen.

His time was near

Read John 12

Let’s start off by saying there might be a chronology issue here.  Chapter 11 references Jesus being anointed in Bethany as if it already occurred.  Chapter 12 mentions the anointing taking place after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.  So, is there confusion here?

No, there is the telling of the story of Jesus by John.  This is not a newspaper story that piecemeals information day by day, but a complete account.  I could look back at my history, ok ancient history, and say that I attended and graduated Mangum High School.  The school sits right across from where I preached a revival, which just happened to be on the Gospel of John.

All the statements are accurate but not chronological.  I graduated when bell-bottom trousers were the fad and The Streak by Ray Stevens was the number 1 song.   I preached in the church across the street—a Cumberland Presbyterian Church—the same year we did Good News 2012 here, whatever year that was.

Now back to John’s gospel.

In telling the story in hindsight, the chronology might not be as important as the identification of the location and cast.  We see the same thing in the gospel accounts where Judas Iscariot is labeled as the one who betrayed Jesus throughout the accounts.  John notes that this would occur later, but it defines him through gospel accounts.

The story doesn’t get told until John has the whole story and then he adds references that help the reader identify with what’s happening sometimes when and sometimes where.

In land navigation, there is a tool known as resection.  This helps you locate where you are by taking back azimuths from at least two known points and then drawing them on a map.  Where the lines intersect is where you are.

Most people will never use this and now with GPS, most people don’t’ know how to do this, but when you spent a lot of time in the middle of nowhere's located throughout the world, it’s a good skill to carry around with you.

It’s also what we see in this first part of John 12.  John is pinpointing location and characters, not chronology.

That established, Jesus was at the home of his three friends, or at another location in Bethany depending upon how you try to reconcile Mark’s and Matthew’s accounts.  Jesus was the guest of honor.  Ya think!

Son of God, the Christ, Messiah, and yes, the very One who raised Lazarus from the dead was the guest of honor.  Of course, Jesus is the guest of honor is a home where people know him to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Most of Jerusalem and Israel were looking for a different sort of Messiah.  Those gathered on this special evening knew the Messiah that God had sent.  Perhaps the hosts knew better than his disciples.

Then Mary took a pint of perfume called Nard and poured it on the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.  I’m sure that stopped the casual conversation at the dinner table.

A pint isn’t a lot, unless it’s a pint of perfume.  In this case it was expensive perfume.  It’s the kind that you just dab here and there, unless you are anointing the body of Jesus.

And it was Nard.  OK, that doesn’t mean anything to us today.  Nard came from a flower in the Valerian family.  It was the roots, not the flower that was ground and distilled and used for aromatic and health purposes.  So, Mary was into essential oils and must have used her points to get some really expensive perfume.

Judas noted that it was worth a year’s wages.  He seemed indignant that it was lavished upon Jesus.  Do you know how much food we could have given to the poor?

There is a rabbit trail about Judas here and how he helped himself to the general fund that we won’t venture down very far at this time, but in the example of things not being necessarily chronological in the telling, ask why was he not relieved of his duties as treasurer.  It’s more likely that this detail was added in the telling at some later point.

But Judas is making a point of this nonetheless.  It was a valid statement.  Many poor people could have been fed.

Think to the man born blind.  Jesus used that exact time and place to show God’s glory.

Think to Lazarus in the tomb for 4 days.  Jesus could have come earlier but he didn’t.  He took that exact time and place to show God’s glory.

Mary took this exact time and place to anoint the body of Jesus for his burial.

But he wasn’t dead yet!

Jump ahead a few chapters.  Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea brought 75 pounds worth of cloth and spices to wrap the body of Jesus before leaving him in the tomb.  Why was what Mary did necessary?

This anointing prepared Jesus for burial.  He told his followers that the poor would always be among them but they wouldn’t have him for much longer.  His time had come.

His time had come.

Where were the disciples when the body of Jesus was prepared and placed in the tomb?  They were scattered and afraid, gathering only in fear of being found.  This was the only time that the disciples would have to see their Master prepared for burial.  They would be hiding in fear in only a few days.

Jesus told his disciples to leave her alone.  She is doing the exact thing that has been appointed to her.  There was timing with the woman at the well.  There was timing with the man blind since birth.  There was timing with Lazarus.

There was timing in Mary pouring very expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus and wiping it with her hair.  Mary surely had the best smelling hair in Bethany for all of Passover week.

What was the timing?  The time for the Unblemished Lamb to be sacrificed for the sins of the world was at hand.

His time was at hand.  Here’s a couple more things from this pericope.  Let’s deal with the statement that you will always have the poor among you. 

Is Jesus directing that there will always be poor people?  It this a predestined condition?

On the contrary, God wanted no poor among this Chosen People.  All they need do was abide in his law and directives. The poor are one symptom of these people’s disobedience.

They tell us that we still live in a broken world.  We are charged to help the least of these among us, but so long as the world lives by sin, we will have no shortage of people who need help.

The next item is about destroying evidence.  Lazarus was getting more than 15 minutes of fame.  He was the star attraction in Bethany.  Many had seen him in the tomb.  Many had seen him resurrected by Jesus.  Many more were coming to see him and subsequently believe in Jesus because of this miracle.

If you walk on water, there is no evidence.  Nothing got posted to Facebook or YouTube.  But when you raise a man from the dead, that evidence is before you every day.

The man blind from birth that Jesus healed was also evidence, but evidently it didn’t meet the threshold that required his death.  The religious leaders would just try to discredit this miracle, but a dead man who now lives was another story.

The religious leaders had already decided to kill Jesus and were trying to figure out how to do this and make it look legitimate.  Now they decided they needed to destroy the evidence of his most recent miracle—Lazarus.

We don’t know if this happened.  Non-biblical sources indicate that Lazarus and his sisters might have moved to Europe.  But at this point in the gospel, Lazarus was a liability to those who would kill Jesus.  The religious leaders needed to tie up some loose ends.

To wrap up:

Jesus has been prepared for burial

The poor are an ongoing sign of the world’s brokenness.

The plot to kill Jesus now included a plan to get rid of loose ends.

There is much more to come.

Amen.

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 11 - Part 1

Read John 11

Here’s the cast for today’s drama:

Jesus

12 disciples (Thomas gets a speaking part)

Mary and Martha who are sisters

Lazarus (Brother to Mary and Martha and on his last leg)

People coming and going and believing in Jesus

Some unnamed messengers

A crowd in Bethany (Much like those in previous chapters).  These folks don’t show up until later.

Jesus and his disciples were at the Jordan where John the Baptizer began his ministry.  They were taking a break from Jerusalem and Judea.  There was a growing contingent of Jews there that wanted Jesus out of the way.  Killing him would be an acceptable option.

There were also those coming to Jesus at the Jordan who were seeking the truth and they found him and they believed, but the atmosphere at the Jordan was a little more relaxed than in Jerusalem.  Still, Jesus was moving closer to the cross.

News came that Lazarus, a friend to Jesus and brother to Mary and Martha, had fallen sick.  It surely must have been serious for the sisters to send word to Jesus.  If you had a runny nose or allergies, that might not be newsworthy.  I’m thinking it was COVID-1 or COVID-2, but that’s just speculation. 

We don’t know if the messengers were masked or not, but Jesus knew exactly what was happening.  He announced this sickness will not end in death. 

Upon hearing the news of Lazarus’s illness, Jesus decided to stay at the Jordan for two more days. This is just speculation again, but I think that the disciples had booked the Jordan-side resort through AirBnB and had paid for the full week and it was nonrefundable.

We know that’s not the case.  Jesus said that this sickness came up Lazarus so that the Son of Man could glorify God through what he would do.  It would also be the tipping point in the plot to kill Jesus.

As often was the case, the disciples seemed clueless.

After the two days, Jesus told his disciples that they were headed to Judea.  That brought the relaxed time at the Jordan to an end.  Was their Master getting Sometimers Disease?  Did he not remember that just a very short time agon they were ready to stone him in Jerusalem?

Then Jesus gave them another light and darkness, day and night quip to think on.  Maybe it was to give them something to talk about on the walk to Bethany.

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light.  It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

Here’s the quiz that goes back to chapter one and we revisit time and again. 

Who is the light of the world?

If you are walking with Jesus, you will not stumble.  When your shepherd is the Good Shepherd, you are in good company. 

The disciples still didn’t get the big picture.  Jesus had to be very blunt with them, they did not pick up on he is sleeping analogy. 

Lazarus is dead.

Had the disciples been paying attention, they might have remembered Jesus saying that this sickness would not end in death.  So here was their dichotomy.

·       Either Jesus finally got one wrong, or…

·       There was more to come.  Something unbelievable.

Evidently while they were questioning their Master’s judgment in returning to the region where people stood ready to kill Jesus, they had some short-term memory loss.  There is no recorded discussion about the sickness that was upon Lazarus not ending in death.

They should have been able to connect the dots for the man who turned water into wine, fed a multitude with a couple fish and a little bread, walked on water, and opened the eyes of a man born blind.

They should have been expecting great things ahead of them; instead, they seemed certain that certain death awaited them.

Thomas, who is known most for doubting that Jesus had been raised from the dead—that comes later too, here commits to his own death out of loyalty to Jesus.  It has a little machismo to it.  Today is a good day to die.

I could put this into Marine Corps jargon:  Come on you %$#&, do you want to live forever?

This is Charge of the Light Brigade stuff, with Thomas shouting Half a league onward.  It was much farther than a mile and a half to Bethany, but the cavalier spirit in the face of death was obvious.

Jesus knew what he would do in Bethany.  The disciples didn’t pick up on what he had told them.  Perhaps Jesus didn’t want them advertising what he would do in advance.

Whatever the reasons, the disciples followed into what Thomas portrayed as certain death.

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

The disciples could not see the next miracle.  Perhaps it was beyond what they thought even their Master could do.  The man’s dead and they couldn’t leave him out overnight, so he is probably already in the tomb.  This would be a good time to send flowers.

But Jesus was going to Bethany and so too were his disciples.

Thomas seems to be forever saddled with the moniker of Doubting Thomas, but here I would like to dub him Loyal Thomas.  The only thing that Thomas could see ahead of him was death; yet he followed his Master.

He followed his Master.

He followed.

How many times do we find ourselves in Thomas’s shoes?  How many times do we face situations where we can’t see a good outcome?  We can’t see what God will do for us.

We are called to have faith.  There was faith in the loyalty of Thomas.  He didn’t know what was ahead and it looked like death, but he would follow his Master.

So here is what we should chew on for a time. 

When following Jesus appears to be unprofitable, will we follow anyway?

When following him appears to be costly, will we follow anyway?

When following Jesus might cost us everything, will we follow anyway?

Things in this out of control world might get worse.  They might get much worse for those called Christian.  Will you follow him anyway?

Follow him.  Trust him.  Live for him. Die for him if that is what faith requires.

Follow him even if it costs you everything for your place with him for eternity has already been prepared.

Now while we still have some breathing room is the time to prepare ourselves to follow him even if it costs us everything.

Amen.