Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] March 26, 2023 “Open to Maybe” John 11: 1-48 – Common English Bible A certain man, Lazarus, was ill. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2 This was the Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was ill.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, “Lord, the one whom you love is ill.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This illness isn’t fatal. It’s for the glory of God so that God’s Son can be glorified through it.” 5 Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was. After two days, 7 he said to his disciples, “Let’s return to Judea again.” 8 The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish opposition wants to stone you, but you want to go back?” 9 Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? Whoever walks in the day doesn’t stumble because they see the light of the world. 10 But whoever walks in the night does stumble because the light isn’t in them.” 11 He continued, “Our friend Lazarus is sleeping, but I am going in order to wake him up.” 12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he’s sleeping, he will get well.” 13 They thought Jesus meant that Lazarus was in a deep sleep, but Jesus had spoken about Lazarus’ death. 14 Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. 15 For your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there so that you can believe. Let’s go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (the one called Didymus) said to the other disciples, “Let us go too so that we may die with Jesus.” Jesus with Martha and Mary 17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was a little less than two miles from Jerusalem. 19 Many Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary after their brother’s death. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary remained in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world.” 28 After she said this, she went and spoke privately to her sister Mary, “The teacher is here and he’s calling for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Jesus. 30 He hadn’t entered the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave, they followed her. They assumed she was going to mourn at the tomb. 32 When Mary arrived where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who had come with her crying also, he was deeply disturbed and troubled. 34 He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They replied, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to cry. 36 The Jews said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “He healed the eyes of the man born blind. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?” Jesus at Lazarus’ tomb 38 Jesus was deeply disturbed again when he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone covered the entrance. 39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, “Lord, the smell will be awful! He’s been dead four days.” 40 Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see God’s glory?” 41 So they removed the stone. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 I know you always hear me. I say this for the benefit of the crowd standing here so that they will believe that you sent me.” 43 Having said this, Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his feet bound and his hands tied, and his face covered with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.” 45 Therefore, many of the Jews who came with Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Caiaphas prophesies 47 Then the chief priests and Pharisees called together the council[a] and said, “What are we going to do? This man is doing many miraculous signs! 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our people.” So, the basic story is this: Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. And Lazarus is sick. So naturally, Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus. They didn’t say explicitly that he should come right away, but clearly, that is what they expected. But instead of dropping everything to rush over, Jesus promptly did nothing. The disciples were fine with that because the last time they were there, the townspeople had been ready to stone Jesus. Jesus gave the disciples some confusing spiritual admonition about light and stumbling, about which they collectively said, “Huh?” So Jesus told them that Lazarus has fallen asleep. They descended into a comedy routine, unintentionally of course, about why Jesus would need to go to such a dangerous place to wake him up and so Jesus interrupts and said, “He’s dead.” Back at Mary and Martha’s, at any moment they expect to see Jesus coming over the horizon to save the day – to save their brother, the one whom he loved so much. But what did Jesus do? He sipped herbal tea at small cafés and went window shopping and maybe got his bangs trimmed. Whatever it is that he actually did, it took him so long to go two miles, he had the nerve to show up four days after Lazarus died. Four days is important. It was popular belief that it took three days for the soul to separate from the body, so it would have been obvious to everyone who heard the story that at four days nothing more could be done. The situation was beyond hope. It was past time that even a miracle worker could do something. Jesus said, or seems to say, “You’re lucky I wasn’t here. Now you can give glory to God.” But what kind of God would do that? What kind of God would let your brother die in order to prove a point? And that’s about how Martha felt about it. She pleaded or yelled or cursed or some combination of it all – “Why weren’t you here? Why don’t you care? If you had been here, my brother wouldn’t be dead.” She then probably crumbled in tears at his feet. And when she could finally breathe, “Yet, even now,” she said, “I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Did Martha really believe there was still time for a miracle? She was probably both desperate and resigned to the fact that it was too late. Four days. Jesus and Martha then talked back and forth. If you hold the stereotype about Martha being too busy cooking, the doer, while Mary was the thinker sitting at Jesus’ feet, remember this exchange. Theologically, Martha can hold her own. Just then, Mary comes running from the house pointing her finger and angrily accusing Jesus of neglect. “If you had been here, our brother wouldn’t be dead!” Well, maybe that’s what I would do. Perhaps Mary simply whispered these words under her breath, “If only you had been here…” You’ve experienced grief. You know how mixed our emotions can be. But whatever her tone and whatever she said, her words moved Jesus. He was genuinely pained to see such dear friends suffer. And so, “Jesus wept.” Over the years I’ve asked people about their favorite Bible verses. Some have said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” “The Lord is my shepherd.” “Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.” “For God so loved the world…” Do you have a favorite? It’s hard to choose just one. Well, one time a man answered, “Jesus wept.” He explained, “It’s how I know he was truly human. And if he really was divine, it’s how I know that God cries with us when we suffer.” Back with the sisters, Jesus asked to see the tomb. They warned, “Don’t get too close. He’ll stink!” Jesus cried, “Come out!” And either the Zombie apocalypse had begun or Lazarus came stumbling out of the tomb, his eyes covered, his body still wrapped in unraveling bands of cloth. Alive! But you know what, maybe Jesus and Lazarus had this planned all along, just a little prank. A little hide and seek with his sisters. I mean, otherwise, if you think about it, how would Lazarus feel when he realizes all that has happened to him? I’d be pretty ticked off. But in fact, it gets worse. In response to Lazarus coming back to life, the authorities had him killed again. All to prove a point? And what, exactly, was the point of letting him die to bring him back to life? John has been testing us throughout his gospel. How far will we go? In fact, the raising of Lazarus is the last of what are known as John’s Seven Signs. Signs of escalating improbability. The first one is at the wedding in Cana when Jesus turned water into wine. And we think, yeah, sure, why not. A little sleight of hand and anyone can do that, right? The second sign was when a royal official asked Jesus to heal his son. Jesus didn’t bother to go to the official’s house. He phoned it in and said, “Your son’s healed.” And sure enough, he was. But maybe he wasn’t that sick, just a panicky dad. Sign number 3. Jesus healed a paralytic man in Bethesda. He didn’t ask for healing, just a little help getting into a pool of water known for its healing qualities. Instead of helping, Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” And he did! However, maybe he wasn’t really all that disabled. In my mind, I’m thinking, it was probably just a little joint pain in the morning. Sign number 4 involved a crowd of 5,000 people… You know where this is going. Jesus told the disciples to feed them. They gathered up a few fish and some loaves of bread and after everyone had eaten, there were 12 baskets of leftovers. You see the escalating improbabilities. Water into wine. Healing from afar. A man who can walk again. 5,000 people fed. Sign number 5: Jesus walked onto a stormy lake and calmed the sea. He walked on water. Really? How do we explain that? Maybe he just walked on a strategically placed sand bar at low tide. A skeptical mind isn’t a bad thing. Doubts and questions are good. But it’s true that all these escalating improbabilities were also upping the fear factor for the Roman Empire and the religious authorities. It’s one thing for Jesus to be a good party guest. Or that Jesus can heal. But by controlling nature, Jesus is clearly more than an average traveling miracle worker. Sign number 6: We heard last week about how Jesus wiped spit and mud on the face of a man born blind and he could see. But wasn’t Jesus really just exposing the blindness of the religious authorities? And wasn’t #5 just about confronting our fears – Peter tried to walk on water too but couldn’t because he was too afraid. And #4 was the power of sharing your food. And #3 was taking initiative for your own healing. And #2… But then sign number 7. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Stinking dead after 4 days. I once had a friend who got in trouble. Or rather, was accused of something. I don’t know if she did what she was accused of. I doubted it but I couldn’t be certain. But the truth is, it didn’t matter whether I believed that what was said of her was true. I believed in her. I sometimes have the same feeling about Jesus. I don’t know if I believe all the things said about him. Sometimes it feels like I’m supposed to believe all those things. Am I a bad Christian if I’m not sure? But, here’s what I can say. I believe in him. In 1910, fundamentalists developed a list of five things Christians must believe in: 1)The inerrancy of the Bible – including a literal 6 day creation 2)The virgin birth 3)The substitutionary atonement of Christ – that Jesus was a sacrificial lamb offered as a blood offering to pay for our sins 4)The bodily resurrection 5)The reality of miracles. Every miracle exactly as written. The rise of fundamentalism came as people increasingly adopted a more scientific view of the world. Our ancestors in the Congregational Church were among the leaders in scholarship that questioned certain doctrines that resulted in a modernist/fundamentalist split. I think there is a middle way. As progressive Christians we take the Bible seriously, not literally. We don’t have to be locked in two boxes, such as, the miracles happened exactly as written or that miracles are simply metaphors that can be explained. There’s more to it than that.
I don’t believe everything that is said of Jesus but I do believe in Jesus. And when you believe in someone, it’s not a series of statements about the person but the relationship that makes a difference in our lives. A creed doesn’t hear us when we cry out in pain, “If only you had been here.” But Jesus does. That’s why we lift our loved ones and our world up in prayer, asking for healing, even when what we ask for is impossible. I can’t explain how prayer changes things, but that’s not as important as the fact that we care and that caring itself is healing. To pray for healing is to be open to maybe – even after 4 days. It means that our hearts and minds are not closed. It means that we refuse to be held down by despair. It means that we refuse to be crippled by cynicism. And some days, wouldn’t that be a miracle?
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