Materials
Gospel
of John, #4
When
Jesus Puts You On Hold
John 11:1-16
by R. Todd Bouldin
Today I continue
this sermon series from the Gospel of John, which is an invitation
to receive life through believing in Jesus Christ. Today we skip to
Chapter 11 and walk with Jesus towards Jerusalem as we too head towards
Good Friday and Easter. We often cannot wait until Easter when we
finally arrive at resurrection. But if we are to get there, we must
remember that resurrection really wasn't what we had in mind.
Prayer
For John, life started with
Jesus and it finds its destiny in Jesus. From the beginning, Jesus
has been about resurrection. So even as early as John chapter 5, we
hear Jesus saying,
“25 Very
truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead
will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
26For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has
granted the Son also to have life in Himself; 27and He
has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son
of Man. 28Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is
coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice 29and
will come out - those who have done good, to the resurrection of life,
and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
It's unclear if the disciples,
friends and family of Jesus really understood what He meant by resurrection.
If the Gospel of John is any indication, they were very confused and
thought Jesus might have meant resurrection in the last day, but certainly
not in this life. How can we resurrect if we are not dead? That's
what this whole chapter is all about.
John tells us several times that
Jesus had friends, and he even says in John chapter 15 that Jesus
says that even we are not His servants but His friends. That is who
you are if you are a follower of Jesus, the friend of Christ. But
what does that mean? Does that mean that you are a VIP in heaven?
Do you get special treatment? Will Jesus hurry to your side when you
are in trouble since you are His friend? According to today's text,
evidently not. Sometimes Jesus takes His time.
Jesus was out of town, evidently in another town of Bethany in
another region, and while He was away, His friend Lazarus became gravely
ill. The sisters of Lazarus, also friends of Jesus, sent word to Jesus,
Lord, the one you love is ill.” The response of Jesus is fascinating.
He did not rush to Lazarus' side. He did not pronounce him well, though
it certainly seems like a possibility even from far away. Instead,
He stays put two days longer in the place where He already was. Even
though He loves His friends, He stays right where He is, and frankly,
lets Lazarus die. This is not what we were expecting from Jesus. We
expect John to say, “Since Jesus loved His friends, He hurried
back to Bethany. Instead, He put the sisters on hold.
If I understand the original Greek text here, it says literally, “Jesus
loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus. Therefore, after hearing
Lazarus was sick He stayed two days longer.” Talk about a theological
problem. The text claims that it was because Jesus loved His friends
so much that He refused to get into a hurry.
Except in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus just does't seem to be in a hurry
in the Gospels, and particularly in John. The Gospel of Mark sometimes
portrays Jesus as acting immediately or being on the move, but even
then, He acts with intention and purpose, and leaves the needy crowds
to pray on a mountain or to escape on the sea. Jesus never seems to
be hustling or running. That drives me crazy because I'm always in
a hurry. But Jesus won't be dragged around or hassled by our needs.
Why? Because He loves you. Now, that seems odd. That's not how we
want a friend to respond. We want a friend to respond to our every
need, to our every beckon call. When we are in a desperate situation,
or we've been praying for what seems like years, we want Jesus to
hop on the next train to Bethany. We want a Savior who responds quickly
to our emergencies, or what seems like one. But Jesus did not get
in a hurry. He waited two days. And not surprisingly, Lazarus died.
Can you imagine what Mary and Martha must have been thinking as they
waited back in Bethany? They were so certain that their friend was
the one who healed people, especially someone that He loved and knew.
They had heard the sermon about how "things work together for
good for those that love the Lord" so many times that they assumed
it would be true. But as the hours became days, and Jesus still had
not come, they probably wondered if they had been duped. What was
taking Jesus so long?
Can you imagine their discouragement and confusion when they saw that
Jesus was going to be too late? I know you can imagine it because
you've been right there. Just this week, I've spoken with many of
you who have been waiting for God to show up for a long time, and
God seems to be taking His sweet time. Some of you are waiting for
job offers, some for a relationship, others for healing, and others
for relief. Sometimes life just gets overwhelming, and you need some
help. So you turn to God, believing that God loves you and wants good
for you, and you pray for God to help your relationships to work,
or for changes in your job that seems to just keep getting worse,
or for the healing of a person you love. "Lord, I, the one You
love ..." And we wish Jesus would hurry. But Jesus just
puts you on hold, and He doesn't come in time. The thing that you
most dreaded happens, despite your sincere belief that God would honor
your prayer.
But Jesus is not superman who shows up just in the nick of time. Instead,
Jesus often shows up when the time has come and gone, and things are
beyond desperate. Now anyone who would follow such a God may seem
a bit dysfunctional or twisted. But that's only if you are seeing
things from one perspective, and that is our own. Jesus doesn't
promise to help you carry out your plans for your life. He wants to
give you a whole new life. “I have worked so hard,
and I deserve a good life, and it's almost there. I just need a little
help from Jesus.” That's just why you may not be getting it.
If all you need is a little help for an otherwise pretty decent life,
then you don't need Jesus. When you ask Jesus to come to the need
in your life, you are not asking for just a little boost. If Jesus
is going to come to you, He is going to give you an entirely new life.
(Jeremiah 29:11)
So He waits. He stays and stays while we rush down one path after
another on our project of the moment until we finally despair of saving
ourselves. That's when you start making some important choices for
your life. You make the really important choices in life after Lazarus
has died -- after things have not turned out the way you wanted. Will
you still believe in Jesus then? Will you still believe when your
request hasn't been granted?
Now you know what it means to be a friend of God. Friends choose to
love even when there is no instrumental benefit in it. Friends
of God choose to love even when they don't get what they want from
God, when they want it. We love God because of and in spite of
- because of the blessings we have received, and in spite of the requests
we have not received. To love God only because He is useful in getting
you the life you want is not really love at all, and it surely isn't
faith. Real faith is born out of the choice to love God even when
God does not appear so useful. Your faith is strong when you can stand
with Job and say, "Though God smite me, I will not curse Him."
You are truly free when you can choose faith against despair, and
for God who you do not understand.
When you can believe and choose God even when there is no benefit
to you, when God does't come through in the nick of time, when it's
just God plus nothing else, that is when you really become a friend
of God. When you get to that point, then you are ready for new life.
The new life won’t look entirely different than the old one.
The thing that is different about this new life is that it is His
life and not yours. The new life isn't a second chance, or a fall
back option. It is life in Christ, held together only by Him. Then
all of your relationships, careers and health are held by Jesus who
holds you in communion with the life of God. The new life, unlike
the old one, cannot be lost. It is now a life found in the life of
Jesus Christ. With this new life, you are not trying to hold on to
all the people and things in your life for fear that you will lose
them, but you begin to receive life as a grace, as a gift to you in
the present moment as Jesus reveals more and more of His life through
you.
If you have a hard time accepting this, take comfort that you are
not alone. Even the disciples of Jesus were clueless when He spoke
of these things. They followed Jesus in the beginning because they
thought He would fulfill their dreams and make them great. But He
just kept walking away from every opportunity to give them what they
wanted. He even walked away from it for Himself. As we see in this
text today, He kept walking toward the place where dreams are crucified.
So the disciples were probably not surprised when Jesus got up finally
and said He was going to Bethany. They reminded Him that the last
time they were in that town people threw rocks at Him. Why would anyone
go there? So they ask Jesus, Why are you taking us there? (John 11:8)
There's no life for us there. Jesus responded, and let me paraphrase,
You cannot find life by avoiding loss. That is to walk in the
darkness. One day something is going to happen and you are going to
have to drop everything you are trying to hold anyway. So you can't
avoid the loss. But those who are the light of the world are those
who are not afraid of losses but embrace them as an opportunity for
something new. I am sure that the disciples probably shrugged their
shoulders, rolled their eyes, and said, Oh no, it's not another
analogy or paradox. But then Thomas spoke up and said, "Let
us go that we may die with Jesus."
I love how it is doubting Thomas who is the one who leads the others
in following Jesus here. He may not have understood what it all meant,
but he decided that life might just be found if he kept walking with
Him. That's all you are asked to do too. You are not asked to understand.
You are asked to follow Jesus through everything, even when it looks
like following Jesus will end up costing you, even when Jesus takes
too long. The new life is going to come to you, even if you don't
see how right now.
You can know that it's coming because Jesus is your friend, and He
will not hesitate to come when you are dead to the life you've been
hoping for and ready for the new life He gives. He will show up when
you are already dead.
You may be tired of waiting on Him. But one thing is certain: Jesus
will be your friend when you are no longer sure that you want to be
His.
March 12, 2006
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