Don't stop in the middle

We were discussing the cost of following Jesus tonight and a difficult decision was brought up.  The person made the right decision, and it cost friendships and caused disappointment and some embarrassment.  God pointed me toward the following passage.  I read it and didn’t really get the connection at first.  But as I listened and then began to speak, God made the application plain.

John 11

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)  So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

The first understanding came as I considered the words, “This sickness will not end in death.”  It was the word ‘end’ that jumped off the page at me.  Lazarus did die.  But that’s not how the story ends.  That’s the middle of the story.  Too often in my life, when God has worked outside of my understanding while asking me to believe and follow, I see the events and my fear and emotions give way to the ‘middle’ even though he promises an end.  I want to believe, but I’m stuck in the middle and that doesn’t look so good.  It’s hard to hear “This sickness will not end in death,” when you are looking at a smelly tomb.

 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

There is another issue dealt with, but for now, I will close the gap in this story.  The time between the message that Lazarus was sick and his death had a purpose.  The events did not take Jesus by surprise.  His disciples, his friends –Lazarus’ sisters- did not understand the purpose, but it was there anyway.  He waited with purpose.  This is a hard part. 

Was there a reason why the young woman mentioned above had to face temptation and choose a right path that separated her from her friends?  Was it just about choosing right?  Or was the choice a vehicle to a greater purpose and a waiting revelation?  Had she chosen the wrong way would God’s purpose have been thwarted?  I don’t believe so.  I know in my heart that God knew her choice before she stood at the crossroad.  But just because her sight only allowed embarrassment and rejection, does not mean that that is the purpose.  That is the middle.  The promise is still good even when we see the worst possible scenario.

11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Lazarus was not nearly dead, he was 4 days stinking in the grave dead.  But Jesus said “This sickness will not end in death.”

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 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?”

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

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.”  When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.  Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.  When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

Sometimes, we just have to hold on to what we know God said.  I don’t think Mary whispered with resignation “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.”  You see, Mary knew the power of Jesus.  She had faith that it would be one way.  They would call him.  He would come and heal their brother and all would be well with the world.  But then Mary was caught in the middle.  Martha for all her worldly busy attitude was willing to hear, to consider even when she didn’t understand.  She said “If you had been here my brother would not have died.  But even now I know God will give you whatever you ask for.”   

But Mary who sat and learned from him, Mary who washed his feet with her tears,  Mary was devastated.  Jesus didn’t come through for her family.  When he showed up, she didn’t even go out to meet him.  When he asked for her, she went and she cried out of the agony of her lost faith, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  The same words, but oh the difference.

The same event came to both sisters.  They called for help.  Jesus delayed.  Their brother died.  They were both caught in the middle.  Jesus reasoned with Martha.  His heart broke for Mary and her lack of understanding.

34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

39 “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”   When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”  

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The sickness did not END in death.  But it went through death.  It occurred to me tonight that the verses that seem like an interim are not at all so.  There was another ‘middle’ around the corner.  Jesus was preparing his followers for that.

14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

9 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.”

16 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 knew the leaders of the temple hated Jesus.  They knew Caiaphas had advised the leaders that he should die in place of the people.  They knew all this was waiting.  Jesus had been teaching them about his death and resurrection.  But he had also promised it would not end in death.  It was confusing.  He knew they didn’t understand.  He understood that they would be caught in the middle.  They would believe; they would be tested.  It would appear that he had failed them but there was a promised end and it would not be death.  In one less day than had transpired with Lazarus, he would keep the promise of life.  Darkness would not win.

And One Who Didn't

John chapter 18 points out the enormous differences in 3 of the men Jesus chose as followers.

     John was a man full of feeling and expression.  He didn’t refer to himself as John but as one of the disciples.  ‘The other disciple,’  ‘another disciple,’  ‘the disciple that Jesus loved.’  He tells it all in such a way that the reader  always knows who that other disciple is. This is the first time it has occurred to me that John was affected by Judas in a great way.  I saw it in a few other places and knowing that John wrote this several years later is a testament to how deeply the defecting of Judas affected John.  Here he refers to him as ‘Judas the traitor’.  Though a fisherman by trade, John was a respected gentleman.  He knew the high priest and was allowed in when Jesus was taken.  He got permission to bring Peter inside as well.  His mother was convinced that he had been groomed sufficiently to become a public servant in the new order she expected the ‘Christ’ to establish.  He was the disciple at the cross during the death of Jesus.  Jesus charged him with the care of his mother, transferring his responsibility as the first born.  In all the accounts, John is constantly at Jesus side throughout his ministry.

     Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. (Verse 2)  Judas was one of the 12 and, though Jesus understood from the beginning that he was created and called to the purpose of betrayal, it is apparent in all of the accounts that Jesus had never singled him out before that night.  Even in the places where it is obvious that Judas did not have the right motive or spirit, he is never fingered until that night.  In John’s account, written many years later, he sees Judas for what he was and he reveals him as such periodically, but Jesus did not point it out during his ministry.  Judas, whether by default, appointment or vote, ended up as the treasurer of the group.  He was considered shrewd by the others, though it is pointed out by John that he often took from the bag for himself.  But, he was treated, and respected, in all manner, as one of the 12 closest followers of Jesus.

     Peter is perhaps the biggest question among the disciples.  I’ve often thought that had I been on earth and had to pick one of the 12 to betray Jesus, I probably would have picked Peter.  He was so changeable.  He was hotheaded and opinionated.   He ran off at the mouth when he should have been silent.  Jesus himself called him ‘Satan’ once.  And he did deny even knowing Jesus on the night he was crucified.  I see Peter as a rough, coarse man.  He probably had a sense of humor that had to be dragged into submission frequently.  He attacked one of the guards that night at the garden.  He cursed and denied.  And he was the first to decide to go on with his life as a fisherman after the crucifixion.  Yet Peter would become the strongest of leaders and the truest of followers.  He would forge a legacy in the church through wisdom and miraculous works that would elevate him to the highest respect and yet he would deny that respect by asking to be crucified upside down so as not to dishonor the death of Jesus.

     Though there were nine others, these three men are mentioned in this chapter as being with Jesus that night.  John and Peter waited while Jesus prayed; Judas betrayed Jesus, bringing outsiders into their special place of refuge to lead him to his destiny.  John went in with Jesus, publicly claiming association with him.  Peter tried to defend him and yet denied that he was even an acquaintance until he heard the rooster crow.  Other accounts tell us he ran out and cried in agony.  Judas, according to other accounts, tried to back out of his role and then committed suicide.  Yet they all played their role destined from their birth but chosen in the scope of time.

Jesus asked the guards -these invaders in his private time- “What do you want?  Who are you looking for?”  And when they answered “Jesus of Nazareth,” he replied “I am he” as the traitor stood by.

     The guards brandishing swords and clubs and carrying torches stumbled backward at his words and fell down.  Oh the power of prayer and obedience!

     In verse 8, Jesus answered. “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.”  This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

     It would appear Peter tested that by grabbing a sword and cutting off the ear of a guard, an incident that would play out later when a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the olive grove?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow. (Verses 26 and 27)

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (Verse 11)

In John chapter 6 Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.   But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.  All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

     And so we are back to the matter of faith and obedience.  Peter, for all his failure, believed and in time repented and obeyed.  Judas for all his seeing and all the trust given him did not believe, could not obey.  John identified himself as the one Jesus loved, as that other disciple, full of faith and obedience even in the time of death.  Jesus knew who followed him in faith.  He chose one who didn’t.

It has brought much consideration to my mind and heart.

Unity

I had two important thoughts while reading this chapter.  1. John was listening.  Often we think that because the others settled in and went to sleep –it was late at night- that all were asleep.  Yet John heard Jesus and remembered the strength of this prayer.  2. This chapter explains and quantifies the bulk of Christian doctrine.  As I read, I was amazed at the amount of 'explaining' Jesus did in this simple prayer directed to the Father, that the spirit would instruct John to record.

     The main message of this passage seems to me to be unity and how that comes about.  In the 17th Chapter of the book of John, Jesus began by saying, “Father, the time has come.”  He knew that it would only be a short time that night until he was taken prisoner and he knew that he would be killed.  The disciples did not understand that.  They had seen him walk right through the crowd and away from danger so many times.  They felt his protection here on earth.  They saw his power daily.  They accepted that he was the very ‘Son of God’ that the scripture had foretold.  But they were not prepared for this night.

     The first thing Jesus addressed in this prayer was the unity that existed between him and the Father God before the world existed. 4 I have glorified You down here on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify Me along with Yourself and restore Me to such majesty and honor in Your presence as I had with You before the world existed.  AMP   In the first chapter of John he told us  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  Here then in this prayer, Jesus is saying “restore me to what I had with you before the world was created.” 

     It was a total unity of power and purpose.  It also tells us that Jesus gave up that unity, even though he still knew the Father God, to come to earth and complete a task that had been decided before the creation or fall of man.  I see that when that unity was broken and Jesus became a man, he had to depend on faith and obedience to be able to complete everything that had been decided before.  It was a new challenge.  Temptation, physical pain, need, these were things he had never experienced in his unity with the Father.  But he came to the end of his life and said “I did it all.  I obeyed it all.  Now glorify me and bring me back into complete unity like we were before.”  I’ve been chewing on that for a week.  There is so much to think about in that.

     In this chapter he also tells us that his purpose was to bring unity between man and God. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent…9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. Jesus makes a clear distinction between those who believe and those who do not. The bulk of the world will not believe or follow.  But he is praying for those who will believe.  Also he is very clear that those who believe are unified with the Father as well as the Son.  He tells us without any doubt here how unity with God is achieved.  If we are to be unified it will be through Jesus, through faith, through love.  The work of redemption was to allow those who would believe to know the only true God and Jesus Christ who was sent. 

     We are unified through glory.  This is another truth that is hard to understand.  God gave glory back to Jesus through those who followed in belief.  And Jesus in turn spread that glory back to the believer.  10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

     God separates believers to spiritual protection and knowledge to bring them into unity.  11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.  12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.  A side note that Jesus felt was important here is that Judas was chosen even though he never truly followed Jesus.  His very presence in the line of disciples was foreordained.  There had to be one non-believer in the number to fulfill the plan of God for redeeming the others.  The other disciples did not know that he was a non-believer.  But Jesus did.  As you read the scriptural accounts of the ministry of Jesus, it is mentioned several times, but always as a necessity.  Some things about the truth are not pretty or likable.  But they are true none the less. 

     This is spiritually discerned I believe. “And when the spirit is come he will guide you into all truth.”  While Jesus was with them, he guided them.  When he had to leave, they would need special guidance and protection from God in the form of his Spirit that they could be in unity with the Father and the Son through faith.  This is defined in chapter 16. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  Jesus understood by his life on earth how badly they needed protection from the ‘evil one’.  He asked God to separate (sanctify, or set apart) them.  The world needed to see the difference even though it would cause them to hate the believer.  The believer needed to know the difference so they could accept their role in the kingdom of Christ.  I believe this tells us that those who truly accept this ‘separation’ have a divine protection both spiritually and physically, just as Jesus did.  When his ‘time’ came, nothing could prevent what he was sent to do.  Until his ‘time’ came, nothing could interfere with what he was to do.  He was set apart.  He asked God to set us apart in the same way.  Yet we must be set apart by our belief and acceptance of his ‘word.’  It has given me a lot to think about in my own experience and call.

     Jesus asked for unity with the ones who will believe their message. 20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I guess one of the big questions down through the centuries since this prayer was prayed has been “Does this apply to me today?”  These verses answer that question, I believe, with a resounding “YES! To those who will believe in me through their message.”  But what about the unity?  Can we still have unity with Christ and God? And Jesus answers “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”  It has a purpose defined here: the world will know that God sent Jesus because of our unity.  So even now, the unity of believers is so important. 

     We are brought into unity through the word of God and through the love of God allowed to play out in our lives.  By that the world will know that God loves us because of our unity.  This unity has more power than we might suspect.  Jesus discusses it with God and prays for this unity to be in place and protected, that all may be one.  Father, Son, disciples, believers through truth and belief in a complete unity that the world will know and understand as God in us and we in Jesus and we are unified with the same purpose, the same love and obedience, the same truth.  It will not make the world love us.  But it will bring some of them to belief and to unity in Jesus.

I have overcome the world

  The 16^th chapter of John has had me thinking a lot.  It has been hard for me to go on.  There are so many things to understand here.  It begins by Jesus telling his close disciples “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.”  And it ends with him affirming them with  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

  To say that I have been involved in an ongoing spiritual struggle is apparent to many.  It is an understatement to me.  I really want to know my God and his power.  I want to understand his plan and the way he works in the lives of those about me.  I want to know that today he cares and uses people like me and still has the same plan and attitude that he had when he was talking to these people just before his death.

  If all of this is true, if all of this is still God, how can we go on ignoring it.  A while back, I had a person I care about tell me that religion should be kept to the recesses of a person’s life like private parts should be covered and used appropriately.  Now that is a little less ugly than the way it was said to me, but it is the gist of the conversation.

  Jesus was a real guy in a real world who lived a very real day to day life.  People –the religious leaders especially- hated his reality.  Frankly, they wanted Jesus to “put it away” too.  You see they took their ‘religion’ out when it was appropriate.  And if they wanted to behave sinfully, they just ‘kept it in perspective.’  Their hearts were black and Jesus accused them of being repulsive, but not for their religious observance.  At one point he said “You should have done that stuff, but you should have honored the weightier matters of truth and justice and mercy.”

  Jesus was not telling them to let their hair down and get real with filthy language, immoral actions and unethical pursuits.  They were doing that and he was saying a resounding “NO!”  They hated him for it.  He wasn’t playing their game.  He lived a real life.  He understood the real issues.  He was crucified.  Even that was the plan for his life.

  Jesus told them to love.  Love was the command.  But he didn’t stand in the street and scream out “love, love,” and ignore the real issues around him of bondage to sinful practice.  He forgave the prostitutes.  He forgave the thievery of the tax collectors and public officials.  He accepted the repentance of the soldiers.  Those lives were changed.

  He warned Peter of his coming temptation.  The people would say “Your speech betrays you; you are a follower of Jesus.”  And Peter would curse to show them he wasn’t.  Then he would run away and cry and know what he had done.  The problem is that today, we smugly acknowledge our sin as a great accomplishment instead of hiding in anguish at what we have done.  We have lost our ability to be sensitive to sin and to repent from the heart.  Jesus did forgive and he does forgive.  But today few people repent even when they ask for forgiveness.  When sin brings corruption of those things about us, we still can’t acknowledge the wrongness of sin.  And we hate those whose lives are open and pure, or, at the least, think they are pitiful and inferior. 

  Jesus said “Love.”  Part of love is to see the truth, to deal with the truth, to bring about a change for the good.  Love does not keep a record of wrong, but it does not ignore the wrong either.  If we really care about redemption, if we truly love others in a way that works for restoration, we will not be appreciated.  Jesus told his followers that the world would think they were doing God a great service by ridding the environment of them.  He said, “They have to hate you, because they hate me.  They have to.”

  He ended the discussion by telling them, “You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.  I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

  I want to know him.  I’m not too crazy about the fact that people I care about will not understand or appreciate who I am or who I am becoming.  The more Jesus loved, the less they understood it as love.  His statement about taking heart and overcoming the world came shortly before his crucifixion.  It was no less true.