Yeah, But

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 11^th Chapter

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you

laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” 

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 

During the last few weeks we’ve had a series of Gospel stories from John.  It started with the story about Nicodemus and Jesus telling him and all of us that the way we get faith, is a lot like the way we are born.  If you think about a baby being born, that baby isn’t in control of when they are born and in a similar way we aren’t in control of when we believe either.  Our life in this world and our life in faith are both simply and only gifts from God. 

That seemed like a pretty clear message to me, but maybe it really wasn’t all that clear to everyone.  It’s almost like Jesus told the Nicodemus story and then someone listening in said, “Yeah, but.”  “Yeah, faith is a gift, BUT Nicodemus was a righteous, good, Jewish man, so could THAT be what he did to deserve God’s gift of faith?”  Aren't there some qualifications to deserve God’s gifts of love and grace and faith?  Do you maybe have to be righteous, seek Jesus out like Nicodemus did, be Jewish or maybe even be a man to qualify for God’s gifts?  

To answer those questions that aren’t in the scripture stories but certainly have been asked through the ages, Jesus tells the story of the Samaritan woman at the well.  She was not not righteous, she was not seeking Jesus out, she wasn’t Jewish and she wasn’t a man.  In fact she was actually the opposite of all of those things and STILL was a person who received all of God’s love and grace and faith purely and simply as a gift.  

“YEAH, she did receive God’s gifts of love and grace and faith, BUT, she talked with Jesus for a long time.  Could it be that you need to build a relationship with Jesus first and be converted in order to deserve the gifts of God’s love and grace and faith?

And so there's another question that isn’t asked out loud in the scriptures but certainly has been asked over and over again throughout the ages.  To answer this next “Yeah, but” question Jesus tells the story of the Man Born Blind.  The Man Born Blind literally did not see Jesus coming!  He didn’t ask Jesus to heal him and Jesus didn’t ask him if he wanted to be healed either!  Jesus just walked up to him, made some spit/mud and wiped it in his eyes and told him to go wash!  God’s love, God’s grace, God’s gift of faith really is a complete and total no-strings-attached gift!  

“YEAH, he did receive his sight, BUT, the man did do SOMETHING, he followed Jesus’ instructions and went and washed in the pool of Siloam.  Could it be that we too need to do SOMETHING to receive God’s infinite love and grace and faith.”

And so we have another question that isn’t printed out in black and white in the text but certainly has been asked and debated over the years.  So, to answer this latest “Yeah, but” question Jesus tells the story we read today... the story of Lazarus.    

In each of those other stories Jesus tried to make it clear that God’s love, grace and our ability to believe is simply and only a gift from God.  But in each of those stories just the interaction of Jesus with the people seemed to make the “Yeah, but” folks believe that maybe they had a part to play in deserving or qualifying for God’s gift.  So in a last ditch effort to help the “Yeah, but” folks really see that God’s love, grace and faith really and truly are a complete and no-strings-attached gift from God, Jesus tells a story that stars a dead man... and actually Lazarus is even worse off than that!  The common wisdom of the day back then was that the soul hung around a body for three days, but by day four, the soul was for sure gone and there was absolutely, positively NO HOPE!  Then, as we hear in the King James version of this story it’s even worse than that, because “He Stinketh.”

By telling the story of Lazarus, Jesus answered the “Yeah, but” folks questions once and for all by showing them that all that is required of us, is EXACTLY the same thing a lifeless, soulless corpse which stinketh can give... which is absolutely, positively NOTHING!  Lazarus wasn’t a righteous Jewish man who sought Jesus out... he was a corpse.  Lazarus didn’t have a conversation or develop a saving relationship with Jesus... he was a corpse and Lazarus wasn’t going to go wash anywhere or do anything else because, you guessed it... he was a corpse!

Lazarus came out of that tomb, not because he lived a certain way, not because he was born into a certain family or tribe, not because he was convinced in conversation by Jesus and not because he did anything, believed anything or figured out anything.  He came out of that tomb and lived again simply and only because Jesus said so!  He didn’t have a choice.  He didn’t even have a chance to say yes or no!  His new life came to him simply and only as a gift and the same is true for you and for me.  

The “Yeah, but” folks continue to try and look for what they need to do to deserve or qualify for God’s love and grace.  They continue to wonder how they need to act, what they need to do, how they need to live in order to get God to give them the gift of God’s love, grace and faith.

YEAH, I understand folks still have trouble with the idea of the completely free, no-strings-attached, grace filled abundant love of God... BUT that’s just not the right question!  We shouldn’t be asking what we need to do to GET God’s love... because we’ve already got it!  The real question we need to be asking is, now that we have been overwhelmed with the abundance of God’s love, what should we do with all of it?  

You are about to enter a new day as a congregation.  Your new pastor is on her way.  You have a new relationship with the church in Norway.  The stone has been rolled away and you are coming out into the light!  Take a deep breath of the fresh, new air.  Help one another unwrap whatever might be left that could be binding you up and may you all together begin to live again in the abundance that is God’s love and life.  Amen.