No More Yeah, Buts!

John 11:1-45

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. 

We began the season of Lent with the story of Nicodemus. In that story, Jesus told Nicodemus that the way we connect with God, is a lot like the way we come into this life.  We’re not in control of when we are born and neither are we in control of connecting with God. Our life in this world and our relationship with God are both simply and only, loving gifts from God!

But every Sunday after that, the Gospel lessons almost make it seem like Jesus has been telling story after story to some off-camera mystery person who keeps arguing with Jesus, saying, “Yeah, but.”  “Yeah, faith is a gift, BUT Nicodemus was a righteous, good, Jewish, man! So, you must need to be righteous, good, Jewish and a man to qualify for God’s gift! Right?” No! Wrong! Then Jesus offers his rebuttal to that terrible idea with the story of the Woman at the Well. She was not righteous, not good, not Jewish and not a man! And yet, she  received all of God’s love and grace and faith… purely and simply as a gift from God!

But that voice seems to continue to argue back with Jesus every week! “Yeah, I suppose that’s true” the voice says, “But, she’d been talking with Jesus for a long time. She had built a ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus. So, THAT must be what we need to do!  We have to build a personal relationship with Jesus to deserve the gifts of God’s love and grace and faith! Right?” No! Wrong again! Jesus answers that wrongness with the story of the Man Born Blind.  The Man Born Blind literally didn’t see Jesus coming!  He didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. Jesus didn’t even ask him if he wanted to be healed!  Jesus just walked up to him, made some spit-mud and squished it in his eyes and told him to go wash!  God’s love, God’s grace, God’s gift of faith… ALL OF IT… it’s all REALLY and completely and totally a no-strings-attached gift!

“Yeah” says the voice, “BUT, he did do SOMETHING. He followed Jesus’ instructions and washed in the pool of Siloam!  AND once he got his sight back he changed his lifestyle and followed Jesus… so what we need to do is to follow Jesus in order to KEEP God’s infinite love and grace and faith or else it will be taken away!” NO! Wrong again! And so Jesus answers once again with the story we hear today about raising Lazarus.  This story is the ultimate answer to ALL of these “YEAH BUTS” given by this off-camera voice which seems determined that God’s love and grace and our faith just CAN’T be an unconditional gift. 

Each of those LONG stories from John’s Gospel tell us over and over that Jesus ain’t havin’ NONE of those Yeah, Buts! In each story Jesus makes it clear that God’s love, grace and even our ability to believe, is simply and ONLY a gift from God. The “Yeah, But” folks seem to desperately want there to be a part for us to play in deserving or qualifying for God’s gift. Maybe that’s because the idea of free, unconditional, love isn’t how the world out there goes round and they want God’s ways to match the broken ways of  the world? I don’t know people keep on with the “Yeah, Buts”, but with this story Jesus pulls out all the stops to confront those folks to try and help them really see that God’s love, grace, and even faith itself, REALLY and TRULY and COMPLETELY are, no-strings-attached gifts from God. To do that Jesus tells this story which stars a dead man... and it turns out, Lazarus was worse off than just dead!

You see, the common wisdom back then was that the soul hung around a body for three days, but by day four, the soul was gone for good and there was absolutely, positively NO HOPE of them getting better.  So Jesus waited for Lazarus’ soul to be GONE for good.  That waiting, of course, came with consequences… including an angry, distraught, family and, as the King James version says, Lazarus...  “He Stinketh.”  With Lazarus, Jesus shows us ONE MORE TIME that ALL that is required of US… is EXACTLY what you can expect from lifeless, soul-less, three days dead corpse... that stinketh.  Which is absolutely, positively NOTHING!  Lazarus wasn’t a good, righteous, Jewish, man... he was a corpse.  Lazarus didn’t have a conversation or develop a saving relationship with Jesus... he was a corpse! Lazarus wasn’t going to go wash anywhere, pray anything, or confess to anyone… 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 faith, not because he was convinced or converted by Jesus and not because he did anything, believed anything, or figured anything out!  He came out of that tomb and lived a new life… simply and only because God in Jesus told him... THAT was how it was going to be!  “Lazarus Come Out!”  He didn’t have a choice.  His new life came to him simply and only as a gift from God and the same is true for you and for me.

No matter what you have been told in your life. No matter what conditions the “Yeah, But” people have tried to put on God’s love for you before. Let this be the day that the cold, hard, stone of all that mess is rolled away from your life.  Let this be the day you step out into the light of the brand new life that you have already been given as a gift!  Breath in the fresh, free air of God’s unconditional love for YOU... love for YOU... just as you are!  Let the people in this community unwrap you from the clinging bits of blame, shame, and harmful conditions that had wrapped you up in the past and then… take one step and then another and then another… one day at a time… one step after another… into the abundant life that God has already given you as a complete and free and total gift of love.  Amen.