“So Funny I Could Cry”

John 20: 19-31 NRSV

 

In an interview with an African Safari guide, the guide was asked, “Is it true that jungle animals won’t harm you if you carry a torch?” The guide replied, “That depends on how fast you carry it.”

A defendant was on trial for murder. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse. In the defense's closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. "Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom." He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked on eagerly. A minute passed. Nothing happened.

Finally the lawyer said, "Actually, I made up the previous statement. But, you all looked on with anticipation. I therefore put to you that you have a reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty." The jury, clearly confused, retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty.

“But how?" inquired the lawyer. "You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door." The jury foreman replied, "Oh, we looked, but your client didn't."

How do you act when you are confronted with something you don’t believe? Each of us know things that others may believe in that are harmless – Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy for instance. But what about things that may be dangerous like taking “folk” medicine or performing a superstitious behavior to cure a disease, infection, or serious ailment?

Leeches and blood-letting were major folk cures that were dangerous.

But some of you may say some of those cures work! But which ones? Some of the claims and cures are so strange and funny, you’ll laugh so hard it’ll make you cry!

What are we to believe or not? If we cross over into religion “what should we believe” grows larger. What truths about Jesus do we believe or not?

 

Here’s one to consider: A survey a few years ago by the Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University found that most Americans do not believe they will experience a resurrection of their bodies when they die.

When asked, "Do you believe that, after you die, your physical body will be resurrected someday?" Only 36 % of adults surveyed said "yes," 54 % said they did not believe, and 10 percent were undecided.

Down thru the ages many people have expressed the opinion that death is final. Back in the days of ancient Greece the poet Aeschylus wrote: “Once a man dies, there is no resurrection.”

The Greek Philosopher Theocritus wrote: “There is hope for those who are alive, but those who have died are without hope.”

There’s something about death that seems (pause) permanent… and tragic. Sigmund Freud wrote: “And finally there is the painful riddle of death, for which no remedy at all has yet been found, nor probably will ever be!”

Let’s read our Gospel Lesson for today (John 20: 19-31), and then I am going to tell you an amazing thing that is so simple and funny, it should make you laugh!

 

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”       

²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

 

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

 

To say that death is permanent and final is to forget one important detail of creation: God created humanity perfect and in His image; which also means eternally. God created us to live forever. His desire for us was to live with Him forever.  

Yet Adam and Eve sinned and fell from perfection. The consequence of sin was that death entered into the world.

Through Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection reconciliation and restoration of eternal life was given back to humanity. Of course, Jesus’ resurrection was real! How could it not be?

But still some people waffle.

 

Boudreaux was out fishin’ when he came back in with a boat load of fish. The game warden was watchin’ and came and said, "Boudreaux, how you caught all dem fish?" And Boudreaux say, "Com’ see." They both went out again and then Boudreaux said this is the spot.

So he pulled out a stick of dynamite and lit it. The warden he done started hollerin’, "Boudreaux, you can’t do dat! You can’t fish dat der dynamite! What you tink boy?"

Just then Boudreaux threw the dynamite to the warden who caught it and said to the warden, "You gonna sit there a hollerin’ or you gonna fish?"

What does it take to change your convictions or understanding of a simple answer? For some it may take dynamite for others it is as simple as the breeze blowing.

In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

 

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us.

And we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."

Carl Sagan was fascinated that educated adults, with the wonders of science manifest all around them, could cling to beliefs based on the unverifiable testimony of observers dead for two thousand years.

“You’re so smart, why do you believe in God?” he once asked a pastor he knew. He found this a surprising question from someone who had no trouble accepting the existence of black holes, which no one has ever observed. “You’re so smart, why don’t you believe in God?” he answered.

Sagan never wavered in his agnosticism, even when he was dying. “There was no deathbed conversion,” his wife, Ann Druyan, says. “No appeals to God, no hope for an afterlife, no pretending that he and I, who had been inseparable for twenty years, were not saying good-bye forever.”

“Didn’t he want to believe?” someone asked. “Carl never wanted to believe,” she said fiercely. “He wanted to know.”

Thomas wanted to know, too. And Jesus had an answer ready for him.

 

Friends, that the point. I have told you so many times about the beautiful symmetry of God’s creation. God created us with eternal life. We screwed it up. So God had to find a way to restore it. That’s His message for us.

Let’s hear those immortal words from John’s Gospel, chapter 3, verses 16-17:

 

“For God loved the world in this way, He gave his One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

 

Friends, Jesus came for this! He was born, grew up, ministered and performed miracles, became the foretold Messiah, died on a cross as the atonement for humanity’s sin, and triumphed over death on the third day. That’s history, that’s reality, that’s our faith. Believe in the resurrection!

Amen.

THE RESURRECTION

John 20: 1-18 (NRSV)

It’s Easter Sunday. Time to eat all the candy and marshmallow eggs.

 Time to pig out on an Easter Ham. There’s gotta be a nicer word for pig out. A euphemism, as it were. Hey, try to think up a nicer word for euphemism.

 And while you’re at it, think up a shorter word for abbreviation. And a synonym for Thesaurus.

 Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together? Why can’t women put on mascara with their mouths closed? And why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ such a big deal?

 Why do people claim it didn’t happen when so much historical evidence supports the facts? There are more facts for Jesus’ resurrection than we have for the historical characters of Robin Hood, King Arthur, Hannibal and his elephants, and the mysterious island of Atlantis, but people don’t doubt them.

 

Let’s read the resurrection story: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."

 

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 

He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 

 

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 

 

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

 

Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."

 

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

 

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

 

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

I have heard many explanations and reasons to support the resurrection. I even have personal experience that leads me to faith. But the best argument I’ve ever heard comes from a source some people might not have considered:

When Charles Colson, onetime Watergate criminal-turned-founder of Prison Fellowship, is challenged about the truth of Christ’s resurrection, he responds:

 

“My answer is always that the disciples and 500 others gave eyewitness accounts of seeing Jesus risen from the tomb. But then I’m asked, ‘How do you know they were telling the truth? Maybe they were perpetuating a hoax.’ ” Colson says, “My answer to that comes from an unlikely source: Watergate.”

 

He wrote this in his “Break Point Online Commentaries” in 2002:

 

Watergate involved a conspiracy perpetuated by the closest aides to the president of the United States — the most powerful men in America, who were intensely loyal to their president. But one of them, John Dean, turned state’s evidence, that is, testified against Nixon, as he put it, “to save his own skin” — and he did so only two weeks after informing the president about what was really going on!

 

The cover-up, the lie, only held together for two weeks, and then everybody else jumped ship to save themselves.

Now, all those around the president were facing was embarrassment, maybe prison. Nobody’s life was at stake.

 

But what about the disciples? Twelve powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stoning, execution. (Yet) Every one of the disciples insisted, to their dying breaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead.

 

Don’t you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded or stoned? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did. Men will give their lives for something they believe to be true; they will never give their lives for something they know to be false.

 

The Watergate cover-up reveals the true nature of humanity. Even political zealots at the pinnacle of power will, in the crunch, save their own necks, even at the expense of the ones they profess to serve so loyally. But the apostles could not deny Jesus, because they had seen him face to face, and they knew he had risen from the dead.

 

No, you can take it from an expert in cover-ups — I’ve lived through Watergate — that nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and is Lord.

 

Two thousand years later, nothing less than the power of the risen Christ could inspire Christians around the world to remain faithful — despite prison, torture, and death. Jesus is Lord: That’s the thrilling message of Easter. It’s a historic fact, one convincingly established by the evidence — and one you can bet your life upon.

 

So there you have it, a compelling argument for Christ. A rational suggestion that the resurrection would have fallen apart if there were any shenanigans involved.

 

But we live in times of spiritual ignorance, skepticism, and religious shenanigans.

 

A woman went into a jewelry store looking for a necklace and said to the clerk, “I’d like a gold cross.” The man looked at the stock in the display case and replied, “Do you want a plain one or one with a little man on it?”

 

Easter is the day we acknowledge that the cross is not only empty, but the tomb is as well. We celebrate Jesus overcoming death. He is risen! Amen.

EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE MESSAGE

THE RESURRECTION IN HISTORY 

“HE IS RISEN! Easter Morning – Easter Sunrise Service. I had an experience this week I want to tell you about:  

A man claiming to be an atheist complained to me, "Christians have their special holidays, such as Christmas and Easter; and Jews celebrate their holidays, such as Passover and Yom Kippur; Muslims have their holidays. EVERY religion has its holidays. But we atheists," he said, "have no recognized holidays. It's an unfair discrimination."  

"What do you mean, atheists have no holidays," I asked him, "People have been observing a special day in your honor for years." "I don't know what you're talking about," the atheist said, "When is this special day honoring atheists?" "April first." 

Here’s another older joke – but it might wake you as you groan: A very zealous soul-winning young preacher recently came upon a farmer working in his field. Being concerned about the farmer`s soul the preacher asked the man, "Are you laboring in the vineyard of the Lord, my good man?"

Not even looking up and continuing his work the farmer replied, "Naw, these are soy beans." "You don`t understand," said the preacher, "Are you a Christian?"

With the same amount of interest as his last answer the farmer said, "Nope my name is Jones. You must be looking for Jim Christian. He lives south of here."

The determined preacher tried again asking the farmer, "Are you lost?" "Naw! I`ve lived here all my life," answered the farmer. "Well, are you prepared for the resurrection?" the frustrated preacher asked.

This caught the farmer`s attention and he asked, "When`s it gonna be?" Thinking he had accomplished something the young preacher replied, "It could be today, tomorrow, or the next day."

Taking a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiping his brow, the farmer remarked, "Well, don`t mention it to my wife. She don`t get out much and she`ll wanna go all three days."

Okay, since it’s so early in the morning, one more. The SS teacher told the 5th grade class that Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb. One student said that she knew why. "Jesus only used it for three days, and then gave it back."

Today is Easter Sunday, the day we talk about Jesus’ Resurrection.

Just this year, a letter was sent to a deceased person by the Indiana Department of Social Services. It read as follows: Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 2014 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. P. S. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.

Well, except for an occasional Lazarus, there really haven’t been too many who have seen a change in those circumstances! Except Jesus of course. But.

Since coming into this world 60 years ago I've learned that people are ready to believe that everything is shrouded in conspiracy. Bin Laden's death, Obama's birth certificate, the 9-11 terrorism incident, the Holocaust, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, JFK, and even now Flight MH370.

Think of an event that could be conspiratized (well, it's almost a word) and as Stan Lee says, “true believers flock to the cause.”

So it isn’t surprising to read today that, "Roughly one fifth of all American believe that Jesus faked his death on the cross, got married, moved to southern France, and had a family. But 64%, in a Rasmussen poll last week, believe in the Resurrection.

Isn’t ironic that almost more people believe in little green individuals from space  then believe in Jesus’ resurrection?  Just last week, Bill Clinton, speaking on Jimmy Fallon’s show said he thought the only way our screwed up world could be set right would be little green men landing on the White House Lawn.

Obviously he, like a lot of people don’t want to acknowledge that “setting things right,” will only happen when our resurrected Lord returns at the end of days. But that same Rasmussen poll said that 47% of Americans don’t know or care if Jesus will return or not. 

The popular historian Will Durant, himself not a Christian, wrote concerning Christ's historical validity and resurrection, "The denial of that existence seems never to have occurred even to the bitterest gentile or Jewish opponents of early Christianity." (Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. 3, p. 555). 

He went on to say, "That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels" (Ibid., p. 557).

It is a substantial thing that a historian who spends his life considering historical facts should affirm the reality of Christ's existence as well as the rapid growth of the early movement.  

Many facts recorded in the Bible have been challenged with the same result, and later archeology confirms the reliability of the biblical records down to the smallest detail.  

A respected Jewish archaeologist has claimed that, "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference." This is a strong statement for any archaeologist to make because if it were not true, he would quickly be condemned in his own field.  

The conclusion drawn from this material is that the Bible is a reliable historical document. Its accuracy has been proved numerous times. Its historical inaccuracy has never been supported.  

So that when we approach the Bible, we do so with a good amount of confidence that what it records actually happened. If this is true, then we need to come to terms about what the Bible claims. We cannot dismiss it out of hand because we were not there, regardless of the difficulty of what is said.   

Christians stake their entire faith on the resurrection of Christ because it is only through this event that forgiveness can come. It is the only way that fallen humanity can be reconciled with a perfect God. 

The gospels and the historical evidence bear out this claim that Jesus rose from the dead. The question is what will you do with the evidence?  

It has been God's practice to give evidence to those who are willing to respond, but He will not be mocked by scoffers.  

Christ appeared to his disciples because they were willing to believe when given enough evidence. He will not give evidence to those who refuse to believe.  

The story related in John 20: 26-28, of the disciple Thomas shows us that God will provide evidence to those who will believe it. Thomas was willing to accept the evidence he saw.  

How much evidence will it take for us to believe? As Christ states in the very next verse,  "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

There is much more evidence for the truth of Christ's message than we have time to discuss this morning. I am giving you a brief sketch of some of the historical evidence. There is also the evidence of fulfilled prophecy from the Old Testament, as well as other kinds.  

The point is that the evidence exists. If the evidence is weak and unconvincing, then we can throw Christianity out and look elsewhere.  

But if it is true, the message of Jesus Christ applies to us. And we must be willing to submit to it, regardless of what it says about us. God demands humility from us.  

If he is indeed our Maker, we cannot approach Him with an attitude that is arrogant and demanding. We must approach Him on His terms. Christ spelled out those terms: mankind is in rebellion toward God and in need of forgiveness. This is exactly what Christ came to offer.  

Let’s hear those immortal words from John’s Gospel, chapter 3, verses 16-18: 

“For God loved the world in this way,: He gave his One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.”

Friends, Jesus came for this! He was born, grew up, ministered and performed miracles, became the foretold Messiah, died on a cross as an atonement for humanity’s sin, and triumphed over death on the third day. That’s history, that’s reality, that’s our faith.Amen.

 

 

 

MAUNDY THURSDAY MESSAGE:

“What would it be like…”

John 13: 1-15 (HCSB)

      Jesus is preparing for a big weekend, yet He takes time out to eat and become a servant to His disciples and followers. What would it have been like to be there that night? Have you ever considered that question?

      As a mother and daughter walked out of church one Sunday morning, the mother said, “That was a nice service. I really liked the soft piano music during the prayer.” The little girl turned and asked her mother, “That was a piano?”
     The mother nodded, and the little girl said, “Oh. I thought God had put us on hold.”
     We never need to fear that God will put us on hold even on the evening before the greatest sacrifice God could ever make. Our God reaches down and enters our trials and struggles and teaches us His ways.
     I am convinced that’s why the story of foot washing is here in John’s Gospel. John’s chapters 13-17, are called the farewell discourses of Jesus and have been compared to Moses’ farewell to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 31-33.
     In John 13 we have two things happening: the physical cleansing through foot washing in verses 1-17; and the figurative cleansing by removing the betrayer from the group in verses 18-30.

Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Now by the time of supper, the Devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that he had come from God, and that He was going back to God.

So He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him.

He came to Simon Peter, who asked Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?” 

Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t understand now, but afterwards you will know.” “You will never wash my feet –ever!” Peter said.

Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 

“One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean.  You are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him. This is why He said, “You are not all clean.”

When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His robe. He reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? You call Me Teacher and Lord. This is well said, for I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you.” 

     From the beginning of life, foot washing among the Jews is a welcoming event and a commitment to being with that person from then on in spirit and in prayer. It is a ritual. It should be a reminder of how Jesus reaches out to us in humbleness.

     The foot washing related here in John’s Gospel is an example that we cannot attain cleanliness or goodness from our own acts or our rituals, but rather through our desire to allow Christ to touch and teach us a better way. Foot washing becomes a highly significant event.
      In a small Jewish town in Russia, a rabbi disappeared each Friday morning for several hours. His devoted disciples boasted that during those hours their rabbi went to heaven and talked to God.
      A stranger who moved into town was skeptical, so he decided to check things out.
      He hid and watched the rabbi. The rabbi got up in the morning, said his prayers, then dressed in peasant clothes. He grabbed an ax, went into the woods, and cut some firewood, which he then hauled to a shack on the outskirts of the village, where an old woman and her sick son lived. The rabbi left them the wood and went home.
     The newcomer became the rabbi’s disciple.
     Now, whenever he hears a villager say, “On Friday morning our rabbi ascends to heaven,” the newcomer quietly adds, “if not higher.”
     Foot washing teaches us service, humility, and a lifelong example of priorities.
     An 11 year old boy was invited along on his father’s yearly fishing trip for the first time. It was important for the boy to show his father how happy he was to be felt mature enough to go along.
     But two nights into the trip the boy awoke, sick to his stomach. He feared he might throw up. He needed to get to the bathroom. But the cabin was cold and dark, and he would have to climb out of a warm top bunk. Suddenly, the boy threw up over the side of the bunk.
      The father heard the awful splatter and came running in, flicked on the light, and surveyed the mess. “Couldn’t you have gotten to the bathroom?” he asked the boy.
       “I’m sorry,” the boy replied, knowing he deserved every angry comment that would come. The boy had done something foolish, messy, embarrassing — and worst of all, childish.
       The father shook his head a little, then left. He came back with a bucket of sudsy hot water and a scrub brush. The boy watched, amazed, as he got on hands and knees and began scrubbing each pine board clean again.
       It became the defining moment of the boy’s understanding of who his father was, the goal he should set for his own life, and what Christ did for us on the Cross.
       As Christians, we face many awful and embarrassing messes. Our friends and family may often let us down and we frequently let Jesus down. Jesus has already shown us what we must do in those situations: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14).
       A young boy going to see his grandfather was traveling by train. He took a seat beside a man who happened to be a seminary professor. The boy was reading a Sunday school take home paper, and the professor thought he would have some fun with the boy.
      The professor said, “Young man, if you can tell me something that God can do, I’ll give you a big shiny apple.” Thoughtfully, the boy replied, “Mister, if you can tell me something God can’t do, I’ll give you a whole barrel of apples.”
      Redemption of humanity by Jesus’ sacrificial ministry is something God did!

That’s what we would have learned by being with Jesus that night. Amen

BRAGGING ABOUT JESUS

Matthew 26: 14-25 (NRSV)

The Jesus story comes to a head, or the plot thickens, after the followers of Jesus have joyfully entered Jerusalem in the wonderful event called the “Triumphant Entry” we call Palm Sunday.

To be really blunt about Palm Sunday: It is a day that’s unlike other days we celebrate because it’s a day to be happy about Jesus and what He’s done. It’s a day to brag inserted into a faith tradition that’s taught not to brag or boast about Jesus.

Jesus’ followers turned it into an event that bragged about Jesus solving all the Jewish problems and questions. It was a prideful day – but the Old Testament warned us that “Pride goes before a fall.” Braggers rarely stand up to adversity.

The word is “Betrayal.”It stings us, and often, it wounds us to the very core of our soul. When someone whom we trust turns on us, we don’t know where to turn.

Do we respond, in kind, firing with all barrels? Or do we quietly lick our wounds in private, wondering who will betray us next. I once had a friend who proudly told me, “I don’t get even – I get ahead.”

What others have said about betrayal can put our feelings into perspective. In the  words of others, we can see our own situation and perhaps, even find forgiveness or at least, the ability to move on. Betrayal quotes can shed light on one of the great tragedies of our lives, the ultimate violation of our trust.

George R. R. Martin wrote: “Shattered legs may heal in time, but some betrayals fester and poison the soul.”

Orson Scott Card said, “There's a sort of rage a man feels when he's been deceived where he most trusted. It compares to no other anger a man can feel.”

John  LeCarrie penned these words: “Love is whatever you can still betray, because betrayal can only happen if you love.”

It is said “Each betrayal begins with trust,” and “to betray you must first belong.”

Those words are certainly true when we think of the relationship between Jesus and the 12^th disciple named Judas Iscariot.

Let’s read the Gospel Lesson: Matthew 26: 14-25 and see the bragging end and the reality of betrayal and faith mix:

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’”

So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal. When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?” He answered, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.”

Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” He replied, “You have said so.”

Judas as usual, can be viewed both literally and figuratively. He physically betrays Jesus and mentally experiences remorse at doing so. I think Judas represents those people who physically commit to be Christians in actions yet fall short of actual faith and trust.

Let’s look at who Judas was in order to see why he represents Jesus being rejected by the world. We know some things about Judas as his contemporaries wrote some information about him.

Judas Iscariot was the only son of wealthy Jewish parents living in Jericho. He had first followed John the Baptist, and his Sadducee parents had disowned him. Judas Iscariot was the only Judean among the twelve apostles.

Judas Iscariot, the twelfth apostle, was chosen by Nathaniel. He was born in Kerioth, a small town in southern Judea. When he was young, his parents moved to Jericho, where he lived and had been employed in his father's business until he became interested in the preaching and work of John the Baptist. Judas was thirty years of age and unmarried when he joined the apostles.

Judas was probably the best-educated man among the twelve and the only Judean among the disciples. Judas had no outstanding personal strength, though he had many outwardly appearing traits of culture and habits of training. Judas knew the world and it’s temptations, it’s allure, and how power was used. Judas was a good business man.

There is no hint that any of the twelve ever criticized Judas or bullied him. As far as they knew Judas Iscariot was a matchless treasurer, a learned man, a loyal (though sometimes critical) apostle, and in every sense of the word a great success.

Judas was very much like the church member and/or beloved husband/father who has secrets stashed away. Judas never give his all to Jesus.

It seemed as if the apostles loved Judas; he was really one of them. He must have believed in Jesus, or at least in the idea of Jesus, but we doubt whether he really loved Him or bought into His ministry with a whole heart.

The case of Judas illustrates the truthfulness of that saying: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death."

A “psychological profile” would probably read like this: Like many in our world today Judas was an only son of unwise parents. When very young, he was pampered and petted; he was a spoiled child. As he grew up, he had exaggerated ideas about his self-importance. He was a poor loser. He had loose and distorted ideas about fairness; he was given to the indulgence of hate and suspicion.

He was an expert at misinterpretation of the words and acts of his friends. All through his life Judas had cultivated the habit of getting even with those whom he fancied had mistreated him. His sense of values and loyalties was defective.

Money was probably not the motive for his betrayal, but his skewed views of right/wrong and how wealth and power is to be used, was.

Jesus knew Judas, and used his strengths and weaknesses to the good of God’s Kingdom and the redemption story. That’s the hard part for us to understand – Judas, in his betrayal, still was used to the good in God’s Kingdom.

Judas’ story shows us that an outward show of loyalty to Jesus is meaningless unless we also follow Christ in our heart.

I am convinced that Jesus could have been crucified without being betrayed.

It’s not like Jesus hid His identity or changed His appearance when He spoke. He was a highly visible teacher, prophet, and miracle worker. The High Priests and the Romans knew Him – they didn’t need really need Judas.

Why then is he here? Judas represents us in the story, how humanity has betrayed and moved away from God. Each of us owns a nail that put Jesus on the cross – and Judas reminds us of the price for doing so.

How? If we don’t really know Him and love Him, we betray His Love for us, just as surely as Judas did. And we will be left hopeless and desolate as Judas was.

Although Judas attempted to undo the harm he had done, he failed to seek the Lord's forgiveness. Thinking it was too late for him, Judas ended his life in suicide.

 

If we have head knowledge about Jesus but guard our hearts from Him we too are committing suicide in that eternal life in God’s Kingdom will never be ours.

It's natural for people to have strong or mixed feelings about Judas. Some feel a sense of hatred toward him for his act of betrayal, others feel pity, and some throughout history have considered him a hero. No matter how you react to him, here are a few biblical facts about Judas Iscariot to keep in mind:

Judas lacked trust in others and instead had a personal creed that said: “I'd rather betray others, than have others betray me.”

Judas made a conscience choice to betray Jesus (Luke 22: 48).

He was a thief with greed in his heart (John 12: 6).

Jesus knew Judas' heart was set on evil and that he would not repent (John 6: 70, John 17: 12).

Judas' act of betrayal was part of God's sovereign plan (Psalm 41: 9, Zechariah 11: 12-13, Matthew 20:18 and 26: 20-25, and Acts 1: 16, 20).

Believers can benefit from thinking about Judas Iscariot's life and considering their own commitment to the Lord. Are we true followers of Christ or secret pretenders?

 

And if we fail and realize we have betrayed Jesus, do we give up all hope, or do we accept his forgiveness and seek restoration? 

Jesus is waiting to forgive our betrayal.

 

Amen.

“Who Killed Lazarus?”

John 11: 1- 45

 

        A man had become quite sick and was now lying home in bed. His doctor had come to examine him and had brought with him another doctor for a consultation.

       After the examination, the doctors retired to the next room to discuss the sick man’s condition. Quickly the man called for his young son and asked him to eavesdrop at the door and tell him what the doctors said. Later the man asked his son, Well son, what did they say?”

      The boy, somewhat perplexed, replied, “Did, I can’t tell you that. I listened as hard as I could, but they used such big words that I can’t remember much of it. All I could catch was when one doctor said, “Well, I guess we’ll find out what the problem really was at the autopsy.”

       A five-year old girl came home from her grandmother’s funeral in a car with her other grandmother. “Where did Grandma go?” she asked. “We believe she went to be with God,” the other grandmother replied.

      “How old was she?” asked the girl. “She was eighty years old,” her grandmother told her. “How old are you?” “Eighty-three,” said the grandmother. The little girl thought for a bit, then said, “I hope God hasn’t forgotten you!”

      Today we’re going to talk about Jesus and Lazarus. There are a number of puzzling issues about this story: Why did Jesus wait to go to Lazarus? Why did Lazarus have to die (he could have been healed as a miracle, right)? And one we usually pass over because it doesn’t wash with the facts: Jesus tells us and his disciples that Lazarus’ illness will not end in death; yet he spends how many days in the tomb?

Listen to the story: 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."

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." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." "But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?"

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."

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." 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. 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." Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.  Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

And 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.

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."

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. Jesus wept. Then 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?"

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "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." Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

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." (NRSV)

 

      Stories about raising the dead are rare in the Old Testament, occurring four times: Elijah’s raising of the widow’s son; Elisha’s raising of the son of the Shunammite woman; Elisha’s body touching and then raising a dead man; and the witch of Endor’s bringing back Samuel out of the grave at the request of King Saul.

       The Gospels record only three references to resurrection. This recounting of Jesus’ friend Lazarus’s death and his resurrection is the most dramatic one, other than the Easter Story itself.

       The most puzzling aspect of this recounting is Jesus’ apparent lack of concern and failure to have any sense of urgency about the whole situation. Later on, as He gets closer to the tomb itself, and deals with the family, He seems to ratchet up the empathy and at one point is physically moved to tears. Why?

       Consider how angry or puzzled you would be if it were your husband, wife, child, or parent lying there and you knew that Jesus could have prevented the pain and suffering had He been a little faster. Could this pain be prevented? What killed Lazarus? Adam and Eve killed Lazarus if anybody did. Jesus couldn’t prevent it.

        But there are complications to the story and plot.

        Some of the complications include the fact that Jesus was threatened with stoning the last time he visited Lazarus’ home territory, and Jesus again gives them “what’s going to happen is for God’s Glory” spiel, so why hurry.

The thing that’s important here is lost in the distracting questions: Jesus is showing the disciples and us that He has control over life and death. In fact, Jesus is in the process of redefining what physical death is. Jesus calls it “falling asleep.” And if you “fall asleep” then you can be awakened. Jesus demonstrates that He has the power to call us awake, even after time has passed.

      Could this story be a reminder to us that after His resurrection and ascension, and in His fashion as God the Father wills, He will return and call those who sleep in Him, awake? Could it be that simple?

      There was a busy Hospital emergency room that had a regular visitor, Billy, a cute two-year-old with freckles and tousled blond hair. For a year Billy had been in and out of the ER with what the doctors diagnosed as asthma.

      The source of the illness was a mystery to the doctors. Billy didn’t have asthma as an infant, there wasn’t a family history of asthma, and there weren’t obvious signs of allergies that would cause it. But the symptoms were asthmatic. Sometimes they treated Billy and sent him home; other times he would end up in the pediatrics ICU because his breathing was so labored.

      This continued for about a year, and the staff grew fond of Billy. One day he came yet again with breathing difficulties, and one of the medical interns decided, on a lark, to look up Billy’s nose. He found a black jelly bean that Billy’s brother had put there a year before. What came out with the jelly bean wasn’t pretty.

      They had treated Billy for the wrong condition for almost a year. In light of that circumstance, the ER put signs on the walls of the emergency room that said, “Look for jelly beans.” When you’re working in the ER, properly diagnosing a problem can be the difference between life and death.

      A black Jelly bean didn’t kill Lazarus – being a human in sin did, but Jesus has the cure for death. Listen = Luke 12: 22-23: Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I tell you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.” (HCSB) Amen.