John 11:32-44

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."

The original, pre-Coronavirus, plan for today was for the high school youth and I to use the sermon time to share our experiences about our mission trip to North Carolina. We would have arrived home yesterday; but, of course, we never went on the trip.

I imagine that by this point in our collective social distancing experience you are well aware of the things you have been missing out on. Some of you, like me, are lamenting missing out on long-awaited travel experiences. Some are missing work (or at least work as you knew it). Others are missing out on physical proximity and relationships. And most of us miss living in a world where the thought of being subjected to a deadly disease was not at the forefront of our mind whenever we venture to the grocery store.

All of these things that we miss are legitimate. There’s nothing wrong for wishing things could have turned out differently, for wishing that our lives look more like they did a couple weeks ago before everything changed.

Much of what we feel today is what’s behind Mary’s words to Jesus following the death of her brother Lazarus. Recall that when Jesus arrives in Judea from Jerusalem Mary tells him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

This is simultaneously a confession of great faith and a confession of great frustration. Mary believes Jesus has the power to prevent death. What an extraordinary claim...an extraordinary claim rooted in the many times she witnessed him healing others. Mary also feels let down that Jesus did not arrive in time to help her brother. Mary laments that her life has changed completely in the course of one week, and she feels like Jesus did nothing to prevent it.

This dynamic is the core question that has frustrated God’s people throughout history. If God can heal people, why didn’t God heal that person?

Sit with that question for a moment. I think it’s a universal concern that will bring up very specific examples in your mind. Maybe you are drawn to one particular person in your life who suffered in such a way that it seemed like God was not present. Who is it in your life that causes you to march up to Jesus and demand an explanation? “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

“Lord, if you had been here, my spouse would not have died.”

“Lord, if you had been here, my child would not have died.”

“Lord, if you had been here, my friend would not have died.”

“Lord, if you had been here, thousands of people would not have died from this disease.”

All these thoughts and questions are perfectly acceptable. It is perfectly acceptable to be disturbed by the pain, injustice, suffering, and death that is in our world. It is perfectly acceptable because God, too, is greatly disturbed by these things.

Notice how Jesus responds to Mary. He doesn’t disregard her concerns as unfaithful or short-sighted. He doesn’t get defensive or argue that it’s all part of God’s plan. Instead, we read that Jesus was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. Jesus, the Son of God, had a friend who died. This made him feel greatly disturbed and deeply moved.

This demonstrates that God is not far off, detached, or watching the events of our world play out while sitting safely on the sideline. Rather, God is here in the thick of it, in the pain and devastation and fear and suffering and loss and death and grief. God doesn’t want any of that for any of us. It’s not the way things were meant to be. I simply have to believe that because I’m not about to worship a God who stands apart from all the pain and suffering and either says, “Not my problem” or “Get over it” or “At least she’s in a better place now.”

It is comforting to know that God is with us in our suffering; but we are still left with a giant “why.” Why? Why is there pain and devastation and fear and suffering and loss and death and grief?

I have no answers to that question. It’s one of the great unanswerable questions. To be clear, volumes have been written in an attempt to explain the problem of suffering. But in my experience they all eventually fall short of providing a satisfactory answer.

But we can still ask the question. We have to ask the question. Otherwise we resign our faith to one of two false extremes: either a God who causes these things to happen or a God who is completely powerless to stop them. Asking the question keeps us in the paradox and uncertainty, which is a perfectly safe place for your faith to reside. Faith, after all, is only possible in the absence of certainty.

Now, what happens next in the story does not answer the question of suffering, but it is incredible and important nonetheless.

What happens next is that Jesus, greatly disturbed in spirit, commands Lazarus to come out from his tomb. And he does! This dead man’s lungs take in oxygen, his heart beats and pumps blood throughout his body, the neurons in his brain fire. The dead man walks out from his tomb and into the presence of God. As impressive as the raising of Lazarus is, it is only a taste of what is to come; for, shortly, Jesus will go to even greater lengths to defeat death and fully resurrect. And even that is just a taste; for, in due time, all of God’s creation will be resurrected. All of God’s creation will live again. Your friend, your sibling, your parents, your child, you, and I...all will live again.

So, when you experience suffering and death, go ahead and ask “why?” It is a perfectly healthy and natural thing to do. But please also take courage in the good news that though we cannot explain why there is suffering and death, we know that it is not our ultimate destination. God has the last word, and that word is life!

Amen.

Luke 9:28-43

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.   

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not." Jesus answered, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here." While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

The story of the Transfiguration of Christ is the hinge between the Galilee half of the gospel and the Jerusalem half of the gospel. The first half of Jesus’ ministry kicks off with his baptism. The second half kicks off with his transfiguration. Both are stories of Jesus’ radical encounters with God in which the voice of God affirms Jesus’ identity as God’s beloved.

While much can be said about the story of the Transfiguration itself, today I want to focus on what happens on either side of the mountain – before and after the Transfiguration – as this sets the tone for the last half of Luke’s gospel. It also sets the tone for our worship in the upcoming season of Lent.

Three disciples – Peter, John and James – were witnesses to the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain. They observed Jesus’ face change and his robes become dazzling white. They saw the figures of Moses and Elijah standing with their rabbi. They heard the voice of God that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.”

I suggest to you that the disciples on the mountain heard this as bad news, which is why they “kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.” Here’s why:

After Jesus returns from the mountain a man begs Jesus to heal his son who is suffering from an evil spirit. His request is framed by this disheartening statement, “I begged your disciples to cast it out but they could not.”

Jesus’ angry reaction suggests that casting out an evil spirit should be well within the disciples’ abilities at this point. In fact, Luke writes earlier in the chapter that Jesus “gave [the twelve] power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases” and that they “went through the villages…curing diseases everywhere” (Luke 9:1,6).

The disciples were no longer able to heal and cast out evil spirits. The reason for this loss of power is likely located in what happened immediately before Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain.

In that story, Jesus told the disciples what their ministry would involve going forward. He referenced suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection; punctuated with a call for the disciples to “take up their cross daily and follow [him]” (Luke 8:23).

The disciples were capable of great acts of healing until they learned that suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death would be a part of their lives. The whole reason they started following Jesus in the first place was that he was their ticket to live long lives of blessedness, honor, respect, ease, and power.

Suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death were not what they signed up for. How could (or why would) the disciples continue to perform miraculous healings if all that awaited them was suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death? We can imagine the group of dejected disciples encountering someone requesting healing and depressed they reply, “What’s the point?”

Which is why, on the mountain, Peter, James, and John were probably devastated to hear God say, “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to Him!” Those words meant that God was seconding Jesus’ previous words; verifying the fact that their lives of discipleship would involve suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death.

No doubt the disciples who had not gone up the mountain with Jesus desperately hoped that the disciples would return from a period of prayer with Jesus with the message, “Good news, turns out Jesus was just having a bad day when he said that stuff earlier. We were right all along, everything’s gonna be great!”

Instead Peter, James, and John passed by their friends with their heads downcast, not saying a word. Their silence confirmed all the disciples’ fears.

In the accounts that follow in Luke’s gospel, the disciples’ confusion continues to grow. They bicker about who among them is the greatest. They are threatened by everyone outside their group. They threaten to wage war against Jerusalem. And eventually they abandon Jesus in his crucifixion.

To the disciples, the idea of God’s miraculous power and the reality of suffering were incompatible. They could only manifest God’s power when they thought there was something in it for themselves. Once they learned following Jesus would involve suffering, they refused to allow God’s power to work through them.

In his book on Christian contemplation Into the Silent Land, Martin Laird tells a story of walking across a moor with a friend who had four dogs. As they walked, three of the dogs would run out across the moor, leaping over creeks and chasing rabbits and joyfully exploring their environment.

But one of the dogs would only run in a small circle just in front of his owner. No matter now many miles they walked or how far afield the other dogs went, this dog would only run in a tight circle very close to them.

Martin asked him why, and he replied, “This dog was kept for his entire life prior to coming to me in a very small cage. His body has left the cage, but his mind still carries it with him. For him, the world outside the cage does not exist, and so no matter how big and beautiful the moor, he will never run out across it. I bring him here so he can breathe the fresh air, but he’s still running circles in his cage.”

Like the dog who had lived most of its life in a cage, Jesus’ disciples were caught in an imaginary cage of their own design. The disciples equated freedom with a blissful and easy life. Jesus insists, however, that true freedom is the ability to be and bear the good news of God precisely in the midst of suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death.

We all want lives of ease for ourselves and for others. It’s human nature. And Jesus is certainly not telling us to go out of our way to suffer, be rejected, bear our crosses, or die. Where we go wrong, however, is in thinking that such realities are proof that God has abandoned us. We are wrong to think that God only uses people whose lives are perfect, popular, free from conflict, and at ease. If such a person actually existed God could certainly work through him or her. We are not perfect; and it is for precisely that reason that God is with us.

May you come to recognize that true freedom is possible even in suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death. May God use you to perform miraculous acts of love regardless of how far you fall from whatever standard of perfection you adhere to. And may you never be ashamed to proclaim the good news of God’s grace to all people and all situations.

Amen.

The Big "Why?"

Freedom From Our Imaginary Cages