Lent 5, John 12v20-36

The passage is a long rambling theological treatise which will not have meant much to the Greeks who want to meet Jesus and came from a different religion, a different culture. Israel was multicultural. Romans, Greeks, Samaritans, Syrophoenicians, Jews.

Jesus does not address the staggering question that Philip and Andrew put to him. There are Greeks who want to meet him. There are North Koreans who want to meet Jesus! Its that stark. Of course 2000 years later we understand that the message of Jesus is for everyone, not just for me and my Jewish friends, not just for me and my English white friends, not just for African Carribbeans, not just for the Church but for Indians, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Russians. The message of Jesus Christ is for everyone. And Jeremiah reminds us that Gods Spirit will live within us.

Philip was Greek and went on in the book of Acts to spread the gospel to an Ethiopian. Jesus reminds them that he is going to die and in his death draw everyone together, as we in the church should be together in Christ. This is again about cross bearing discipleship. Jesus is human and he doesn’t want to suffer. He wants this cup of suffering taken from him. Like at Jesus baptism a voice is heard from heaven. We have a choice we can choose evil or we can choose light and the good life. The crowd of Jews knows that the Messiah will be immortal so they start questioning Jesus instead of accepting what he is saying. He warns them that the time is short to choose. For all of us the time is short but we will waste time arguing, semantics, nit picking. Jesus at this point withdraws. It is enough. And he reemerges on the donkey procession into Jerusalem that we remember on Palm Sunday.

There is only one way to be a Christian and that is through humility and repentance, to accept that in ways we cannot always understand that Jesus, a very good man, Gods Son, was brutally murdered and goes before us to open up the pathway to God. This is the gospel. We come to the end of ourself and we hang there with Jesus, and die, to be reborn by Gods Spirit.

Today the message that Jesus Christ is for everyone is apparent here today but in many churches groups of people huddle together, cossetting their Christian faith in empty, crumbling buildings. This is not the Gospel. Jesus came to show us another way. It is for everyone, for asylum seekers, for prisoners, for drug users, prostitutes, tax inspectors, unmarried mothers, students, the unemployed, the disabled, alcoholics, for the divorced, the elderly. For all of us. Start following this man and put your life in order. This is the message we need to share.

Lent 5, John 11v1-44, Lazarus come forth!

 Johns gospel is built around the "I ams" and "signs and wonders".  His teaching along with the miracles in the gospel, show that he is Jesus the bread of life, the water of life, the light of life. In chapter 11, John demonstrates that  Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. Those who believe in Jesus will rise from the dead and never die. In John's gospel it is the raising of Lazarus that precipitates riots and his ultimate arrest and crucifixion..The Pharisees and religious authorities choose death over life!

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, has fallen ill and Jesus was asked to go to Bethany to help him. Strangely Jesus waits two days until Lazarus has died before setting off for Bethany to heal him. When he arrived at Bethany he was met by a family in mourning, so Jesus met with the two sisters Mary and Martha before he went to Lazarus's tomb.

The name Lazarus is the  Greek form of the Hebrew, Eleazar meaning "God helps." John identifies Mary as "this" Mary, the woman who anointed Jesus in the house of Simon the Leper, (Mk.14:3-9), the one who anointed Jesus with ointment or perfumed liniment with her hair. 

Jesus was convinced that Lazarus sickness was not terminal. This sickness will glorify God-and it did and still does. There is a right time to do things, say things, despite our impatience, a kairos moment and when we work with God we walk in the light, spiritual light because we have been given insight, strength wisdom. Lazarus has fallen asleep, a euphenism we still use for death, but  he will get better. He knows that he will be healed and this will increase the disciples' faith.

Then Thomas who was called Didymus because he was a twin, initiates a kind of martyrs death. "Let's go to die with Jesus" because he is pessimistic about going back into a hostile situation, where he thinks they will all die.

Lazarus has been buried for four days. The four days emphasises that Lazarus is really dead as the Jews of the time thought that the soul remained with the body for three days after death.

Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem, which explais why so many other people were also at the scene,acquaintances, Jewish officials, relatives, neighbours, friends, people had come from the city.The details add to the authenticity for me. 

When Martha heard Jesus had come, she went out to meet him and Mary stayed at home, mourning. Martha regrets that Jesus had not come before and her brother has died because she believed Jesus could have healed him. Jesus explains to Martha that he is the Resurrection and the Life. The believing one, the one who has been raised to life by Jesus, will never die. Jesus went into the village. where he saw Mary weeping/wailing and it distressed him so much he also started to cry. So he asked where they had buried Lazarus? People standing around said, "He gives sight to the blind. Why couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"

The tomb was a cave, possibly a deep, vertical hole. There was a stone rolled over the entrance to keep animals away from the body. Jesus commanded them to take away the stone. They warned him that there was a smell because the Jews did not mummify the dead, which was lucky for Lazarus, for in if he had been mummified,  they would have thrown away some of the organs, like the brain. The usual anointing of the body would not cover the smell of decomposition. Lazarus was certainly dead. 


Jesus looked up,  praised God and called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man walked out, wrapped in grave cloths. The clothes would normally be round his head.

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what happened immediately believed in him... but some of them went to the Pharisees and Jewish authorities and told them what he had done-namely raised someone from the dead!

It is the same today, people divide not just between believers and unbelievers when good is done, but there are those who will simply hate you for what you have done and want to harm you. Such is the depth of human nature.
However we follow a man who brought people back to life after they had been dead for four days! That is something that makes me very excited!
  

Lent 5 10th March 2013 Luke 15v11-32 The Prodigal Son

The Scribes and Pharisees grumble because Jesus is eating with sinners, in other words the ordinary people the hamarez the people of the land. Tax collectors were seen as collaborators with the Romans, while the term "sinners" was used for those who do not keep the Levitical law ie most people.

This is a story of a man who lost both sons. Although the selfishness of the older brother is less obvious than the younger son, he could not empathise with his father's joys and sorrows. So here is a story of two lost sons. Only one is found and experiences the father's joy.

 

A younger son said to his father give me my share of the estate so he divided the property. It would be unusual to divide an estate between the sons before the father's death, but it is only a story. It is, of course, possible that the son is taking a share of the family property (one third) and so foregoing his inheritance. The parable illustrates the father's generosity and leaves us wondering whether the younger son will show himself worthy of the father's trust. The root meaning of property is life, but here the word is being used in the sense of means of family income, that which gives life to the family.

After a few days later the younger son went on a journey to a distant country.  He squandered his inheritence in wild, reckless, and loose living. After he had spent everything he began to needy so he hired himself out to feed pigs. To fill his stomach, he ate pods possibly St. John's Bread, a sweet meal, but with little nourishment, or the wild carob, bitter with even less nourishment. These were used for famine food, or possibly corn cobs. No one gave him anything. When he came to his senses and had no food he decided to return to his father. 

 

So he got up and went home. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion and he ran, threw his arms around him and hugged him. He put on him the best robe, possibly the son's former robe or one of the father's robes, or a robe kept for an honored guest- a ring, possibly the father's signet ring, but at least a ring whereby the father bestows authority on his wayward son, sandals. The mention of sandals is somewhat strange, but, given that servants tend not to wear anything on their feet, the parable is probably making the point that the father is not treating his son as a servant. The fattened calf was killed. Meat was only prepared for extremely important (usually religious) occasions. This is about preparing a banquet in celebration for the lost son's return to the family. 

Meanwhile his older brother in the fields when he came near to the house on his way home, heard music and dancing. So he called one of the workers he asked what the commotion was all about. They told him and the brother got very angry. He is angry with the father welcoming back his waistral son, and possibly that he is about to commit usufruct, so the property that belongs to the older son is given to the younger son. He refused to go in so his father went out and pleaded with him to share the joy of his brother's restoration.

 

The elder brother is offended by the fuss made of the wayward brother, particularly as the elder brother regards himself as a faithful son and yet his father never gave him a feast and speaks of "this son of yours" - The language distances the elder brother from his brother who in his opinion is beyond redemption.

The father calls his son - my child. The words here describe an affectionate, but offended response by the father. How could the elder son think that mercy toward the wayward son has in any way affected the standing of the elder son? The father said "You are always with me. Everything I have is yours - everything of mine is yours". The elder brother's status is unchanged by the father's welcome of the wayward son. I thought your brother was dead - and he's alive. I thought he was lost - and he is found.

In Luke 15 the theme is lostness. The first two parables teach that being lost and found makes God very happy. In the third parable, the parable of the Lost Son or the Prodigal Son, Jesus makes the same point, but in this parable the focus shifts from the tax collectors and sinners to the Pharisees and scribes, those who have, for all these years been working like a slave for you, and never disobeyed your command-its about a heart attitude. The parable invites the religious not to be self satisfied but preoccupied by those who are lost and return to the fold.

We all have been given an inheritance, our faith is an inheritance and as God's people  we  can squander it; our society has been given an inheritance and we can end up selling off the silver or treat it wisely as one who has been entrusted with sacred things to pass on to our children and grandchildren. We need to choose wisely.

Lent 5 Losing your life to gain it

John's Gospel was written some time after Jesus died. It is centred around a number of signs and miracles attached to "I am " statements-I am the good shepherd, I am the bread of life and so on. Jesus in John 12 v20-36 is approached through Philip by some Godfearing Greeks, who want to see Jesus much as people would ask an aide to see Madonna or President Obama, to interview him! They are on pilgimage, a habit lost by most of us in our secular society but practised by Muslims and others as a way of increasing their faith. The Canterbury Tales is a description of such a pilgimage in medieval times and today people pilgrimage to Iona, to Walsingham, to Jerusalem and Rome (as Gerry Hughes SJ describes in his books). Jesus knows that these Greeks signify a turning point, a sign of the end stage of his time on earth, the beginning of his journey to the cross and resurrection. Even the non-Jews the Gentiles are following him! The crowd and the disciples misunderstand what he must do, his calling. They are expecting a saviour who will live with them forever. Interestingly Jesus turns away from the Greeks and their demand. Instead he talks about glorifying God (a theme in John's gospel) and harks back to Daniel's image of the Son of Man. Seeds only are produced by a dead plant and so it is that this plant must die to produce Gods seed, an eco God! We all know what it means to lose your soul (Jung calls it Psyche), to be distracted by what is not really important and to die within. Our real self, not the one we present to the world is fed, but our soul is dying. Jesus encourages the crowd to take up their cross like dissidents and carry it and if necessary to be die for what is really important. This is not a religion for the faint hearted and some turn away. Its too much to ask. Jesus is troubled as he sees what is before him..What can I say to you...save me from this hour? But he accepts the cup of suffering...Like Moses lifted the serpent up on the stick for the healing of the Israelites (still used today as a symbol of medicine) so Jesus will be lifted up for the healing of the world. The time is urgent. Life is fragile and can be taken from us in a second. Put your trust in the light you can see rather than stumbling in the dark!