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Sunday, April 08, 2007
Why Don't We Follow Jesus?
There are always rationalizations for ignoring what our consciences tell us we should do.
Rev. Dan McCandless preached Easter Sunday’s sermon at the Long Ridge Congregational Church (non-UCC) in North Stamford, Connecticut. His text was John 11:1-44, the account of Jesus’s raising Lazarus from the dead.
Rev. McCandless’s overarching message was that the Easter story is not about preventing people from dying, but rescuing them from spiritual death and bringing to them the Gospel message of eternal spiritual life. For that we must be prepared to go where Jesus directs us.
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 Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “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."
The events described in the text took place approximately a week before Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem for the week that ended with His crucifixion. Raising Lazarus from the dead was a foreshadowing of Jesus’s own resurrection. Both glorified God; both brought life to the dead, bodily and spiritually.
The disciples clearly still did not fully comprehend Jesus’s mission and continued to view their circumstances from a purely human viewpoint. Unfortunately all of us still have the same difficulty.
Rev. McCandless drew several lessons from this text.
Three times in the foregoing text Jesus says to his disciples, let’s go; follow me. Each time they are reluctant to do as Jesus says. All of us are inclined to the same reluctance.
Why don’t we follow Jesus when He says, let’s go?
First, we fear that it will be too dangerous.
When Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea,” they urged caution. “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
Often the need to witness is where there is the greatest danger. Thousands of Christian missionaries since then have faced mortal danger to witness to people who did not know the Gospel. In our less perilous circumstances, we must not use fear of ridicule or rejection to stop us from witnessing to others.
Second, we rationalize that the people to whom God is calling us don’t really need us or God’s message.
Jesus said to the disciples that Lazarus was sleeping, knowing that he was already dead. The disciples’ reaction was to ask why they should go to Bethany, if Lazarus was sleeping; he would surely be in better health after a good rest. They, of course, could not see the entire picture as did Jesus. When Jesus calls, we have to put aside our limited understanding and say, “Lord, here am I.”
Rev. McCandless’s observed that Fairfield County, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest places in the nation, is a similar example immediately at hand. On the surface, its successful and powerful inhabitants seem to have everything they need. In fact, far too many of them are spiritually empty, lonely, beset with feelings of guilt, and afraid of death. They need witnesses for the Gospel.
Third, we and the disciples are too quick to declare that some people or situations are beyond hope and help.
When they understood that Lazarus already was dead, the disciples objected that there was no longer a need to go to Bethany. From their earthly perspective, they still did not understand that God, through Jesus, can do anything in His creation. If Jesus calls, it is not for us to say that following Him is pointless.
We must let Jesus use us to save others from spiritual death. We must just go, when he commands, trusting that He will provide the power and inspiration.
If your conscience tells you that you should use your own wealth, time, energy, and talent to help others, do it.
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