Jesus Wept

Meditation on John 11:32-44         

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

All Saint’s Day: Nov. 1, 2015

      “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 for 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 upwards 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.’”

***

           Wow! Halloween in Florida is way more fun than Halloween in Minnesota! This must have been the first Halloween ever that I did not need to wear a coat! People go all out with decorations around here. An enormous blow up cat in one neighbor’s yard. Owl eyes and blinking Draculas showing through front windows. Cobwebs and spiders in trees; bones and tombstones on the lawns. The costumes were fantastic, too. It’s not just the kids dressing up; the adults really get into it! We saw witches, Ninja Turtles, Storm Troopers, even a clown on a bicycle as we took our dogs for their evening stroll! As we walked, we noticed many of our neighbors were sitting out on lawn chairs in their driveways with their candy, waiting for Trick or Treaters to come by. This was after we spent a joyful hour at Trunk ‘N Treat, here at MIPC.

   The week didn’t start out so happily, though. I found myself missing the ones I love. I am going through this new, “empty nest” thing. You see, two of our children still lived at home with us when we were in Minnesota. Jacob now lives in Port Orange and our youngest son, James, stayed in Minnesota to finish college. He hasn’t decided if he will be moving to Florida after he graduates. I look for James at every worship service because he used to sit in a pew near the front. He often looked like he had just woken up and his hair was still wet from the shower, but it made me feel good to see him in church.

       On Monday, Jacob came to visit us for a few hours ,and I talked to James on the phone. But somehow, talking with them made me miss them more.

      On my way to the church Tuesday morning, rain splashed on my windows--and the sadness hit me in waves. I remembered James’ tears when we left and thinking of how our family has become scattered. Our son, Josh, lives in California. Danny, Hiu-Fai, and baby Jessi are in Boston. Jim’s sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew and their kids are in New York City.

   It was the first time I allowed myself to grieve since we arrived. For how can I grieve when my cup runneth over with blessings?! I have a wonderful husband, a gracious congregation, parents living an hour away. How can anyone not want to live and minister in such a beautiful place?

     I was grieving not just the separation from my children, but also my faith family at Ebenezer--the people I had to leave behind when I heeded God’s call to minister here. They were my flock and they were my friends. We shared joys and sorrows. We loved one another.

    On Monday, my friend Stacy sent me a note that during their bedtime prayers, her 9-year old son, Riley, had prayed for me! When she had first broke the news to him in September that I was leaving, he was inconsolable. And now he was praying that I was having a good time in Florida, teaching! :o)

     On Tuesday morning, I thought about little Riley and everyone I had left behind. And I started to cry.

***

     We have this image in the Church that ministers are not people like us; they certainly don’t cry! And sometimes the Church may have given the erroneous impression that if one grieves or cries, then one lacks faith! Today’s Scripture blows away all notions of grief being a failure of faith. Because Jesus cries! And Jesus, the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world, never sinned! He cries over the loss of Lazarus, a “friend” we read in John 11:11. His sisters, in their note summoning Jesus in 11:3, call Lazarus “the man whom you love.” In 11:5, we read of Jesus’ tender feelings for all three siblings, “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.”

   Jesus cries for Lazarus, and he cries for the community who mourns their loss. He sees Mary and the Jews, the people of the community who come to comfort her, weeping, and “he (is) greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” Jesus asks where they have laid him, much like Mary will ask Jesus in John 20 when she thinks he is the gardener and discovers her Lord’s body missing.  The Jews mourning Lazarus tell Jesus, “Come and see.” Mary will say these same words to the disciples in John 20 when she finds Christ’s empty tomb.

      In John 11:35 in the NRSV translation, we read, “Jesus began to weep.” In the King James, we read the simple yet powerful, “Jesus wept.” We see Christ’s humanity in this passage, but we also see the God who loves us, who is greatly moved by our suffering and sorrow. He is NOT some far off God who created the world and now waits and watches from above, feeling nothing as we struggle with trials and pain!

      Mary and Martha’s grief is compounded because they can’t understand why Jesus hadn’t hurried to get to the young man when they sent word to Jesus that he was gravely ill. For Jesus waited 2 days after hearing that Lazarus was sick before departing for Bethany, where the family lived. Jesus had let them down! Where was he when they needed him? Why would the one who had the power to heal the lame, blind, sick, and demon possessed, allow this terrible thing to happen?

    And yet, can you hear the power of their faith? They truly believe that Jesus could have and would have healed their brother, if only he had come right away. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” Martha says in John 11:21. Mary kneels at Christ’s feet, in today’s passage, and echoes Martha’s words, “‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’  

   Christ’s reasoning for the delay in coming to them? So they would see the glory of God!

***

     Friends, like Mary and Martha, some of you may be hurting right now, feeling that God has let you down, wondering if He really cares about you. Some may be wondering if your grief and pain means that you aren’t being faithful. Be comforted by God’s Word! We, like Lazarus, have the hope of resurrection with Christ. And we have a Lord who is greatly moved by the suffering and sorrow we experience in this world. For what was his response to the death of his beloved friend?

      Jesus wept.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for always listening to our prayers and for loving us so much that you sent Jesus Christ to bring us back to you. Forgive us for our angry accusations, for when we want to blame you for the hurt in our lives. Forgive us when we have accused you of not caring--or for not being there with us, when you always love us and are always with us. Thank you for weeping with us and helping us to bear our grief and suffering that we could not bear alone. Thank you for this Body of Christ that loves one another and cares for one another, through all joys and sorrows. Thank you for children such as Riley, who are faithful to pray. Unbind us all from whatever constrains us from living with the confidence of the children of God, reaching out with love to this hurting world. In Christ we pray. Amen.   

“Back to the Future”

Meditation on Mark 10: 46-52

Oct. 25, 2015

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

    

     “They came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” 

***

       OK, I have an important question. Who, besides me, watched one or more of the Back to the Future movies this week? Yes, I love the Back to the Future movies. I am dating myself. I was in college when the first Back to the Future movie was released in 1985. I thought it was more fun than Star Wars and Star Trek and more believable, if you can get past the idea of a DeLorean being modified into a time machine by the man who played Jim on the TV series Taxi. What’s not to like about the main characters, too, including a teenager named Marty McFly, played by a young and energetic Michael J. Fox, whose best friend, “Doc Brown,” played by Christopher Lloyd, is a wacky scientist who works out of his home with Einstein his dog as his assistant. And isn’t it just so believable that the scientific breakthrough came not in a lab or while working at a computer, but when Doc fell off his toilet, bumped his head, and got the idea for the flux capacitor--which made time travel possible?

    This week, the media went overboard with Back to the Future “news.” The reason for the hype was that Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 was the day to which Marty and Doc traveled in Back to the Future 2. Internet, TV and cable news channels featured all kinds of stories recalling the Back to the Future movies and whether the 1980s predictions for 2015 came true. On Wednesday, U.S.A. Today sold 17,000 special issues with a commemorative wrap with the same exact front page from Back to the Future 2. Some drinking establishments made the news when they sold special Back to the Future “Flux Capacitor Martinis.” Locally, in Melbourne, you could catch a public showing of Back to the Future 2 in Wickham Park.

     But you know it isn’t just the inventions and special effects that make the movies so popular. It’s because of the story and cast and the emphasis on the relationships of people in Marty’s world--- his family, friends, neighbors, co-workers. The purpose of time travel in each movie is to go back and fix what went wrong in the past, things that hurt, even devastated the lives of Marty and his family members and friends in the future. The movies emphasize that one person’s sinful attitudes and actions may have terrible repercussions for many other people in the future.

     I guess it’s because I am a pastor, but as I watched Back to the Future 2 with Jim Wednesday night, I started thinking about how what we do and say today will invariably affect our future and the future of others who are close to us--but in a good way, if we seek to build one another up and serve the Lord. With the Spirit that dwells within us, we have the power to begin to shape the future of our congregation. In fact, you and I could change the world, if we begin with ourselves, right now, right here in this place.

***

   Today, as sometimes is the case, our good example in scripture is not the disciples; it is a poor beggar named Bartimaeus, a name that literally means, “Son of Timaeus.” He is the one who demonstrates what it means to be a person “of faith.” Our reading in Mark’s gospel immediately follows a conversation Jesus has with two disciples, James and John, sons of Zebedee. They approach him with a request. Jesus says to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” They ask for something that shows they don’t have clue what Jesus has been trying to teach them about His Kingdom. Their vision is an earthly reign in which they will receive power and status--to sit on the right and left of him, “in His glory.” For, after all, Jesus chose them to be among his first 12 disciples, didn’t he?

   Jesus answers, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” He tries to tell them that he is going to suffer and die. Then the other disciples find out about the request--and are angry and jealous. They, too, have an earthly vision and desire power and status. Jesus corrects them in 10:43-45, “Whoever wishes to become great among you, must be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but t o serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”

     And then we come to today’s reading beginning at verse 46, when Jesus and the disciples arrive in Jericho and prepare to leave with a large crowd. A blind beggar hears that Jesus is there, and begins to yell, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People around him scornfully tell him, “Be quiet!” But Bartimaeus doesn’t listen to the crowd. He cries out even more loudly, in verse 48, risking physical harm or arrest by using the Messianic title once again, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  

    Jesus stops in his tracks. Have you ever noticed that the gospels often portray Jesus’ journeys or plans being interrupted by someone asking for healing? This is a pattern that forces us to rethink what we may mistakenly assume--that personal cries for help and healing are not on Jesus’ real agenda, when in fact we know that this healing story of Jesus--and every healing story --is God’s plan! Then Mark connects and contrasts the story of the blind beggar to the previous story of James and John’s request for power and status in Christ’s Kingdom. We know this is a continuation of the lesson on humility, faith, and God’s mercy and grace when Jesus asks the same thing of Bartimaeus that he asked James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?”

     By repeating this phrase, Mark wants us to remember Christ’s question to this nobody--the blind man who so annoyed the crowd and was always sitting and begging by the road. Christ doesn’t turn away from anyone’s plea for help and healing! God’s grace stirs us to come to the Lord with all our needs. We know he listens to us and will answer us, but we must come to him expecting something wonderful to happen!

     Jesus asks for the man and others beckon to the beggar, and listen, these words are important, “Take heart, get up, he is calling you!” Jesus desires not just to heal the man of his physical problems; he wants to heal him of his broken heart--his discouragement and grief--and he desires to save him from his sins. Bartimaeus hears that Christ is calling him and he springs up! He throws off his cloak, leaving it and his life of begging behind! He expects something wonderful to happen! For the cloak was not something the beggar needed for warmth in this hot, dry climate. He spread the cloak on the ground in front of him to gather the coins people tossed down to him as they passed by.

   “My teacher,” the beggar says, “let me see again.”

    Jesus assures him, “Go, your faith has made you well.”

***

    Friends, watching Back to the Future 2, I couldn’t help myself. I began to imagine what a time machine could do for our church. Maybe we should add one to our wish list! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go back in time with what we know now and all that we have experienced and perhaps make things better for our congregation today? What would we do differently? What could we do?

   But I didn’t think about the time machine very long. For our present and future challenges as a congregation won’t be solved by revisiting the past. Every church has its share of struggles, though we might not remember them or even know about all of them from 20, 30 or 40 years ago. It’s easy to see the past with rose-colored glasses, isn’t it? Our problems won’t be solved by holding on to old visions and models of ministry--when we could open our doors, and the people would come, without us even really having to invite them in. We have to seek the Lord for His vision and a cure for our own spiritual blindness. That’s what it means when we sing that verse in Amazing Grace, “I was blind, but now I see.”

   We will find mercy and healing, if we admit our desperate need for the Lord’s healing touch and cry out to God. We may have to cry out more than once, like Bartimaeus, and wait to hear God’s voice. But we are not an interruption or a bother for the Lord. God isn’t busy doing more important things when we are in our hour of need. May we, like Bartimaeus, have the courage to let go of our old lives, our former selves, and negative ways of thinking as we humbly approach the throne of grace, saying, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Let us be willing to drop everything to answer Christ’s call when he beckons, for it is a blessing to be interrupted by grace. May we follow the Lord, as the blind beggar did, with eagerness and all expectation of wonderful things to come--when we hear Christ say,” ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’”

Let us pray.

Loving Lord, thank you for welcoming us into your embrace, for beckoning us to come to you in our hour of need. Thank you for our reconciliation with you through belief on your Son. Thank you that you love us so much, we are never an interruption or a bother for you! Give us your vision, Lord, of the future you have planned for us as individuals and a church. Remove any obstacles from our view that would get in the way of us seeing things your way and being the people you intend for us to be. We ask that you forgive us for the fear and anxiety in our past that may have gotten in the way of our ministry and kept us from making a commitment to you and your church, with all of ourselves. Forgive our lack of faith, though your Word promises that you will hear our prayers and respond with mercy and grace, providing all that we need to do your will. Help us to obey. In Christ we pray. Amen.