"It Rings a Bell"

 

Luke 24:13-35

Third Sunday of Easter

April 19, 2026

(Note: This was written for a service during which we would be celebrating the ministry of our handbell choir.)

 

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ ¹⁹He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. ²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, ²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. ²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ ²⁵Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ ³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

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            Once upon a time, there was a village high up in the Swiss alps, whose small but beautiful church stood on the town square.  To the left of the church door stood a tower, and inside the tower a winding staircase led up to a chamber where the ropes were found that rang the bell on the steeple above that.  For years and years one man had rung the bell for every service and for special occasions.  Then one morning he didn’t show up, and was found to have died peacefully in his sleep.

            That was when everyone realized how central and important this one small task was to the life of people up and down the valley, who had listened for the bells morning and evening, marking the day into morning, noon, and night.  There were people who could fill in temporarily, but the town council wanted a permanent successor to ring the bell announcing the funeral a day or two later.  They sent word out to neighboring villages as well as their own, looking for the next kappelbellmeister.  

            The next morning a man they didn’t know arrived in town, asking about the position.  They were glad to see him, but he had no arms.  Before they even got his name or his story, they asked him how he thought he could ring the bell.  He assured them that he had done the job many times in his own village, and offered to demonstrate.  They weren’t so sure, but thought it was only fair to give him a chance, and they all trooped up the stairs to the room with the ropes.  Once there, the applicant kept on going, up to the steeple where the actual bell was.  They were confused, but he shouted down the steps to them, “I’ll show you how it’s done!”

            He went over and pressed his forehead to the bell and pushed until it started to swing, then stepped back.  “Bong!” went the bell.  On the backswing he ran up to it again, and pushed.  This time it rang twice.  “Bong!  Bong!”  He was developing a rhythm.  The councilmen below were impressed and began to applaud.  Unfortunately, that distracted the man and he lost his footing this time and fell out of the tower to his own death in the square beneath.

            As people gathered there, someone in the crowd asked and obvious question: “Who is this man?”  The mayor felt awful about the whole event, and responsible for the accident.  He was also embarrassed how little he knew.  All he could say was, “I didn’t get his name, but his face rings a bell.”

            There is a follow-up section to this tale, which I will spare you now.  The point is that someone here has heard this story before and has been sitting there politely thinking, “Oh no! Not this old one!” and someone else is hearing it for the first time and is thinking, “I’ve got to remember this for the next time I see so-and-so.  He loves dumb jokes.”

            Our brains are built to make connections.  More often than we realize it, there is something that “rings a bell”, that sets things off so that we realize what may be going on behind the scenes or just out of sight, and we have an “Aha!” moment.  “Oh!” we say, “That was her sister!” or, “I always thought he was up to something,” or, “Now it all makes sense!”

            On the road to Emmaus, two disappointed disciples of Jesus – not part of the inner circle, but familiar with them, and with Jesus himself – were plodding home, sharing their grief and loss at his death.  As they told a stranger who struck up a conversation with them, they were thinking

“about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.  But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” [Luke 24:19-21]

That was when the stranger began to help them make the connections that would stitch their hope back together.  He reminded them of things they had already heard in the scriptures, but helped them hear them in a new way, a way that spoke of a Messiah who would overcome through suffering, not violence.  He helped them see that what Jesus had undergone pointed not to defeat, but to the fullest testimony of God’s love.

“Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!  Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’” [Luke 24:25-26]

The bells began to ring.  Later they would say,

“‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’” [Luke 24:32]

            What finally clinched things for them, the last, loud clap of the bell, was what happened when they reached their destination and invited him to stay as their guest.

“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.   Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.” [Luke 24:30-31]

They recognized Jesus.  He reminded them – they remembered him – in the way that he had told his disciples to do when they were all gathered together for one last supper.  Only now they knew that it was not truly the last supper.  Now they knew that when he said that when two or three of his followers gather together in his name he would be among them, he really would be among them.  That would be true on the road and true around the dinner table.  It has been true in prisons and in hospital rooms and at summer camps and Sunday School picnics and on street corners and playgrounds and in thousands of places we would never expect.

            Keep your eyes and ears open, folks.  It may be that you find yourself somewhere in some position, good or bad, where something totally unexpected and wonderful happens and you don’t know who brought life and joy into the room, but you have your suspicions that Jesus has been there.  Something just rings a bell.

 

"An Inheritance that Is Imperishable, Undefiled, and Unfading"

 

Second Sunday of Easter

April 12, 2026

1 Peter 1:3-9

 

            There are reasons that mainline Protestant preachers don’t spend a lot of pulpit time speaking about heaven and hell.  Some of them are historical: there was a time when those were almost the only topics you would hear about on a Sunday morning and non-believers came to ridicule that.  On the one hand, they said, all we do is tell people with real problems and real pain not to worry because “there will be pie in the sky by-and-by”.   Devoted and faithful followers of Jesus who set their minds on things above were accused of being “too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly use”.  On the other hand, emphasizing our eternal destination can also lend itself to the notion that we (rather than God) determine who is going where.

            It’s foolish, and does the whole world a disservice, though, to pretend that we have nothing to say about both time and eternity.  Our lives here are a subset of our total existence, and both this world and the world to come are God’s creation and gift through Christ, who was in the beginning with God, and was God; and who is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.  It’s not escapism, but hope, that reminds us that there is more beyond this world.

            I say that not because this world is a horrible place.  Recognizing its fallenness does not negate that it was created good.  Sometimes we are blessed with a glimpse of what God had in mind.  For some reason, I remember going for a walk through Kenmore Square in Boston one spring afternoon in 1983.  I can’t say that anything particularly unusual happened, or why I would remember that particular day.  I can only say that Commonwealth Avenue was a beautiful place and everything was good.  Moments like that are rare, but real.  Robert Browning wrote about such a moment of his own:

“The year’s at the spring,

And spring’s at the morn,

Morning’s at seven,

The hillside’s dew-pearled.

The lark’s on the wing,

The snail’s on the thorn;

God’s in his heaven,

All’s right with the world.”

 

So I know it’s not just me.

Yes, there is sin.  People get scammed.  Parents do things that scar their children.  Powerful people play games using hunger, war, disease, lies, imprisonment, and oppression as if the millions of people they may kill along the way mean nothing.  This week there were wildfires in the Midwest that forced the entire population of Topeka to be ordered to stay inside to avoid breathing toxic smoke.  Sometimes the wicked flourish and the innocent suffer.  Always it is wrong to shrug that off. 

But I will maintain, and I believe that the Christian faith, based on the resurrection that we celebrate not only at Easter, but whenever we come together on Sunday, the day of the resurrection – I maintain that in the face of all the destructive powers of earthly existence and the sin that makes it even worse, God holds for us in eternity all the good that we experience or seek for others.  Even when we watch things fall apart and fade before our own eyes, in God’s eyes that see all eternity at once, nothing good is ever lost.

Excuse, if you will, one more poem this morning.  This one, called “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo”, is by Gerard Manley Hopkins.  The words are complicated and it will take two people to read it, but it’s worth hearing.

THE LEADEN ECHO

“How to kéep—is there ány any, is there none such, nowhere known

some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, láce, latch or catch or

key to keep
Back beauty, keep it, beauty, beauty, beauty, ... from vanishing away?
Ó is there no frowning of these wrinkles, rankéd wrinkles deep,
Dówn? no waving off of these most mournful messengers, still

messengers, sad and stealing messengers of grey?
No there's none, there's none, O no there's none,
Nor can you long be, what you now are, called fair,
Do what you may do, what, do what you may,
And wisdom is early to despair:
Be beginning; since, no, nothing can be done
To keep at bay
Age and age's evils, hoar hair,
Ruck and wrinkle, drooping, dying, death's worst, winding sheets,

tombs and worms and tumbling to decay;
So be beginning, be beginning to despair.
O there 's none; no no no there 's none:
Be beginning to despair, to despair,
Despair, despair, despair, despair.”

 

THE GOLDEN ECHO

“Spare!
There ís one, yes I have one (Hush there!);
Only not within seeing of the sun,
Not within the singeing of the strong sun,
Tall sun's tingeing, or treacherous the tainting of the earth's air,
Somewhere elsewhere there is ah well where! one,
Oné. Yes I can tell such a key, I do know such a place,
Where whatever's prized and passes of us, everything that's fresh and

fast flying of us, seems to us sweet of us and swiftly away with,

done away with, undone,
Undone, done with, soon done with, and yet dearly and dangerously

sweet
Of us, the wimpled-water-dimpled, not-by-morning-matchèd face,
The flower of beauty, fleece of beauty, too too apt to, ah! to fleet,
Never fleets móre, fastened with the tenderest truth
To its own best being and its loveliness of youth: it is an

everlastingness of, O it is an all youth!
Come then, your ways and airs and looks, locks, maiden gear,

gallantry and gaiety and grace,
Winning ways, airs innocent, maiden manners, sweet looks, loose

locks, long locks, lovelocks, gaygear, going gallant, girlgrace—
Resign them, sign them, seal them, send them, motion them with

breath,
And with sighs soaring, soaring síghs deliver
Them; beauty-in-the-ghost, deliver it, early now, long before death
Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty's self

and beauty's giver.
See; not a hair is, not an eyelash, not the least lash lost; every hair
Is, hair of the head, numbered.
Nay, what we had lighthanded left in surly the mere mould
Will have waked and have waxed and have walked with the wind what

while we slept,
This side, that side hurling a heavyheaded hundredfold
What while we, while we slumbered.
O then, weary then why

O then, weary then whý should we tread? why are we so haggard at the

heart, so care-coiled, care-killed, so fagged, so fashed, so cogged,

so cumbered,

When the thing we freely fórfeit is kept with fonder a care,

Fonder a care kept than we could have kept it, kept

Far with fonder a care (and we, we should have lost it) finer, fonder
A care kept.—Where kept? Do but tell us where kept, where.—
Yonder.—What high as that! We follow, now we follow.—Yonder, yes

yonder, yonder,
Yonder.”

 

            Hear again the words of scripture:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,

so that the genuineness of your faith--being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,

for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” [I Peter 1:3-9]

 

"Pilate"

 

Matthew 27:11-26

April 3, 2026

Good Friday

Grace Crossing Church, Phoenixville

 

¹¹ Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” ¹² But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. ¹³ Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” ¹⁴ But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

¹⁵ Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. ¹⁶ At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Jesus Barabbas. ¹⁷ So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” ¹⁸ For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. ¹⁹ While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.” ²⁰ Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. ²¹ The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” ²² Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” ²³ Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

²⁴ So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” ²⁵ Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” ²⁶ So he released Barabbas for them, and after flogging Jesus he handed him over to be crucified.

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            I know that the theme of this service is “Approaching the Cross” but that was something Pilate did not do.  We’re going to hear about all sorts of people whose lives were changed that day, but Pilate was not one of them.  We’re going to hear about people for whom Jesus’ crucifixion was a turning point, for whom it brought despair or sorrow, for whom it was the disappointment of their hopes, for whom it meant the failure of the kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven.  We’re going to hear about people who watched the slow death of a son, a friend, a beloved teacher, a prophet and tried to make sense out of Jesus’ pain and their own.

            What Pilate saw in the crucifixion of Jesus, however, was totally different.  He saw an opportunity.  There were all kinds of factions playing for power and influence in Jerusalem.  When Jesus was brought to him, Pilate saw things through that lens.  He may or may not have understood the Council’s religious motivation for wanting Jesus out of the way, but he did  understand the darker side of things.

^“For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over.” [Matthew 27:18]

He couldn’t satisfy everybody, but here he had this relatively unimportant and non-threatening Jesus – one that his own people’s leaders wanted to get rid of – and another prisoner with a similar name who was probably more of a threat, that the crowd wanted him to free.  He could pacify both groups by killing the innocent man. It would prevent an inconvenient riot and if there was any pushback on his decision later on, he could claim that it was the locals’ choice and that his hands were tied.  The only person who would be upset would be his wife.

“It is better that one man should die for the people.” [John 11:50]

Wasn’t that Caiaphas’s assessment of the situation?  If Pilate had to answer for it later, he could throw the high priest himself under the chariot.  Just to be sure, though, it wouldn’t hurt to go on record in a public way.  That’s why

“he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’” [Matthew 27:24]

            Sometimes it’s not about right or wrong, innocence or guilt.  Sometimes it’s about what keeps you in place or, even better, moves you forward. 

“So he released Barabbas for them, and after flogging Jesus he handed him over to be crucified.” [Matthew 27:26]

It was all political theater, right?  All it would cost was one, insignificant execution. What was one death to someone who, like any Roman in his position, might have to wipe out a village here or there, burn a few crops, take a few slaves, let the troops have their fun with the surviving locals?   It wasn’t his first crucifixion; it wouldn’t be his last.  Pilate didn’t need to see for himself.  He just needed to guarantee that it was done, and done right.

            That is what a governor does.  He doesn’t micromanage the details.  He orders a strike; he sits at a desk and signs pardons or death warrants; he doesn’t explain himself or his decisions.  Approach the cross?  No way.  That would show weakness – and he knew better than to show weakness to anyone.  In Pilate’s world, his enemies would crucify him.  Show – or even feel – compassion?  What world are you living in?

 

"Another Advocate"

 John 14:15-17

Maundy Thursday

April 2, 2026

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

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Jesus endured a lot over the long hours of Thursday night into Friday.  The Romans had a special love of cruelty.  Under Roman law, there were situations when evidence was admissible in court only if it had been extracted under torture.  A Roman festival would not be complete without gladiators killing dangerous animals or each other.  And, of course, there was the public execution of criminals.  Crucifixion was a long, slow method of that.  For Jesus, though, there was another element that was part of the suffering that did not come from the Romans or the temple authorities, but from his friends: abandonment.

 

One of the fears that I hear from older people, more than fear of weakness or illness, is that something will leave them in need of care and there will be no one there to help.  Another version of that is to be forgotten, to become a burden, to grow irrelevant.  Even somebody who is clearly well-loved and well cared-for and totally competent will occasionally have those thoughts.  So someone whose memory is weakening badly may not remember that not five minutes ago their spouse was holding their hand or their children were seeing to their needs, and find themselves facing a deep, deep loneliness.  It’s only when the caregiver returns that they may be calm enough to sleep.  It’s only with the constant reassurance that the anxiety is held at a distance.

 

The story of Jesus’ last hours is a story of his friends’ failure to stick with him in his time of need.  No, there was not much that they could do for him.  Those who stuck by: his mother and Mary Magdalene and some other women, his friend John – they could only stand at a distance and watch – and Jesus found some comfort in being able to commend them to one another’s care.  For the most part, though, people failed him.  I mention John here, but he, with James and with Peter, had fallen asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane when he asked them to watch and pray.  The guards knew to find him there because Judas had taken a bribe to turn him in.  When Jesus was arrested, Peter did follow him to the high priest’s house, where Jesus was first put on trial.  Give him credit for that.  But then he grew scared and denied that he knew him.  One by one, they were stepping back, leaving him to endure as best as he could.  Do you know the old spiritual:

 

“Jesus walked this lonesome valley.

He had to walk it for himself.

O, nobody else could do it for him.

He had to walk it for himself”?

 

That’s what was happening. 

 

            Then came the worst moment when it seemed to him that even God had turned his back on him.  In Mark’s telling [Mark 15:34], he cried out a verse from the Psalms:

 

“My God, my God!  Why have you forsaken me?” [Psalm 22:1]

 

Those were his last words according to Mark.  John’s version is that

 

“he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” [John 19:30]

 

            In the days and years that would follow, a lot more would take place.  Jesus would be raised from the dead, and he would restore his relationship with those who had fled or turned away.  He would commission his disciples, and those who followed him throughout time, to build the kingdom of God through their proclamation and through their lives.  Some of them would do that at the cost of their lives, because the Romans with their cruelty would be replaced by others with their own cruelty and their own idolatry and their own hatred.

 

            But in none of it would they have to endure the darkest abyss of abandonment that Jesus had stared down and conquered.  Because of what he did, he not only opened the way from earth to heaven but he also opened the way from heaven to earth.  That had started with his own incarnation, but it continues with the gift of his Spirit to go with us through our own lonesome valleys, whatever they may be.  He said to his disciples,

 

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” [John 14:16-17]

 

Psalm 22 asks,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

Psalm 23 answers,

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”

 

And God’s people add, “Amen.”

"Who Is This?"

 

Matthew 21:1-11

March 22, 2026

Palm Sunday

 

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, just say this, "The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately. " ⁴ This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

⁵ "Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷ they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

"Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

¹⁰ When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" ¹¹ The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

 

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            In the crowds on Palm Sunday were people cheering for Jesus, some of whom thought he was the Messiah sent by God to free his people from foreign rule, some of whom thought he was the Messiah sent by God to cleanse the temple from abuses that had turned faith into a business, some of whom thought he was a healer, some of whom may have thought he was another ambitious politician out for power and status, some of whom may have thought he was a charlatan, some of whom may have thought he was crazy, some of whom may not have cared at all but enjoyed the excitement.

“When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’"  [Matthew 21:10]

            That question had been following Jesus for awhile, and he knew it.  Earlier in Matthew, we read of a time when Jesus raised the subject with his closest followers.

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’  And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’    [Matthew 16:13-14]

Jesus called himself the Son of Man here, which was one of those enigmatic terms for an end-of-times figure that commentators never really have gotten a handle on.  Jesus had also been associated with John the Baptist, who confronted both Herod and the authorities in the temple.  Elijah was the prophet who had called out the corruption of King Ahab.  Jeremiah had warned about how societal rot was leading to destruction of both the temple and the kingdom. It’s pretty clear that at least some people were expecting something dramatic from him.

“Who is this?” [Matthew 21:10]  Jesus added onto their expectations by acting out the words of the prophet Zechariah [9:9]:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." [Matthew 21:5]

Matthew says that when Jesus had entered Jerusalem he continued on to the temple and proceeded to disrupt long-established practices by driving out the animal-sellers and flipping over the moneychangers’ tables.  The next morning he had the gall to return to the temple and start telling parables about God ending the current order and judging the world.  That sounded great – except that the judgment was going to start with Jerusalem, not Rome.  That did not follow anybody’s script.

“Who is this?” was turning into, “Just who does he think he is?”

That was Monday.  Tuesday was more of the same, with some disputes between Jesus and members of the two main factions in town – the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  He didn’t take sides with either group.  By Wednesday of that week, it was clear that the situation was coming to a crisis.

^“When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’” [Matthew 26:1-5]

That was the night that Judas agreed to turn Jesus over [Matthew 26:14-16] and the next night he found his chance.

            “Who is this?”  Arrested, he was tried by the religious authorities, the Sanhedrin, a court presided over by the high priest.

“Then the high priest said to him, "I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." [Matthew 26:63]

His answer was enough.

                        “You have said so.” [Matthew 26:64]

They sent him to the Roman governor, Pilate.  Pilate had different concerns, different worries, but the same question: “Who is this?”  He demanded of Jesus,

"Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You say so." [Matthew 27:11]

His answer again was enough.  Condemned by religious and by civil authority, he was sent to his execution.

            “Who is this?”  The Roman soldiers were ordered to put a sign onto the cross with Jesus detailing his crime:

"This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." [Matthew 27:37]

Then they stood guard to make sure he died.  “Who is this?”  They, of all people, were given an answer that takes in all the other answers that have ever been given.  They saw the world change in fearful but hopeful ways and began to see the simplicity and the enormity of these events.

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split.  The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.  After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.  Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God's Son!’” [Matthew 27:51-54]

"The Lazarus Incident"

 

John 11:1-44

March 22, 2021

 

Jesus knew that if he went back to Judaea to help Lazarus, he was walking into his own death.  John says that he had gone to Jerusalem shortly after he had given sight to a man born blind and that some of the authorities in the temple were trying to figure him out. 

“How long will you keep us in suspense?  If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” [John 10:24]

He told them to look at the signs visible in his life and decide for themselves, so some of them took him as making himself equal to God, a blasphemy punishable by death.  Some of them picked up stones to stone him with and others sent for the temple guard to arrest him, but he escaped and skipped town.

“He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier,” [John 10:40]

which was kind of a signal of defiance to Herod and his supporters: “You chopped off John’s head, but you didn’t destroy his message, because it came from God.  You can try to destroy me, now, and watch what happens.”

            So when the word came from Mary and Martha, from Bethany (which was just outside Jerusalem),

‘Lord, he whom you love is ill,’ [John 11:3]

Jesus was being called to more than a casual visit, even with a healing thrown in.  The unspoken question was whether Jesus was for real. 

            The gospel of John, just before it tells us about all of this, repeats some of Jesus’ teaching, including his words,

“I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  The hired hand runs away because the hired hand does not care for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd.”  [John 10:11-14a]

Here the question was put right in front of him: “Do you mean that?”  And the answer was, “Yes.”

 He took his time, maybe so that the confrontation between the powers of life and death would be all the clearer, maybe for some other reason.  But when he headed for Bethany, he knew the danger and the likely outcome of the trip for everyone involved, not just for Lazarus.

“Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’  Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’”  [John 11:14-16]

            When he arrived, there was all of the give-and-take with Martha and Mary.  There was the blame:

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” [John 11:21]

There was the sort of passive-aggressive demand:

“But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” [John 11:22]

There were the consolations of faith where:

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’”  [John 11:23]

There was Martha’s recognition that she may have asked too much as

“Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’” [John 11:24]

            But then Jesus went off-script.  There was not going to be a need to wait until the last day.  The glory and power of God were right there in front of her in the person of somebody so familiar that she had asked him to make her sister help her wash the dishes. 

 “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.’” [John 11:25-26]

Right then and there, Jesus had already shown up for her and for Mary and (they would soon see) for Lazarus at what would be the risk of his life.  Soon they would see – along with everyone else gathered there – that Jesus had shown up at what would be the cost of his own life.  As John retells the amazing events of Lazarus return, he can’t help throwing in details that make us think about Jesus’ own burial and resurrection.  Jesus meets Mary, crying outside a tomb with a stone that has to be rolled away to let her brother emerge, and somebody (who must have been pretty brave and with a stomach strong enough to stand the stench of a rotting corpse) removes the burial wrappings, like the ones that were found folded up in the tomb from which Jesus would rise not long afterward.

            The most amazing thing, though, would be expressed later in a letter sent a few years later to some of Jesus’ followers living in Rome.  This miracle of raising Lazarus had led Jesus into a place where his life was threatened, and he went out of love for Lazarus and his sisters.  But when it came time that the people who had wanted him killed got hold of him, that his love for the wolf would be no less than his love for his sheep. 

“Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  [Romans 5:7-8]

Those words were written by someone who at one point took part in the arrest of many of Jesus’ followers and who stood by, approving the stoning of at least one other. 

Jesus gives life, and renews life, and gives his life for our own.  Ask Nicodemus, who had grown weary and was questioning everything.  Ask the Samaritan woman at the well, whose history left her without dignity or respect.  Ask a man born blind who was given sight and then had to figure out how to relate to his new situation.  Ask Lazarus, who was a literal corpse.  By Jesus’ grace, we’ll all have a chance to do that – and they may have some questions for us, too, and the answer will be something that Jesus has done.

"First Sight"

 

John 9:1-41

March 15, 2026

 

¹As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ³Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. ⁴We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ ⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, ⁷saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. ⁸The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ ⁹Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ ¹⁰But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ ¹¹He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’ ¹²They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’ ¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And they were divided. ¹⁷So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’

¹⁸The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹and asked them, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?’ ²⁰His parents answered, ‘We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; ²¹but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.’ ²²His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. ²³Therefore his parents said, ‘He is of age; ask him.’

²⁴So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, ‘Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.’ ²⁵He answered, ‘I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ ²⁶They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ ²⁷He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’ ²⁸Then they reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ ³⁰The man answered, ‘Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. ³²Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. ³³If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’ ³⁴They answered him, ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’ And they drove him out.

³⁵Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ³⁶He answered, ‘And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’ ³⁷Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.’ ³⁸He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped him. ³⁹Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’ ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’ ⁴¹Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see”, your sin remains.

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            Have you ever considered what it would be like to live to be an adult, having been born blind, and then suddenly to be given your sight?

            All around you would be things that you recognize only by touch, people you know only by their voices, foods you know only by taste and texture, flowers you know only by their scent.  Someone would have to help you learn what colors are.  A bird flying toward you might be terrifying.  Hand gestures would mean nothing unless somebody told you that holding up your index and middle finger sometimes means “two” and sometimes means “peace”.  Would you know not to look at the sun?  Would you worry that when night falls it means you are losing your sight again?  If you close your eyes, will all these things disappear?  Speaking for myself, if I had been born blind, I don’t know whether I could handle all of that, all coming at me all at once. 

            Some interpreters think that fear of such a sudden and drastic change (even when it comes from good news) is, in part, what this part of the gospel of John is about.  The arrival of the Messiah is good news, but it shifted a lot of lives around in a lot of ways reflected in John’s account of this miracle.

The book seems to have been written at a point where the community centered on Jesus and what would become Judaism as we now know it were splitting apart.  John refers to “the Jews” as a separate group in a way that Jesus himself would not have done.  We read that

“the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.” [John 9:22]

They had “already agreed”.  That sounds like a present reality for the people John was writing for.   When he says that the man’s parents were frightened of being put out of the synagogue, and that their son did have that happen to him, the hearers would have understood the fears that come from news (even good news) that make you reassess everything and rethink your life.

The whole group of people who had come to confess Jesus as the Messiah were facing a whole new world themselves.  Some of them were no longer welcome in the setting that had given shape to their faith and meaning to their lives and none of them were part of the pagan cultures that surrounded them in other ways.  That is confusing and disorienting.  It’s no surprise that the man whose life Jesus had changed was confused about that as well.  Pushed by the Pharisees to distance himself from Jesus, he wouldn’t do it.  He kept expressing his gratitude and giving Jesus credit for his new-found sight. He said,

 “‘I do not know whether he is a sinner”

 (meaning someone who would break the Sabbath to heal someone), but insisted,

“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’” [John 9:25]

The experience of being pushed on this, in fact, just made him more defiant about it.

“They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’” [John 9:26-27]

They don’t seem to have cared for that response.

            Jesus really does change people in profound ways when he shows them a new way to view the world, whether with physical eyes or with the eyes of faith.  It wasn’t just this man.  T.S. Eliot, in his poem “The Journey of the Magi”, imagines what it must have been like later in life for one of the wise men to look back on his encounter with the child Jesus and try to make sense of it:

“All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.”

To meet Jesus is to become less comfortable with the way things are.  It is no longer to accept the terms that the world dictates to us.

            That’s going to mean questioning and rejecting a lot of what we are taught in favor of new ways of life outlined by Jesus:

“‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. [Matthew 5:38-42]

There’s a whole lot more of that in the Sermon on the Mount.  None of it is especially practical. 

It’s as if Jesus were asking us to see a whole new world, and to live in it.  He called it the Kingdom of God.  I like the way that Rachel Held Evans summarizes Jesus’ vision of that kingdom. 

“In contrast to every other kingdom that has been and ever will be, this kingdom belongs to the poor, Jesus said, and to the peacemakers, the merciful, and those who hunger and thirst for God.  In this kingdom, the people from the margins and the bottom rungs will be lifted up to places of honor, seated at the best spots at the table.  This kingdom knows no geographical boundaries, no political parties, no single language or culture.  It advances not through power or might, but through acts of love and joy and peace, missions of mercy and kindness and humility.  This kingdom has arrived, not with a trumpet’s sound but with a baby’s cries, not with the vanquishing of enemies but with the forgiving of them, not on the back of a warhorse but on the back of a donkey, not with triumph and a conquest but with a death and a resurrection.”[1]

 

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[1]  Rachel Held Evans, “Kingdom” in Searching for Sunday (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2015), 252-253.