"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.

"A Man Who Told Me Everything I Have Ever Done"

 

John 4:5-42

March 8, 2026

 

⁵ So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

²⁷ Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” ²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹ “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” ³⁰ They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

 

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            I know that today’s gospel lesson was long.  All I can say for that is that next week’s is even longer.  John writes very differently from the other gospel writers.  He enjoys telling stories about the intricate relationships and interactions between Jesus and all kinds of people.  Last week it was Nicodemus, a leader and teacher of the Jews, a highly respected and influential man.  Today it is a Samaritan woman with a past (and a present) who turns out to be more influential in her own circles than Nicodemus was in his.  Jesus understood them both, befriended them both, spoke the deepest truth to both, and brought each of them the healing and blessing of God when they felt it out of their reach.

            The woman Jesus met at the well had two strikes against her to begin with, as far as the religious culture of that time and place was concerned.  John reminds us first that

“Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.” [John 4:9]

There was a strict Jim-Crow type of segregation.  So here is Jesus asking her help with the Samaritans-only drinking fountain.  The other problem was that she was a woman.  In the Talmud, collected sayings and commentary of leading rabbis of that era, we read words advising:

“… talk not much with womankind.  They said this of a man’s own wife: how much more of his fellow’s wife!  Hence the Sages have said: He that talks much with womankind brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the Law and at last will inherit Gehenna.”[1]

No wonder that when Jesus’ disciples found him talking with her,

“They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman,” [John 4:27]

They both go way out on a limb simply to acknowledge the other’s existence. 

Then it’s game on!  Or maybe I should say, “Game off”. She, who is supposedly a distraction from religious studies, asks him theological questions. Jesus, who is supposed to be insulated from people’s illicit entanglements, lets her know that he’s aware not only of her past five husbands [4:18] but that she’s currently keeping company with a sixth man.  She can clearly see that he’s not just well-informed but some kind of prophet – and maybe even the Messiah. 

“When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”  Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” [John 4:25-26]

The two of them – the shady-lady Samaritan and the Jewish Messiah – drop their pretenses and are just themselves.  The Savior doesn’t hold her at arm’s length, and she doesn’t have to impress him with her swagger.  They drop any prefabricated images and preconceived scripts.  Then they can really communicate openly.  Then she can speak her hopes and he can speak God’s promises.

            Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran pastor centered in Denver.  One of her books, Accidental Saints, says on the back that

“Tattooed, angry, and profane, this former standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve.  But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people – a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious bishop, and a gun-toting member of the NRA.”

That’s kind of an image that she has nurtured, and it is genuinely who she is – to a degree.  In the book itself she questions about the way anybody, not just her, gets in God’s way when someone holds on to a curated image too tightly or too long.  She writes,

“We carefully create a persona, but it’s always one that’s only partially true.  And maintaining this partial truth, this created personality, this assembled ‘self,’ can be pretty exhausting.” 

She points out that social media

“allow us to present an image of ourselves from just the parts of our lives and personalities we wish to project.  This is why we almost never see updates on Facebook that say: Spent the evening alone again last night. Or: Wonder if I’ll ever be loved.  Or: Just manipulated my spouse to get my own way.”[2]

            Jesus knows that about us.  The woman told her neighbors,

“He told me everything I have ever done,” [John 4:39]

none of which prevented him from treating her as someone with dignity, someone worth risking the disapproval of his friends, someone worth taking time for.  In fact, Jesus interrupted his travel plans to stay with that whole Samaritan town for two days, just to be among them and let them get to know him, to the point where

“many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.’” [John 4:41-42]

People are not generational profiles.  People are not defined solely by gender or sexuality or political party or ethnicity or profession or hair color.  Don’t do that to others, don’t let others do that to you, and don’t do that to yourself.  People are not types.  If we come before the Lord trying to be anybody but ourselves, we’re not fooling anyone. 

“But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” [John 4:23-24]

            Thanks be to Jesus, the Savior of the world, we can do that. 

Amen.

 

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[1] P. Aboth 1.5 – cited in C.K. Barratt, The Gospel According to St. John, second edition (Phila.: Westminster Press, 1978), 240.

[2] Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People (New York: Convergent Books, 2015), 124.

"Nicodemus"

 

John 3:1-17

March 1, 2026

 

¹Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ ³Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ ⁴Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?’ ⁵Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” ⁸The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ ⁹Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ ¹⁰Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

¹⁷‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

 

***********************

 

            Jesus and Nicodemus!  What an encounter!  The meeting drew from Jesus some of his most profound declarations of his mission.

“‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  [John 3:16-17]

What a meeting!  Nicodemus, coming to Jesus with a weariness he attributes to his age, thinking that he is too old to experience the newness of life that is part of the kingdom of God, reducing Jesus’ call to be born from above, to be born again, to a physical impossibility that echoes the spiritual impossibilities that he’s feeling.  Jesus says to Nicodemus,

“‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ ⁴Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?’”  [John 3:3-5]

Jesus offers him life in its fullness.  Nicodemus says he’s too old, too tired.  Jesus isn’t having any of it.  He tells him that the Spirit is the source of life, and it doesn’t matter how many scrapes are on the chassis if the engine is still good. 

In fact, it’s because Nicodemus has a few miles on the odometer that he should understand that.

“Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?’” [John 3:9-10]

A teacher of Israel, after all, is someone who should know the most basic stories of his people.  A teacher steeped in the scriptures should remember what they tell us:

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’  So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” [Genesis 12:1-4] 

Not everybody is up to that type of adventure (though when you think of it, a lot of people do pick up and move around that age), but not everything God calls us to involves physical strength.  Sometimes it is the know-how and the resourcefulness that comes from experience.

            What lay in front of Nicodemus were moments of courage that would not have been available to someone younger.  In John 7, the temple authorities consider arresting Jesus based on suspicion and because Nicodemus is part of the ruling council he is right there to speak up.

“Our law does not judge people without giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” [John 7:51]

Imagine a judge who insists on due process.  That was Nicodemus.  He was also old enough to have had some savings.  When Jesus had been arrested, condemned, and executed, another older member of the council named Joseph of Arimathea used his connections to have Jesus’ body removed from the cross.  (Normally it would have been left up as a warning, to be eaten by vultures or to rot.)  Instead, he and Nicodemus were able to do one last service, and

“Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.  They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.” [John 19:39-40]

Nicodemus outlived Jesus.  I doubt that he expected that when he first went to see him under cover of night. Perhaps he felt his age all the more when he helped Joseph lay the corpse into a borrowed tomb, unaware that he was preparing it for life to return shortly.  Yet he was, in a way, returning the favor that Jesus had shown when he had prepared Nicodemus for his own rebirth and resurrection, opening the way for him (and for us) through death.

“‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” [John 3:16]

The gift of those words might have fallen on deaf ears if the ears they fell on had not started to go a little deaf.

            Psalm 92:12-15 says,

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree,

and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

They are planted in the house of the Lord;

they flourish in the courts of our God.

In old age they still produce fruit;

they are always green and full of sap,

showing that the Lord is upright;

he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

 

Just ask the people who knew Jimmy Carter in his later years, or ask someone about Minnie Thacker, or June MacDade, or Jim Pearson, or Helen Vaughn, or Jan Ayres – and don’t forget Nicodemus or Abraham and Sarah.

 

"Fasting"

 

Matthew 4:1-11

February 22, 2026

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” ⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” ¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

**********************

 

            Fasting is a spiritual practice found many places in the Bible but not in very much favor in our own day.  Richard Foster writes about fasting as one of many aids to prayer (although it can also be a distraction in some circumstances).  He also warns that it is not for everyone, either physically or psychologically.  (For my part I would mention that I knew someone who misused the practice as a cover for anorexia.)  Nevertheless, Jesus himself fasted and taught his disciples about fasting, and we have the witness of the gospels that he began his public ministry only after a prolonged time of prayer and fasting during which he confronted the temptations of the devil.

            Foster says,

“More than any other single Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. …We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. …How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives.  How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. …Our human cravings and desires are like a river that tends to overflow its banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channel.”[1]

I would add that although fasting generally refers to abstinence from food for a short period (usually a day, and not skipping water during that time), people may also fast from things like speech or screentime or caffeine or alcohol.  The other thing is that fasting differs from dieting because it is meant to focus on God, not on physical appearance.

            That said, Jesus’ time in the desert was time where he faced down and overcame temptation to turn his attention away from God and toward himself.  The first temptation was to turn stones into bread, when the whole point of what he was there for was to do without.  In fact, it wasn’t simply that he had left the settled area for the desert but that he had left heaven itself to come to this world for the sake of humanity.  Jesus, as Paul would later say,

“though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself.” [Philippians 2:6]

 

Jesus’ time of fasting in the desert was a time of preparation for enduring the cross.  The temptation to use his power to spare himself from hunger was the same temptation to spare himself from suffering that would be placed before him, right up to the end.  Again and again Jesus must have prayed (as he did in Gethsemane)

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” [Matthew 27:39]

Right up to the moment when he was dying on the cross, the voice of the tempter echoed in the people mocking him:

“If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” [Matthew 27:40]

and

“He saved others; he cannot save himself.  He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.” [Matthew 27:42]

The temptation to turn his back on God’s will, to save himself instead of others, would never fully disappear, but he never gave in. 

We are unlike him in that.  We do give in.  But not always and not inevitably.  One thing that Jesus’ temptation teaches us is that the voice of the tempter is subtle and if that voice came to Jesus, it will surely come to us.  Don’t take what is offered at face value.  Treat it like an online ad – which (if you think about it) is meant to entice you into buying or buying into something. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Use your common sense and trust what God may be saying to you quietly or maybe loudly.

Then whenever, as sometimes does happen, temptation announces itself without any disguise, don’t be afraid to answer it as bluntly as Jesus did.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” [Matthew 4:6]

His answer,

“Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” [Matthew 4:7]

could easily have also been, “Why exactly would I want to do that?” or, “Do you really think I’m that stupid?”  The same goes for bowing down to the devil in return for the world.  (There’s a whole sermon series in that discussion.)

            In whatever way we learn to understand our own selves and our own concerns into perspective, whatever way we come to see the world in a much larger perspective than we become used to, there is a greater sense that it is all God’s.  Peter Marty recently wrote a column where he says,

“To be spiritually alive involves placing our dependence on God, not just rolling in the ocean of the self. It’s exalting others, not celebrating personal grandeur. It’s enjoying a life that pulsates with the whole human family breathing through us in all kinds of ways.”[2]

Or, as Jesus put it:

“Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  [Matthew 16:25]

---

[1] Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978), 48-49.

[2] Peter Marty, “Morality Requires Other People” in The Christian Century (vol.143 no. 3: March, 2026), 3.

"Only God Needs to See It"

 

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Ash Wednesday

February 18, 2026

 

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

²‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁵‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

…

¹⁶‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

¹⁹‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

*********************

 

Sometime during Lent I usually try to make time to listen to “Jesus Christ, Superstar”.  It’s one of the things that I do that makes me think about how much was going on during the week leading up to Jesus’ death and every so often a phrase or two from the show gets into my head.  This week it came from a song toward the beginning, when Judas sees Mary Magdalene anointing Jesus and acts appalled that Jesus is letting “someone like her” (as he puts it) even touch him.  Judas is scared of what people will think, and even more scared of the Temple authorities and the Romans.  He says to Jesus, “It doesn’t help us if you’re inconsistent.  They only need a little thing to put us all away.” 

Inconsistency, if we’re honest, is a problem sometimes if you read through the Sermon on the Mount just quickly.  Two Sundays ago, we were hearing Matthew 5:16 –

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Today we hear Matthew 6 where Jesus says things like

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them” [6:1] and

“When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret” [6:3-4] and

“Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door”. [6:6]

Sure, some of it has to do with motivation.  Are you really praying if you are doing it just to be seen or heard by anybody other than God?  Is it really prayer if it’s a matter of performance?

I knew a woman who was part of a charismatic Catholic prayer group.  She had cancer and was coming to the end here, and she told me that when the time came, before the casket was closed, she wanted the group to gather around it and pray in tongues.  So when the viewing was about to move on to the service, I stood there with them and we all held hands and bowed our heads, then they began to make sounds that were their way of praying.  It began and ended in a very orderly way.  To this day, though, I cannot help but wonder how much was the Spirit speaking with their spirits and how much was meeting the expectations of their friend, out of love. 

That friendship, that love, and the faith that was part of it makes me feel more charitable than when I see someone on television get swept up into a swirling cloud of oratory until the sweat runs down the back of their neck or the tears leave trails of mascara down their cheeks.

So, taking these teachings of Jesus together as a whole, it seems to me that what he really asks of us is to be genuine in bringing our lives before God in prayer and bringing God’s ways into our lives.  We don’t have to point at ourselves, but people will see both what we get right and where we fail – and they’ll also know when we try to do better.  We are not as consistent ourselves as we should be, but to be aware of the potential hypocrisies and to wrestle with them is actually a part of repentance.  Isaiah knew it as well as Jesus, when he told the people of his own day,

“Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,

and oppress all your workers.

 Look, you fast only to fight

and to strike with a wicked fist. …

 

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?” [Isaiah 58:3-4, 6]

 

The good works that really shine out are the ones that happen when somebody is not trying to score points, but when they are doing what is just the right thing to do.

There’s a quotation from Mother Teresa that says, “Not all of us can do great things.  But we can do small things with great love.”  The group “The Potter’s Gate” turned that into a song.

“In the garden of our Savior

no flower grows unseen.

His kindness rains like water

on every humble seed.

No simple act of mercy escapes His watchful eye

For there is One who sees   me-

His hand is over mine

 

In the kingdom of the heavens

no suffering is unknown.

Each tear that falls is holy,

each breaking heart a throne.

There is a song of beauty in every weeping eye,

For there is One who knows me-

His heart, it breaks with mine.

 

O the deeds forgotten, O the works unseen.

Every drink of water flowing graciously,

every tender mercy You're making glorious.

This You have asked of us:

Do little things with great love,

little things with great

 love.”

 

That would be my prayer for all of us this season.