Major network TV stations? Cable news networks? The newspaper? Social media? YouTube? Email updates?
Thinking about your preferred news outlet, is it biased? Of course not, right?
In a world of fake news, every news outlet now says that they are the one and only who is telling the unvarnished truth. Given such claims, we can feel overwhelmed and confused seeking out the truth. Hardly any of us have the time to research news reports, fact-check, and sift through multiple points of view. It is just too much work to become investigative journalists in the middle of our already busy lives. Usually, we resort to trusting one news source. What happens when we trust just one news source, though, is something called siloing.
Siloing is a concept we here where I live, Lancaster County, can envision quite well. A farmer loads their grain into a silo, and when they do, they do not mix grains. In one silo they store one kind of grain. Mixing the grain would make it impossible to sell on the market. Could you imagine trying to sell a mix of corn, wheat, and barley? Silos do the important work of keeping grains separate. That’s good work.
The concept of ideological or cultural siloing, however, can be very damaging. Ideological or cultural siloing occurs when we keep ideas or ourselves separate from those who think or seem different from us. When we listen to only one news source, or news sources from only one perspective, we are siloing, we are insulating ourselves from hearing other points of view.
The result of ideological or cultural siloing is that we become entrenched in one way of looking at the world. To illustrate, if we primarily watch Fox News, we will start to see the world through the lens of the ideology of Fox News. Likewise, if we primarily watch CNN, we will start to see the world through the lens of the ideology of CNN.
I want you to consider something: We do not shape the viewpoints of the news outlets we watch. They shape us. The news outlets from which we receive our news and commentary are promoting ideology that influences our thinking. We are not only informed, but also reformed into new people, when we allow their voices into our lives, heads, and hearts. Siloing is a powerful cultural force.
The result of siloing is that people come to view those outside their silo as not just wrong, but as evil. We view people outside our silos as not just having a different opinion, but as the enemy. When we view others as evil enemies, we are much more prone to express emotions and anger toward them. Siloing results in people hating and harming those from other viewpoints.
Interestingly, we can believe that expressing hate and harm is justified because it will change our culture for good, albeit a good that is usually right in line with how we view the world. To change the world, then, we begin to believe that we must eliminate the evil enemy. So we unleash culture war.
Can culture war change the world? What would Jesus say? Would he agree with your silo? With your news outlet?
That’s what we’re going to look into on the blog next week. It’s current events week, and I want to talk about how to change the world. It’s a big topic, isn’t it?
Join me on the blog next week, as I talk about it further.
Now the moment has come. We’ve been studying John 11 this week, and we’ve observed Jesus talking with his disciples and his friends, Mary and Martha, about their brother Lazarus’ sickness and death. Jesus made the trip to Judea to the town of Bethany to visit that sisters, as Lazarus lay in a grave for four days. Now they bring Jesus to the tomb. Here’s how the story concludes in John 11, verses 38-45.
“Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ‘Take away the stone,’ he said. ‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’ Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.”
When they arrive at the tomb, and Martha is really worried about the odor, I don’t blame here. Four days had passed, and the smell of deterioration had to be strong. Is Martha, having started with such strong belief in Jesus, now doubting? John doesn’t say that. I think Martha is just stating the obvious, “Uh, Jesus, if they roll that stone away, we are all going to get hit with an awful smell of rotting flesh, and no one wants that.” I’m guessing that most of us have never smelled a human body that is at four days of decomposition. But maybe you’ve smelled dead animals, and it is enough to make you sick. This would have to be worse.
Jesus charges forward, reminding us about belief and glory. He is not afraid of the stench and the mess. His power can redeem anything. He is about to do something that will inspire the people to believe, because they will see a manifestation of God’s power at work in him.
The stone is rolled away, Jesus prays, pointing out for our benefit that God always hears, and then calls Lazarus to come out of the grave. Just like that, this once dead man is now alive. It is a miracle of astounding proportions, bested only by Jesus’ own resurrection a week or so later. Seeing Lazarus brought to new life, many people put their faith in Jesus that day. They had witnessed the glory of God, just as Jesus said they would, and the proper response to seeing God’s glory is to believe.
We, too, are witnesses. Not quite like the crowd that day, watching their dead-for-four-days friend come back to life. Not quite like the men and women followers of Jesus who saw him back to life on that very first Resurrection Sunday.
But we are witnesses in our own right. We are people who, 2000 years later, are witnesses to the power of the resurrection in Jesus in our lives. We are witnesses because we experience new life given to us by Jesus.
For those who believe with the life-changing belief in Jesus and his ways, we have the hope not only of resurrected eternal life, but also real experience of his abundant life now enabling us to lead flourishing lives here. That does not guarantee life without pain, but a flourishing life in the middle of the pains of this world.
This is why we sing so loud on Easter. We are people of resurrection and life in Jesus. I invite you to believe in him, just as he invited the people in his day.
I recently met someone grew up in a Christian family, but it was a family with numerous difficulties. As a child and teenager he was very shy, afraid to talk to people. But through giving his life to believe in and follow Jesus, he experienced a transformation. He said he has been experiencing Jesus change him, especially during his years studying at Bible college. He said he felt a new freedom to have numerous in-depth conversations with me, a freedom he formerly did not have. He also plays drums in the school worship band, leads in prayer in the school’s chapel services and is serving as a volunteer in youth ministry in his church. He is experiencing the flourishing life of Jesus. He is seeing God change him, give him new joy and perspective and courage, even in difficult circumstances.
I suppose we could say that Jesus wants to resurrect us now, as well as in the future. He wants us to experience new life now. He wants to bring his renewed life to the things that bring death. Renewed life to our anger, to our sadness, to our addiction, to our broken hearts. He wants to bring his new life so that you and I can experience flourishing. He is saying that in him we do not have to lash out in bitterness. We do not have to cut people down. We do not have to give the silent treatment. There is new life in Christ. He brings the dead to life.
Jesus wants to bring his new life to the things of this world that we regularly experience our daily lives. For his glory. For a bigger purpose. Because he is good. He is alive. He is resurrected. He offers all of his new life to all of us.
Martha’s brother, Lazarus, still dead. Martha believes Jesus can do something about it because he is the promised Messiah, the bringer of life. But instead of pleading with Jesus, Martha now goes to find her sister, Mary. In John 11, verses 28-37, we read about the result of the sisters’ conversation.
“And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. ‘The Teacher is here,’ she said, ‘and is asking for you.’ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’
Martha’s sister, Mary, has been observing the traditional Jewish ritual of mourning the passing of a loved one, a ritual that could last for days. Now with Martha’s info, Mary goes out to meet Jesus too. Mary, like her sister, is full of faith in Jesus. She declares that if Jesus had been there sooner, Lazarus would not have died. But there is a slight difference between Mary’s and Martha’s statements. Mary seems to view Lazarus’ passing as a done deal, something Jesus absolutely had the power to handle, but only in the past. Martha views Lazarus’ passing as temporary, something Jesus had the power to handle in the present. Martha seems to have a more developed view of Jesus’ power.
Before we get to that ultimate moment of the story, we need to see Jesus as John describes him in verses 33 and 35. Jesus is deeply, deeply affected by the passing of his friend, as he is deeply affected by the painful loss of the women who are also his friends. This is an important reminder to us that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. He experienced emotion. He cried. He is familiar with the depths of human struggle and emotion. He knows what it feels like to lose someone close to him.
Jesus is not jaded by his power. You’d think that a guy who just heal everyone would grow callous about sickness and death, as if it is nothing. He knew could do something about it, so why would he feel upset about it? Yet, Jesus still felt the loss, and he felt empathy with those, his friends Mary and Martha, who had also lost their brother.
Some have wondered if Jesus is weeping, at least in part, because of the lack of faith he sees around him. Maybe. John doesn’t explicitly tell us that, so it makes more sense to me that Jesus in his sympathy and empathy is caught up in the emotion of this very intense situation. Have you ever started crying when someone else starts crying? Even if you don’t fully understand or feel all they feel, your heart goes out to them, and you start crying too. It’s contagious, isn’t it? Why? Because it is some automated response we cannot control? No, it is because we humans have sympathy and empathy, so that we mourn with those mourn and we rejoice with those who rejoice. Frankly, it is a wonderfully beautiful way that God has created us. Jesus had this too. Jesus wept.
As our story continues, the moment has come for Jesus to visit the grave of his friend. What happens there is amazing, and we’ll learn about that in the next post.
Jesus regularly said very important things. What he says in John 11:25-27 is of utmost importance,
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told him, ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.’
This is a hinge moment in the story we’ve been studying this week, starting with the post here. Jesus’ good friend Lazarus died four days prior, and now Jesus has traveled to his friends’ hometown, Bethany, where Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, are still in mourning. In the previous post, we learned that Martha went out to meet Jesus, and they had a provocative conversation. Now Jesus has pulled back the veil and allowed Martha to see his larger missional intentions, and this has implications for all people. You might be feeling empty, lonely, depressed, angry, despairing, or dead inside in some way. What Jesus says is for you. Look closely at what Jesus said,
First, he said he is the resurrection and the life. He embodies these concepts in himself. Resurrection and life are found in him. Resurrection and life are, of course, not equal terms. They are very much related, but notice also how they are different.
Resurrection is when someone experiences new life after they no longer have life. In its most literal form, we say that someone experiences resurrection after their dead body is miraculously given new life by God. That brings us to why I am blogging about this passage for Easter, which is Resurrection Sunday. For not only is resurrection, somehow, found in Jesus, but also, he himself was resurrected, completing the work, started through his birth, life and death, to have victory over sin, death and the devil, and begin the process of the restoration of all things. Simply put, Jesus’ resurrection changes everything.
So resurrection brings new life to that which is formerly dead. But secondly, Jesus also says that he is the life. This is a wider concept than that of simply bringing new life to the dead. Jesus is not just resurrection, he is also life. Some have called this the life that is truly life. In John 10:10, Jesus declares, “I have come that they might have life and life abundantly.” This abundant life he is referring to is a new way of life that is accessible by those who are already alive, but they are not yet fully alive.
Another way to understand this life that is truly life is the word “flourishing,” such that humans experience the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) growing in their lives because God the Spirit has made his home with them. Flourishing is when people are in right relationship with God, with others, with creation. In the Hebrew Bible, the word “shalom” speaks of this wholeness that includes but is far more than “peace.” Jesus will go on to talk about this much more in John chapters 14-16, which we will get to in a few months from now.
Jesus is, therefore, the hope and possibility of new life to the dead and abundant life to the living. Notice how he further elaborates on this in verses 25 and 26. In verse 25 he comments on resurrection. If a person believes in him, though that person eventually dies, they will live again. That’s resurrection.
Then he says that whoever lives and believes in him will never die. That’s a reference to the abundant flourishing life. We know this because Jesus is not intending that his true followers will never die in their earthly body. All people will die one day. Jesus’ point is that when we truly believe in him, we will experience his new flourishing life now, and we will also experience eternal life, the ultimate flourishing, after death. Jesus is not just concerned with what happens after we die. He cares about us and our life now. He cares about our hearts and how we are feeling now. He wants good for the world now. Not the world’s concept of good, but his good. Jesus wants all people to experience his abundant flourishing life now and eternal flourishing life after death.
Along with “life,” another key word in verses 25 and 26 is, once again, “believe.” It is the identical word we already talked about in the previous post. Jesus, days earlier, invited his disciples to believe in him, with full trust, by giving their lives to him, and now he asks the same of Martha.
I love Martha’s response because she answers Jesus’ question with more information that he is asking for. Jesus’ question is a simple Yes/No question. But Martha, after saying “Yes,” goes on to explain her reasoning for her belief. She says she believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world. Martha is referring to the Old Testament prophets who repeatedly informed the people of Israel that God was going to send a savior, a deliverer. Jesus, Martha says, is that person, the Messiah.
Though her brother still lies dead in his grave, Martha believes Jesus can do something about it because he is the promised Messiah, the bringer of life. Now Martha leaves Jesus’ side to find her sister, Mary. We’ll find out why in the next post.
Jesus has received an urgent message from some of his closest friends, Mary and Martha. Their brother Lazarus, also one of Jesus’ best friends, is sick. Very sick. Deathly sick. What does Jesus do in response? He waits…two more days. He doesn’t immediately gather up his disciples and head out on the road. He waits. It seems cold, callous, doesn’t it? His friend is sick, and you’d think the one who loves him like a brother would go to be with him and heal him.
But in our previous post we learned a clue about why Jesus waited. Jesus told his disciples that this situation will not end in death. Instead, Jesus says, God will be glorified.
So Jesus lets two days pass, and then says to his disciples, “Ok, time to go to Judea,” which was the region where Lazarus’ village of Bethany was located. The disciples, however, are concerned about this idea, as we read in John 11, verses 8-16.
“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.” After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Woo-boy. Thomas is not liking this plan. Thomas is the one we Christians sometimes call “Doubting” Thomas, and here we get an inkling of where that nickname comes from. In a later passage, which we’ll study a few months from now, we’ll learn more about the reason for Thomas’ nickname. For now, though, Thomas is scared, and snarky. Look at the sarcasm he uses, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
By going to Judea, where Jesus is hated by the religious leaders, where the religious leaders have their headquarters and loads of power, and where the religious leaders had previously tried to kill Jesus, Thomas is basically saying, “Go back to Judea? We’re walking right into the lion’s den, and they’re going to rip us to shreds, and we’ll be as dead as Lazarus.”
But let’s back up, because in verse 4 in the previous post we read that this sickness would not end in death, and now Jesus says in verse 14 that Lazarus is actually dead. What? Jesus explained to the disciples that he had been speaking in riddles. Yes, Lazarus has died. The sickness was too much. What Jesus wants his disciples to know is that Lazarus’ death is not the end of the story. Jesus hints at larger purposes. In verse 15, he says that this situation will serve to help the disciples believe.
There we have another key term in the Gospel of John. In the previous post, it was “glory.” Now it is “believe.” The linguists tell us that this is “to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance.[1]” This is not mere intellectual assent. Jesus is not interested in faith that resides in the mind; that intellectual faith is simply agreeing with ideas. Jesus wants his disciples to actually trust him with their lives, because he is trustworthy, because he is who he says he is. Because his ways are worth walking through the fear, knowing he is walking with us.
In our blog series, we’ve skipped a few chapters because I was in India, and we had guests at Faith Church who preached on John. I decided not to blog their sermons, so I could focus on my time away. The last guest preacher covered the first part of John 10. We’re going to go back to last section of John chapter 10 in the coming weeks. This week I skipped ahead to John 11, and that will become clear in the next post. In the meantime I need to refer back to John 10:30. There Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” He is making a very clear statement that he is God. What Jesus meant is confirmed by how the Jewish leaders respond, picking up stones to stone him. When Jesus confronts them, the Jewish leaders affirm that they know he was claiming to be God, and in their viewpoint, Jesus was just a human, not God, and by claiming to be God, he was committing the sin of blasphemy, which is punishable by death. Thus they believed they were justified, according to Jewish law, in stoning him. But Jesus escapes, besting them yet again.
Like I said, we’re going to talk about that more in the coming weeks, but for now I mention it because Jesus wants his disciples to really, truly, deeply trust him that he is God. He wants them to rely on him, give their lives to him and his way of life. When we say we accept Jesus, we are saying we think his ways are the best ways, and we will follow his ways. It belief that leads to action. That’s what he means when he says in verse 15 that he wants them to believe. He wants this Lazarus situation to deepen their belief. But how? Lazarus is dead. And Thomas is not wrong. It is a bold, risky move for Jesus to head right back to Judea where he is a wanted man.
Look at verses 17-24.
“On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Lazarus has been dead four days. There is no embalming in that culture. The Egyptians did embalm. But not the Jews. Four days of bodily deterioration is awful.
Four days also allowed time for people to show up to comfort the sisters in their loss. A little crowd has formed by the time Jesus shows up. The first sister to meet him is Martha. Look at her words again in verse 22, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Amazing.
Even now, even after four days, she knows that Jesus can heal her brother. I love her confidence. She knows what Jesus can do, even in a situation that is by all appearances over and done.
Jesus responds to her that Lazarus will rise again. Martha’s response is very theological. “Yes, I know, Jesus. Lazarus will rise in the last day, when all the dead rise.” I’m not going to get into what the Jews believed about the future resurrection of the dead, the afterlife, heaven and hell. That’s not the point. The point is that Martha thinks Jesus is talking about all that, and he corrects her. What he says is of utmost importance, and we’ll learn what he says in the next post!
This past week I was jet-lagging, having come home from a month teaching in India. Jet-lag feels so weird. You’re hungry and sleepy at all the wrong times. On my first day back, my family and I ate dinner at a normal time of about 6pm, and while it tasted great, my stomach felt like I was eating a full meal at 3:30am. Very unsettling!
Do you ever feel that something inside of you is not quite right? What would you change about yourself if you could? What is it about yourself that you don’t like? You might even think, “I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to change that.” It can feel lonely, exasperating. Hopeless. Like a part of you is dead. Maybe you’ve had that feeling that you need a change, a renewal…something different.
In this week’s study through the Gospel of John, Jesus has a visit with three very close friends, all three of whom want that change in one way or another. In John 11, verses 1-3, we read,
“Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick’.”
Every good story needs a crisis. We just read about the crisis in John 11. One of Jesus’ close friends is sick. Lazarus. Lazarus’ sisters are Mary and Martha, and they live in the village of Bethany, which is just outside Jerusalem. The sisters reach out to Jesus. Is it just to inform him of their brother’s sickness? Is it to do what we so often do, asking people, “Please pray.” Or is there more to them sending word to Jesus?
What is interesting to me in this passage is that John describes Jesus as having a loving relationship with Lazarus. There are multiple words in Greek that are all translated with our one English word “love,” but the Greek words have slightly different emphases. The word that John uses to describe Jesus’ close relationship with Lazarus is “phileo,” brotherly love. It is highly relational love. It is a human love, the affection and caring relationship that two people have when they are really close friends. This is not romantic love. It is deep friendship.
Think about your best friends in this life. It could be a family member that you would consider your best friend. Spouses often describe each other that way. It could be a sibling. It could be a friend. My college friend, Chris, is one of my best friends. We met in the dorm in 1992, and we have been very close ever since, accountability and prayer partners, and we still are. We get together every other month for lunch and prayer, and we text and call on the phone in between.
That’s brotherly love, and that’s what Jesus felt toward Lazarus. Or at least, from verse 3, that’s how Mary and Martha described Jesus’ love.
You know what I hear, when I read the sisters sending the message, “Lord, the one you love is sick”? I hear fear in Mary and Martha’s voice. Out of great concern for their sick brother, out of a realistic fear they could lose Lazarus, were they playing on Jesus’ emotions, trying to coerce Jesus, or guilt Jesus, into coming to help their brother? Or were they close enough in relationship with Jesus that they could share their vulnerable feelings?
In the ancient world, any sickness is exceedingly serious. In our day and age, sickness is still very serious, but our medical capabilities are light years ahead of medicine in first century Palestine. If these sisters are reaching out to Jesus, it means that what Lazarus has is not a common cold. It means they have probably already exhausted the normal remedies, the doctors couldn’t help, and Lazarus is in bad shape. Maybe you have been in a situation like that. It is a situation where the options for treatment are gone. You start saying things like, “Our only hope is a miracle.”
So what will Jesus do when he gets the news that his close friend is sick? Look at verses 4-7.
“When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
In what we just read, we get some answers to our questions! First of all, Jesus tells us in verse 4 that Lazarus is not going to die. Clearly, just by mentioning that death is a possibility for Lazarus, Jesus indicates that Lazarus’ sickness is serious. Second, Jesus says that the situation is for God’s glory, so that God’s Son will be glorified through it. In our study of John we’ve come across this word “glory” many times. It is not a light shining, like a halo on Jesus’ head. What is this glory?
Linguists tell us that “glory” is “to speak of something as being unusually fine and deserving honor.”[1] That’s another way of describing praise. Through Lazarus’ sickness, Jesus says, God will be praised, God will be honored, and God’s Son will be glorified, meaning that people will show Jesus honor and respect. Jesus is saying to his disciples that he sees a larger missional purpose in this situation. The larger missional purpose is that of more and more people giving praise to God and giving honor and respect to Jesus.
Jesus is not saying that every sickness has a purpose. We can often say that God has a purpose for every bad or undesirable thing that happens in our lives. Please don’t hear Jesus as saying that. Jesus is only talking about Lazarus’ sickness. God does not pre-plan to make bad things happen for a purpose. God is not making bad things happen to teach us a lesson or something.
God is not like that. What God does do, however, is redeem bad situations. He can turn our ashes into learning, our pain into growth, our hurt into good. In this world, we will face bad situations. Evil, wickedness, pain, suffering, etc., is the stuff of a broken and fallen world. Sometimes it is our own doing, consequences of bad choices we make. But often the difficulties just happen to us. Like Lazarus. Lazarus got sick. God didn’t make him sick. Lazarus got sick because, in this world, we all get sick from time to time.
What Jesus is saying is this instance, God will redeem the situation of Lazarus’ sickness for the larger missional purpose of bringing glory to himself and Jesus. Does that sound selfish? What does God need more glory for? Doesn’t he already have enough? Well, no. There are plenty of people who do not give God glory. God could receive a whole lot more.
But here’s what so important about Jesus’ comment: It is not that God needs more glory, it is that more people need to give God glory. There are plenty more people who need to learn more of God so that they can see his glory! Jesus, therefore, is sharing God’s heart for more people to give God glory, because when more people give God glory those people experience the flourishing life God desires for them, the life that is in their best interest.
[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 429.
To all readers of the blog, I am in Northeast India for the month of March teaching at my denomination’s seminary. So the blog is on hiatus. Here are a few photos of the trip so far. First, Mt. Everest, as seen from from our plane.
A church conference we attended and preached at:
I got to sound the gong, one of 75 people. One gong for each year of their 75th anniversary jubilee.
In the temple courts, Jesus is standing alone with a woman who had been caught in adultery. With her accusers now gone, Jesus responds to the woman, in John chapter 8, verses 10-11:
“Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin’.”
What does “condemn” mean? It is a legal term, referring to a judgement of guilt. The woman had been caught in the act of sin. The religious leaders had brought her to Jesus essentially putting him in the role of judge, asking him to proclaim her guilty. He turns the tables on them, and they leave without condemning her, and then he also does not condemn her, removing himself from the role of judge.
Wouldn’t you love to see the transformation that comes over this woman when she hears Jesus say, “I don’t condemn you.” Instead of condemnation she receives grace.
But grace is not a ticket to do whatever she wants. He says, “Go and sin no more.” Do you hear the grace and love in his statement? Do you also hear him encouraging her to make new choices, good choices?
We could easily think that Jesus is letting her off the hook, that he should deal more harshly with her, “She committed adultery, Jesus!” In our contemporary purity culture, sexual sin is often seen as the worst possible sin. By our standards, it seems like Jesus is neglecting the accountability this woman needs. “Go and sin no more? Are you kidding me, Jesus? That’s not going to help this woman. What’s to stop her from jumping right back into bed with the guy? She’s getting off easy here. You need to deal with her.” But our purity culture is so quick to misunderstand the amazing power of grace.
As Paul writes in Titus 2:11-14,
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
You and I have received this grace too. We need it every day. You are not condemned. Think about that. It’s powerful. You are not condemned. God says to you, “I do not condemn you.” In fact, Paul wrote in Romans 8:1-2,
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
We are set free to receive grace which motivates us with grateful hearts to say, “No” to sin. So see yourself in that woman’s shoes. Jesus says “I do not condemn you, go and sin no more.” Is there a sin or sins in your life about which he is saying to you, “I do not condemn you, receive my grace, sin no more.”
Receive his grace and follow his way. His way is so amazing. They way of choosing to remove sin from our lives is the abundant, flourishing life that he said he gave to give us.
Frankly, though, receiving grace can be difficult. It means ridding ourselves of shame, accepting that God really does love us fully as we are, failures and all. Some of us have a really hard to receiving that truth, believing that truth.
God invites us to see ourselves as we know we are, with all our faults and bad habits, and yet rest in and believe in and receive his grace and love. Then we become people who, like Jesus did with the woman, give grace more easily.
Did you know that Jesus once stayed an execution? He actually decided to not do what the Mosaic Law said to do. The religious leaders brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, asking him, “The Mosaic Law says this sinful woman should receive the death penalty. What do you say, Jesus?” As we learned in the previous post, the religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus. But there was no execution that day. Instead, Jesus has an astounding response, “Let him who is without sin throw the first stone.” Not a single stone flew that day. What did happen is what we read in verses 8-9,
“Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.”
Why did no one say, “Forget you, Jesus, we’re doing this anyway”? Is it possible that Jesus’ principle of self-reflective non-judgement toward others was more impactful than the human instinct to violence retribution? I think so. The religious leaders knew they had been bested. They knew that Jesus tapped into something deeper, something more in tune with the heart of God.
Jesus exploited their faulty use of the Law. They were focused on a punitive part of the Law, the judgment, and they were ignoring the heart of God. They were bent on a legalistic approach, something that they did quite well and quite often. In their minds, the more you can legislate morality, the better. Make rules for as much of life as possible, so that there is a clear-cut line separating the keepers of the rules and the breakers of the rules. Subjectivity and opinion and nuance are just trouble in their minds. Life will be better if we can punish rule-breakers, because the punishment will be a deterrent to any further rule-breaking.
This is the primary justification of the modern-day death penalty. How has that worked out for us? How often have we seen people unjustly on death row for years, decades even, only to be exonerated? How many innocent people have been executed? And further, has the rationale for the death penalty actually been effective? Has the imposition of the death penalty been a deterrent to crime? Given the amount of crime, and especially murder by gun violence, anecdotal evidence suggests that the death penalty has little impact. Here in John 8, Jesus shows us that you cannot legislate morality, you cannot scare people straight.
There is another reason the religious leaders try to legislate morality. They wanted to avoid the slippery-slope argument. The slippery slope argument basically says that if you do X, you will be much more inclined to also do Y, and then Z, and before you know it you’ll be so far gone, you’ll never come back from the Abyss. So therefore, you must go back up the slope aways. If you don’t want people to do X, you must make new rules that will keep them from U, V or W.
Let’s make this very practical. If you don’t want to become addicted to pornography, the slippery slope argument says, then you should not only delete your social media accounts, you should also get rid of your computer, smart phone and internet. It’s a slippery slope, if you get internet, soon enough you’ll be addicted to porn. So the legislate morality, let’s just make it a crime to have the internet. Abolish the internet! That will save our society!
But is that true?
The problem with the slippery slope argument is that it can be very misleading. Doing X does not always lead to Y. If you have the internet you will not automatically become addicted to porn. You might, but you might not. The slippery slope is, however, something to pay attention to. It would be wise, for example, if one has a predisposition to porn addiction, to consider that they might not be able to handle having the internet without any accountability measures. Options such as web filters, blockers or accountability software can be a helpful deterrent.
More importantly, though, we cannot rely on the slippery slope to help us become more like Jesus. Following rules does not transform our hearts to be more like the heart of Jesus. We cannot rely on laws and rules to help us become more like Jesus. Instead, we need to be changed inwardly, by the Spirit, growing the Fruit of the Spirit. This is why Jesus points us to the heart of the Father, a heart of self-reflective non-judgmental grace. That’s the posture that will help people actually desire to become more like Jesus. And then, following him, with a new heart, that will impact our life choices.
Think about it this way. Imagine if Jesus said, “We have to follow the letter of the Law. If we allow her to go unpunished, we be on the slippery slope to anarchy. Isn’t that what led our ancestors into rebellion against God and exile from the land? Stone her to death!” What would that accomplish? A life lost, as well as more people convinced about the legalistic, slippery-slope way of understanding God. It would be total loss for all, actually pushing people away from who God really is, away from what God’s heart really is.
Instead, Jesus presents a beautiful balance of self-reflective non-judgmental grace, removing condemnation from this woman who, if she really was caught in the act of adultery, was probably mortified, shamed, and feeling doomed. More than likely, she was heaping more self-loathing on top of the self-loathing and bad habit of looking for love in all the wrong places that was already the norm in her life.
In the next post, we’ll hear Jesus’ shocking response to this woman.
When I was dating my wife, one day her parents had us over for dinner. Around the table, her father asked me, “So is Michelle wearing on you yet?” Have you ever felt trapped in life? Had people accuse you of something, and there seems to be no good answer? That’s how I felt in that moment.
If I answered, “No,” I could be accused of giving the impression that my girlfriend is the kind of person who would wear on me. If I answered, “Yes,” then I would be accusing her of wearing on me. Neither choice was attractive. I was trapped. So I said, “Well, you’ve really backed me into a corner there…” After some laughter, as the question was meant to tease me, I eventually said the truth, which was “Yes, sometimes she wears on me.” That was a humorous situation, but as we will learn, Jesus got trapped in a no-win situation that was absolutely not humorous. Jesus’ situation was downright dangerous.
Look at John 7, verse 53, and chapter 8 verse 1,
“Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.”
The Mount of Olives is located just outside the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had just been visiting for the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2, 10). Remember what we studied last week in chapter 7, that the relationship between Jesus and the religious leaders has degraded to the point where they are out to kill him. This murderous sentiment infected some of the festival crowd, but there were also some who placed their faith in Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles Verse 53, though, tells us that the Feast concluded and the people went home.
Then chapter 8, verse 1, tells us that Jesus goes to one of his favorite places, the Mount of Olives. Perhaps he goes to stay with his friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus who live in the village of Bethany, which is very close to the Mount of Olives. Or maybe he needs time alone, away from the intense scrutiny of the city, and he goes to the Mount of Olives for silence, solitude and prayer.
Either way, we must remember the tension of John chapters 6 and 7. In chapter 6 Jesus gave the freakish “eat my flesh, drink my blood” teaching that resulted in many disciples turning away from him. In chapter 7, we learned how he had tension with his siblings, tension from the crowd in Jerusalem, and how the religious leaders wanted to kill him. Things in Jesus’ life at this point are conflicted.
What happens the next day is legendary. Look at verses 2-6,
“At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.”
What is going on here? Jesus heads back into the city, and the crowds flock to him. Even though it is early morning, enough people are fascinated by Jesus to want to be with him. At some point the religious leaders, having caught a woman in the act of adultery, bring her to Jesus, in the temple court, with loads of people watching. It’s the stuff of TV dramas, and it makes you wonder how they caught the woman.
The main drama of this situation, though, is that not the religious leaders were trying to trap the woman, but that they are trying to trap Jesus, and they really have come up with an ingenious ploy. They are right in saying that the Law of Moses addresses this issue.
Here’s what the Law actually says:
Leviticus 20:10, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
And Deuteronomy 22:22, “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.”
Wait. Both must be put to death? So where is the man? He should be there too. But he’s not, which could be evidence that this all a big set-up. Or perhaps the religious leaders are not keeping the Law strictly. Jesus could have said to them, “Where’s the man?” That would make for an interesting exchange.
That brings us to the pickle that Jesus is in. He is in a very tough spot. If he says, “We must adhere to the Law of Moses and execute the woman,” then Jesus would have been in violation of the Roman Law which forbade the Jews from enacting the death penalty. We will see that very Roman Law come into play at Jesus’ crucifixion, when, though the Jews had condemned Jesus to death at their sham trial, they had to take the matter to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, because only he had the authority to enact the death penalty.
When Jesus is looking at this woman who is accused of committing a crime punishable by death, Jesus must decide if he is going to abide by the Mosaic Law and place himself at risk of disobeying Roman Law. Or will he say, “You may not stone her under Roman Law,” and place himself at risk of being accused of not following the Law of Moses?
It seems the religious leaders have Jesus in a no-win situation, which is exactly where they want him. But do they actually have him in a no-win situation? Is this the end for Jesus? Is he about to be arrested? Take a look at the middle of verse 6,
“But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.”
By the way, some trivia for you: this is the only instance in the Gospels where Jesus writes. Don’t you wish you could know what he was writing??? There has been so much speculation. Maybe he was just doodling as he considered his response. Some have speculated that he was writing the names of the religious leaders and listing out their sins.
We don’t know. The religious leaders seem unphased. Look at verse 7,
“…they kept on questioning him…”
Perhaps they were pressing him to respond. What does he have to say about this woman caught in the act of adultery, and the fact that the Law of Moses commands them to stone her?
Eventually, Jesus responds. Maybe he’s just had enough of their trumped up ploy. Look at the rest of verse 7,
“When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’.”
Jesus is the master theological escape artist. His response is so genius. His responses in these kinds of tense, seemingly no-win situations are often so simple, yet so wonderfully insightful. He diffuses the situation with just a few, powerful words, words that reveal an important principle we disciples of Jesus should incorporate in our lives. It is the principle of self-reflective non-judgment toward others. More on that in the next post.
There was not a single person in the crowd that day who could throw the first stone. Why? Because they all had sin in their lives. Jesus has leveled the playing field and redefined how to approach the Law.
Certainly, someone there could have said, “I disagree with your reasoning, Jesus. If we have to be without sin in order to follow the Law, then we’ll be in violation of the parts of God’s Law that says we should hold people accountable. We’ll never be able to hold anyone accountable, because none of us is without sin. So I’m going to throw the first stone, even though I am a sinner too.”
That person could have started the execution, and maybe a bunch of people would have joined in. But an execution didn’t happen that day. Why? Check back to the next post, and we’ll find out.
Engaging Scripture 