Sermon March 21, 1999 Inconvenient Savior based on John 11:47-53

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometimes our best actions are misunderstood. Have you ever told someone a joke only to have them take it seriously? It seems that, despite our intentions, some will take things we say in a hurtful way, and we don't seem to be able to undo it. One of Murphy's Laws says: "Anything that can be misunderstood has been misunderstood." This is certainly true with the events in our text today, where Jesus' best actions were misunderstood by the Jewish leaders. Jesus' intentions were to perform a miracle and demonstrate beyond a doubt who He really was. Instead, the leaders took Jesus as an inconvenience of whom they had to rid themselves. Rather than see the wonderful proofs He gave and be in awe over the miracle, they saw Jesus as a source of trouble and were willing to stop at nothing to get rid of Him.

The whole situation in our text was a response to something Jesus did which should have been understood as a good thing. John 11 contains the account of Jesus raising His friend Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been dead four days and buried in the tomb. He was in there so long that his sister hesitated to have the tomb opened for Jesus because she thought there would be a strong odor.

The tomb was opened and Jesus called out to the dead Lazarus and out he came! The man who was dead now walked into their presence alive! What a wonderful miracle that Jesus had performed. It would be a delight to experience first-hand this sight of a dead man alive again. It is hard to imagine a person coming away from it without some sort of positive effect. Indeed, two verses prior to our text it reports than many believed in Jesus because of this miracle they witnessed.

Some of the Jewish political leaders were different in how they reacted. What happened with the chief priests and pharisees to cause them to have such a negative reaction? Their reaction was simply one of saying, "We don't like where this is going." "We don't like the eventual outcome of this situation."

They did not respond with outright unbelief. In the verse just prior to our text it says that some of those who observed the resurrection of Lazarus went and told the chief priests and pharisees what had happened. Consider what might be your first reaction if someone came and told you that they saw a dead person get up alive. I would think our first inclination might be to doubt the truth of the report. We might wonder if the person who said they saw this had been drinking or taking drugs. We would wonder if they were dreaming. We might wonder if they were pulling our leg, or just trying to outright deceive us.

Perhaps the chief priests and pharisees investigated the matter further. If they heard from the many witnesses or even saw Lazarus alive themselves, it would settle the matter of his current state. Then they might have started to doubt that Lazarus was actually dead in the first place. If Lazarus were not really dead, then what seemed like a resurrection was really just a hoax. He could have been asleep or unconscious. When Jesus called to him he would just wake up and come out.

It becomes harder to hold the view that some people thought it was a hoax when Jesus did His miracle. There would be positive confirmation that Lazarus was dead readily available, such as the grave cloths he was wrapped in and the witnesses of his burial. If they could not prove that he was dead, then many would have thought what Jesus did was a hoax. Jesus' reputation would have been tarnished, and certainly the apostles would not be willing to lay down their lives for one who was known as a hoax.

The response of the chief priests and pharisees was not to think that the resurrection Jesus performed was a hoax. When they gathered together, it was not their main concern as to whether the miracle was really performed. Their main concern was the outcome of Jesus' ministry. What would happen if people continued to believe in Jesus? They saw the situation progressing to the point that all people would believe in Jesus.

Do you see in this that their real concern was not whether Jesus performed a true miracle or just a hoax. Instead, what they were worried about was what would happen when everyone believed in Jesus. In fact, one could strongly suggest that the chief priests and pharisees did not doubt that Jesus had actually raised Lazarus from the dead.

This Sanhedrin looked, instead, into political affairs to find their worries about the future. They were concerned about the Roman rulers coming and taking away their things. They feared the loss of their place and nation.

See how they missed the big issue of who Jesus was and what He was doing among them? Instead, they focused on the minor issue of the Roman government reaction if everyone should believe.

Suppose, as an example, we were to respond the same way today to the suggestion that we actually go out and follow Jesus' command to make disciples of all nations. The opposition arises saying it would be a bad thing if all people were to believe in Jesus. This would be a bad thing they might say because my church would be too crowded. It might be a bad thing if all people were Christians because crime would decline and the jails would become empty putting all the guards out of work. You can think of other silly reasons not to want all people to believe in Christ.

We could lump all these excuses into the category of inconvenience. The chief priests and pharisees did not want all the people believing in Jesus because it would be inconvenient for them. They might lose their position. Their country might be persecuted. The real issues should have been "Who is this Jesus?" and "What does He want for me?" They missed the real issues and got hung up on the side issues of inconvenience.

Now we turn again to our Lenten theme of: reflection. When does inconvenience become a greater concern for you than belief in Jesus? When does Christian faith become "inconvenient" for you? Perhaps it is when you hear God's Word tell you to stop your favorite pet sin. Maybe when you need to admit you were wrong about something, you would rather back down from your faith. It could be that faith becomes inconvenient when it costs you money. Would you chose faith over your job if your boss asked you to break God's law? It might be inconvenient to obey all the laws of our government even though God commands us to do so.

It could be inconvenient to stand up for a confession, a particular set of beliefs, if our family members believe something different. Closed Communion, long a practice of the Christian church has become inconvenient in this tolerant age. Abortion has become all too convenient in our world, where couples do not want to be inconvenienced by children, and single mothers do not want to be inconvenienced by the results of their sexual behavior. Then there are those times when others will deny the Bible as God's true, authoritative word. There are others who will deny the basic articles of our faith, for example, saying that we are saved by our works. Does it, in fact, become inconvenient to suggest to anyone that there might be something wrong with what they believe?

The Jewish leaders found it inconvenient for Jesus to continue gaining believers. They never came straight out and denied that Jesus really raise Lazarus. They never really dealt with who Jesus was and is. Instead, their solution to the problem was to deny the truth that lay before them. Not only did they deny the truth, but they tried to destroy the truth.

The truth that lay before them was Jesus' true identity. He had done a miracle, a supernatural action, which only God could do. Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb and by doing so, He demonstrated that He is God. Over and over, Jesus proved He was God by what He did. That truth was hard for the Jewish leaders to face.

This led Caiaphas to his powerful statement. He begins with a put-down of his fellow leaders: "You know nothing at all!" Following this, he made a statement that determined the direction the Sanhedrin would follow. He said, "You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." His statement suggested that it would be to their advantage if Jesus were taken out of the picture-to be killed. He saw the alternative to this as being that all the people would perish. So, it was more convenient for them if Jesus would die than to admit that He was the truth. Therefore, from that day onward they planned how they might kill Him.

The powerful thing about Caiaphas' statement is that God led him to make it. He spoke as a prophet, speaking God's Word, because he was in the position of chief priest that year. He did not say it on His own, but God was speaking through him.

Now our Lord made what was an evil intention among the Sanhedrin work out for the good of His loved ones. They had an evil desire to destroy the one who had done the miracles among them and who was attracting believers. However, what they desired in an evil way, our Lord had long ago designed as His plan to save us. For Jesus would indeed die, as one man to save a nation. Indeed, as the text says, it was not just the nation of the Jews, but for all of God's people who are located all around the world. He would die on the cross for the "scattered children of God." Jesus' crucifixion would indeed pay the price for the sins of all people. One man would die so that all the rest would not have to die in eternal punishment.

Through the blessing of Jesus' death on the cross, the children of God would be drawn to Him. Christ would "bring them together and make them one." This, Jesus does, for He is the way and truth and life. He is the only route out of death and eternal punishment. All those who would be saved are united under the same Christ, who is our head. All those not under this Christ, all those who reject the saving work of Jesus upon the cross, all of other religions and of no religion at all are not united with those who are being saved. Christ draws us to Himself and His gospel unites us.

Christ was an inconvenience to the Jewish leaders and this led to His crucifixion. No doubt it was inconvenient for Jesus to die for all people. Yes, He suffered and died for us, but that was a good thing. It was convenient for us that He did. He is our inconvenient savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.