It Ain't Over Until It's Over

John 11:28-45 - November 7th, 2021

The Lord Be With You.

A parable on the Gospel …

There once was a man who was a do it yourselfer. He would tackle almost any job around the house and fix or mend broken or slightly damaged things. He always made sure to count the number of items when he would disassemble anything but, as he got older, he began to lose count. Invariably, once this guy fixed an item he would look around and find that there were extra screws, nuts or bolts laying around. But, it seemed, that the item he repaired worked so he didn’t think too much about it so he would just deposit those extra screws and nuts and bolts in a can and store them on a shelf in his garage. Of course, as the guy got even older, it seemed that he had collected quite a few bolts or nuts or screws. He just shrugged and let it go. One day, he was working on a wheelbarrow and, as usual, he had a couple of screws left. He ignored it until it came time to fill that wheelbarrow full of dirt and the wheels on each side fell off the axle. The man had forgotten to screw in the axle that held those wheels in place.

Here ends the parable.

Verse 37 reads, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” and it points to our tendency to look at what the current situation in our lives might be and forget the history of our lives that led up to that particular point. In others words, we sometimes ignore the past trying to give proof to the present. And Jesus was a bit put off by those folks that made that remark since He had done numerous miracles in His past that many saw.

He fed, after all, 9,000 plus people on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He had cured blind men. Cured the lame. Already raised a couple of people listed in the New Testament as well as many more not listed. And yet, the people there accused Jesus of being insincere. The verse is meant as a cut to Jesus. It’s saying, sure He could do those things then but He can’t do this now. In other words, what have you done for me lately? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Right? But those folks missed the whole point. They were short sighted. Even Mary and Martha. They couldn’t wait for the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say.

They couldn’t look beyond what is before them now to what was before them. They lost sight of the fact that Jesus was the only one in existence, at that time, that did the miracles He did that even their local magician couldn’t do. That Jesus was the truth even when all around them only told them part of the truth which is just a lie in and of itself. They didn’t learn what they were supposed to learn. Sort of like this story I’m reminded of …

You see, a student in a biology class was given the assignment to learn about birds. He was to learn the classification, the scientific name, the common name, and characteristics of all the birds. The professor said, “Learn everything about them.”

The day of the exam, the student was horrified when he looked at the test giving the birds pictured from their knees down. He knew the birds well but couldn’t identify any of them from their knees down. He tossed his paper onto the pile of exams on the instructor’s table and explained his frustration.

The unsympathetic professor said, “Well, you’ll just have to take a zero. I told you to learn everything about them. What’s your name, Son?”

The boy reached down and pulled up his pants to his knees and said, “You tell me!”

I’ve called this message, “It Ain’t Over Until It’s Over” because in every miracle story, in the New Testament, there are multiple parts and purposes for each. The bulk of this passage is about the raising of Lazarus and what it all meant. What do the conversations concerning Jesus’ ability to raise Lazarus really point to? And what does that say about all the people doing the asking? Mary, in this passage, is not the focus of what John writes. Neither is Martha. But the real focus is all the people that made the comment that, well, Jesus must not really be all that cause He can’t do this thing, otherwise He wouldn’t have allowed it to happen anyways.

It goes further, in that now, Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus, according to some, must not be that special to Jesus if He would have let him, their brother, their loved one, die when He had cured others and raised still others from the dead. So, that’s the scene that Jesus is being drug into. So stay with me here cause it gets a little off what almost everyone thinks is going on.

The shortest verse in all of the New Testament is what? Anyone? Yea, verse 35, “Jesus wept.” Right? However, most, if not all people interpret that verse as Jesus having empathy with either Mary and Martha or Lazarus himself. Not the case. Jesus wasn’t empathetic with Mary or Martha and certainly not with those unbelievers in the crowds. When Jesus raised someone it was done in private. But here, He’s gotta do it in public. To get a real idea of what Jesus was feeling, you gotta go back two verses where it says that “he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.”

You see, the Greek meaning of the English word “deeply” is defined as anger or indignation. It is illustrated in Daniel 11:30 where it talks about venting God’s fury against the holy covenant. And the Greek meaning of the English word “moved” is defined as agitated or troubled with intensity. So, the two put together would be intensely agitated with anger. And, if you read this, with that substitution, it takes on a whole different meaning. You see, Jesus was not there weeping for Lazarus in so much as He was angered that He was gonna have to show these folks gathered, who had dissed him earlier, that He really was who He has always said He was. The Son of Man. The Son of God. We know this because He’s addressing the whole crowd by the use of the word, “you”. It’s plural in form. Not singular. Jesus was just ticked off.

It says right after in verse 38, “Jesus, once more deeply moved”. Or, converted, it says, He was once more, intensely angered and agitated. Folks, even Jesus got frustrated. We see that several times in the words that He used and in the actions that He did. And, it’s no wonder. He had already told Mary and Martha that Lazarus’ sickness will not end in death in verse 4. When they didn’t believe Him, He told them that He would prove it in verse 15. And then finally He says anyone who believes in Him shall never die in verses 25 through 26.

You know folks, we go through some pretty tough times ourselves. We come here on Sundays or view it at home on Sundays or during the week and we think to ourselves that we believe or think we want to believe but then the world comes knocking at our door. We get trapped into the endless cycle of conflict after conflict. We see that our country is heading down a path that’s unsustainable and it’s directly affecting us in some ways. Maybe some of our loved ones or even ourselves are getting laid off and then the company complains that it doesn’t have enough people to do the work. We have a tendency to pray to God and/or Jesus and say if only you’ll do this then I’ll do that. But, remember, at one time “The Good Old Days” were referred to as “These Trying Times.”

So here, in verse 41, Jesus is talking to God and doesn’t ask Him for anything but gives thanks for the blessings He has already been given. Can we do the same? Can we put aside our rational world long enough to believe that death has no hold on us? This verse 41 is the first time in the Gospel of John that Jesus addresses God as Father. His prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving rather than an intercessory prayer because He’s certain of His relationship with His father. Are we so certain? Do we believe, truly believe, that God needs us as much as we need Him? After all, He created us didn’t He? It’s like the Pillsbury dough-boy who was recently interviewed and asked how he could always maintain such a joyful disposition in spite of the fact he was a bit overweight and so pale in complexion. His answer was simple: He kept such a disposition because his mother always KNEADED him.

Jesus points the people to God, the Father, here and earlier in Chapter 5:19-30 and then in chapter 10:32-39. Maybe we can look upwards to heaven rather than our usual habit of downwards towards the earth. Maybe we can get it into our hearts that God really does have it all under control. He gave us freewill, after all, to be able to turn this world over to Him. That doesn’t mean that we walk around in a mindless haze but it does mean that we accept whatever comes along and use our God given freewill to make choices that reflect on what’s written in the bible. Accept our God given gifts and blessings that He lays at our feet each and every day we get out of bed. Know that, in the end, our eternity with Him beats literally anything and everything that we can even comprehend which exists here on this earth. Folks, that means we gotta have a conversation with the father each and every day. A conversation that begins in our hearts and flows out of our mouths to just talk. And listen. I mean really listen.

Today is All Saints day. A day to honor all the saints that have gone on to be with the Father. You know they’re having a great time. They get to spend each and every second in the voice and presence of the One that exudes a kind of deep love and warmth that goes beyond any and all human understanding. They get to walk around and see all those people who never gave up. Never gave in. They get to know the truth as it’s never been told. We can too. We can walk around here, on this earth, and remember that we’re in the presence of the One that created it all and feel His presence in our very being. If only we can stop long enough and see it. Or hear it. Or we can be like the guy in the parable and lose our loads because we haven’t put all the pieces back together again.

Those pieces? They’re the bits and pieces that you’ve learned throughout your years and those that others have tried to teach you. They’re the parts that are needed to carry around the weight of this world in your own cart. They’re the axle that drives the wheels of your life to enable you to keep looking heavenward and know that He’s helping you through the fields of your lives.

The man in the parable shows us that each individual part of our lives is essential because it’s what makes us who we are. By not replacing all the individual screws and nuts and bolts in the items he fixed, it’s not really repaired. We can also have parts of our own lives fall apart by not having our Saviour repair and assemble us to do the tasks we’re meant to do. When we ignore those parts of our lives that are essential for us to be able to carry the trials of this world, like the dirt in the wheelbarrow, then we will fall and stumble because our support, the axle, has not been affixed to our lives. We can choose to always relook at how we’re assembling our lives so that we can be prepared for anything that we may have to carry. Or we can ignore the very parts, Jesus, that should’ve been included and we might find our own lives broken to the point of non-repair.

Our choices are in seeing what may be missing which can then lead to seeing the very gifts of Jesus that are presented to us to fill our lives with the grace and mercy only God can give. And by doing that then we can avoid the here and now of what the world is telling you the truth rather than what Jesus is telling you is the truth. We can choose to sit back and take stock or we can go on thinking that it’ll all work out regardless of what’s missing. It’s your choice. Make it wisely. Something to think about! Something to pray about?

Can we pray? …

Father, we pray for your guidance and your help in us making it through each of our days. Help us to assemble our lives so that you are not left on the shelf. Help us to look closely at where we put our trust so that we can lift the burdens ever more better. Help us to see all the beauty and majesty that you’ve created to lift our lives to giving thanks that you have a purpose for us here. Father give us strength to endure. Give us hope that will last. Give us purpose to be the disciples you created us to be. Fill us with your grace and your abundant love. We pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ.

And all God’s people said – Amen?!

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