THE PRELUDE

THE MESSAGE

            Nearly thirteen years ago, I retired from federal service.  For my retirement, my staff organized a lunch to honor me.  In addition to the luncheon, they gave gifts, gave speeches, and shared memories.  It was very nice to be honored, and I hope I never have to do it again. It is hard to be honored and not let all the praise go to your head.

            Within the Gospel of John, Jesus had one meal given in his honor.  Spoiler alert.  Jesus did not let it go to his head.  Chronologically, the meal in Jesus’ honor came immediately after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  That seems like a good reason to honor someone with dinner.  John wrote, “1Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead” (John 12:1). Bethany was a village about a 30- to 45-minute walk from Jerusalem.

John added a few more details about this dinner.  He wrote, “2bMartha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him [Jesus]” (John 12:2b). So far, this story mentions Jesus, Lazarus, and Martha.  Who were Martha and Lazarus?  John 11:5 says, “5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister [unnamed] and Lazarus” (John 11:5). In Chapter 11, we meet Martha, her sister, and Lazarus, a family Jesus knew and loved.  This means the meal in Chapter 12 continues the story begun in Chapter 11.

Spending just a few moments in Chapter 11, we might remember that Lazarus became very ill while Jesus was at the place where John the Baptist had baptized people after they repented of their sins.  This place was called, coincidentally, Bethany beyond the Jordan, about 25 miles from Bethany near Jerusalem.  Knowing the seriousness of Lazarus’ illness, “3 The sisters sent word to Jesus, 'Lord, the one you love is sick’” (John 11:3). After receiving this news from the sisters, Jesus waited two more days before traveling to Bethany near Jerusalem.  Before leaving to see Lazarus, Jesus said to his disciples, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him” (John 11:15).

When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days. Martha, hearing of Jesus’ arrival, left the family home to be with Jesus.  When Martha reached Jesus, she said, “21 ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’…25 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die’” (John 11:21, 25-26).  Shortly after this exchange, Lazarus’ previously unnamed sister, Mary, heard Jesus was in Bethany.  Like Martha, she left the family home to find Jesus.  The text says the Jews who were with Mary to comfort her also left the house to be with her.  When Mary and the Jews found Jesus, “32b Mary fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’ (John 11:32b). Each sister made the same confession of faith.  Martha did so privately.  Mary did so in the presence of the Jews who had come to comfort her.

We know that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  John wrote, “45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him” (John 11:45). In this story, John emphasizes Mary and her relationship to the “Jews.”  In the Gospel of John, the word “Jews” refers to religious leaders who consistently fought Jesus and would not believe in him.  Yet at the raising of Lazarus, many believed in Jesus.

When the Jewish High Priest heard about the raising of Lazarus from the dead and that members of his own inner circle now believed in Jesus, “53 They [The High Priest and other leaders] plotted to take his [Jesus] life” (John 11:53b) and Lazarus’ as well (John 12:10).

This sign, Lazarus’ rising from the dead, was the last of the seven signs John recorded in the Gospel that pointed to who Jesus was.  That sign overwhelmed the unbelief of the Jews. And it was the sign that triggered a determined plan to kill Jesus.  This sign sets the stage for the meal held in Jesus’ honor.

At that dinner, Lazarus reclined at the table with Jesus’ Twelve disciples, and Martha served.  Food was being served.  Conversations unfolded.  John broke into the scene with these words: “3Then Mary” (John 12:3). John’s abrupt introduction of Mary, “Then Mary,” makes clear that something unexpected and profound was about to happen.  By now, we should expect that whenever Jesus had a meal, something spiritually profound was about to happen.  John’s sharp introduction of Mary showed that Mary was interrupting the dinner.  “3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet” (John 12:3a). Mary, the woman whom the Jews came to comfort after the death of her brother, entered the dining area.  She did so not to eat or speak.  Instead, Mary entered carrying a jar of perfume so costly that selling it would meet a person’s daily needs for one year.  Mary had a mission.  Slowly and carefully, without a word, she made her way to Jesus, who was reclining at the table.  Everyone’s eyes were locked on her movements.  Eating and talking, the normal activities of dinner, ceased. Upon reaching Jesus, Mary opened the jar and poured out that perfume upon his feet.  Not some of it.  But all of it.  All 16 ounces of perfume.  A year’s worth of living expenses.  Before dinner began, Jesus’ feet, along with everyone else's at the table, had been washed. So Mary’s act went beyond washing his feet.  No one spoke. They only watched.  Then Mary increased the scene’s tension by letting down her hair and wiping Jesus’ perfumed feet with it.  At that time, only a husband was to enjoy a woman's hair. John wrote, “Mary wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:3b). The house fell silent.

  The dominant sense was that of smell.  Perfume. The scent was everywhere.  What did Mary mean by interrupting the dinner honoring Jesus?

            I suspect Mary did not see her action as an interruption.  The dinner was to honor Jesus.  In her own way, Mary wanted to honor Jesus extravagantly.  Mary might have thought, “Of what sense does it make to keep this expensive perfume for me, when I could use it to honor the Christ? Now, even the Jews were seeing who Jesus was and believing.  The world had changed.  What need do I have of perfume?”  So Mary poured out her prized perfume, giving it all to Jesus and holding nothing back. Mary had acted with extravagant hospitality, honor, and consecration of Jesus.  The moment was quiet, and tension was building as all eyes moved from Mary to Jesus and back again, awaiting Jesus’ response.

            “But then,” John writes, interrupting the moment's intense quiet.  All eyes shifted to the voice.  Someone else was interrupting the scene.  It was a man’s voice, but not Jesus '.  “4 But [then] one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages’” (John 12:4-5).  Judas’ words had an edge because they scolded Mary as wasteful rather than admirable.  Judas’ loud and foul words sharply contrast with Mary’s silent movements and fragrant perfume.  To this contrast, John gave us some insights into Judas’ motivation: “6 He [Judas] did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it” (John 12:6). John’s addition shows Mary’s motivations and Judas’ in using the perfume were profoundly different.  Mary used the perfume to honor and worship Jesus.  Judas sought to steal the perfume’s value for himself.

            Just then another voice was heard.  “7 Leave her alone.”  Those words came from Jesus.  They were firm and directed toward one person, Judas.  Jesus’ words did not invite a response from Judas.  They were directive, an order: “Leave her alone.”  To Mary, Jesus’ words were a welcome relief. To Judas, Jesus’ words stung, as Jesus chose sides with a woman over one of his Twelve.  With Jesus’ command, the tension at dinner rose higher.  Jesus then added even more by giving Mary’s worship of him a broader meaning.  Jesus said, “It was intended that she [Mary] should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me” (John 12:7-8).  Everyone was quiet.  What did Jesus mean by "saved for the day of his burial”?  Before this occasion, in John’s Gospel account, Jesus made veiled references to being 'lifted up' (3:14; 8:21-22), but he never spoke of dying.  Jesus’ death would be an unimaginable nightmare for the Twelve.  If Mary had saved this perfume for his burial and used it now, would that mean Jesus' death was near?  The dinner to honor Jesus became an extraordinary turning point: a clash between open, personal worship and secretive greed, underscored by the fragrance of deep love and a coming death.

            Before the scene could be sorted out, “9 A large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he [Jesus] had raised from the dead” (John 12:9). Mary’s comforters, the Jews, now in greater numbers, were coming to Jesus in faith.  This was the turning point in Jesus’ ministry.  But not the one the Twelve had hoped for, where the religious leadership would be forced to accept Jesus as the Christ.  Instead, Jesus said it was a turning point toward his death and burial.  John lets us know this with the arrival of the believing Jews: “10 The Chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him” (John 12:10). This now completes the story started in Chapter 11 of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, as we never hear about them again.

            Dinner with Jesus was always a moment of great drama and deep theological significance.  There was no simple meal.  And we are always left with the question, “What then am I to do now with the understanding I have of this passage?”  John did not write these words to us, but for us.  So what then are we to do?

            The story of dinner honoring Jesus had two contrasting characters: Mary and Judas.  We can learn from both.

            From Mary, we learn that love for Jesus is best shown in worship and outreach.  Let’s start with outreach first.  Mary, for whoever she was in life, had deep connections with the Jews of Jerusalem.  They were her friends, perhaps even family members.  Whoever Mary was, the Jews came to comfort her when her brother, Lazarus, died. The Jews, as John calls them throughout the gospel, were largely synonymous with what we call today unbelievers. The Jews did not believe in Jesus. But the Jews' unbelief did not keep Mary from doing two important things.

First, Mary's belief in Jesus never wavered.  She sent word to Jesus when Lazarus fell ill, and she ran to Jesus when he arrived in Bethany after Lazarus had died.  Mary publicly testified to her faith in Jesus before her unbelieving friends, saying to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Mary’s faith did not rise and shrink depending upon her audience.  She believed always, even in front of her unbelieving friends.  We should ask ourselves, “Am I a chameleon with my faith? Am I sold out for Christ with Christians, but a “sellout” in front of nonbelievers?”  Mary’s confident faith opened doors for nonbelievers to become believers.  Are we doing likewise?  Are we making our faith known and real to nonbelievers, opening doors for them to come to faith?  I want to give you an awesome thought to consider.  To the non-believers who love and care for you, you are the closest thing they have to Jesus Christ.  For better or for worse, you are what they believe Jesus is like.  Is that an awesome thought or a terrifying one? Either way, don’t shrink from the reality.  Open doors to your non-believing loved ones.  Be confident in your faith, and act like it. 

Second, Mary knew that loving Jesus meant loving God.  She also knew that loving Jesus meant showing it through worship.  At that dinner, Mary worshipped Jesus above all others.  Her worship was costly.  It was public, but also very personal.  Mary broke social conventions to worship.  She was even scolded for her worship.  How about our worship of Jesus as an expression of our love for God?  Is it costly, public, and personal for us? Sometimes I think we make a mistake when we tell people, “I am going to church today.”  Or, as we drive by this building, we say, “That’s my church.”  I wonder if it would be better said, “Here I am to worship.”  Or, of this building, “That’s where I worship on Sundays.”  Worship is a powerful transforming experience.  It transforms our outlook and our understanding of the goodness God created for humanity and has preserved from the effects of sin.  Worship gives us the opportunity to share the inexpressible feelings that peace gives us.  Mary worshipped not in words but by anointing Christ's feet because it was the clearest way to express feelings language alone could not capture.  Mary’s example shows us our need to worship.  Doing so gives the worshipper inner peace and a place and way to express it.  I encourage you to worship the Lord.

This story shows that Mary leads us by example in outreach and worship.  What then can we learn from Judas?

Let’s think of Judas’ story this way.  Suppose you were alone in the woods.  You had a map to where you wanted to go.  You climb a hill.  You scan the horizon and realize the map doesn't match the terrain.  You check again.  You are in the right spot, but the map doesn't match the terrain.  So you conclude the map must be wrong and discard it, because following it will not get you where you want to go.  This is Judas’ story.  Judas believed in Jesus.  He believed Jesus would get him where he wanted to go.  Jesus was king of the Jews, and what of Judas?  Well, perhaps, having proved himself worthy with the group’s moneybag, he would have charge of the king’s treasury.  Yes, that would be nice.  Jesus was Judas' map.  But Mary’s extravagant worship and Jesus’ command to “Leave her alone” confirmed to Judas that his map and the terrain beneath his feet didn't match.  Following Jesus wouldn't get Judas where he wanted to go. In Judas’ mind, the map—Jesus—was therefore useless and had to be discarded.

What lesson does Judas offer us? It is this.  Jesus is the true map for our lives.  He came to give us life now and eternally.  If we follow him, then we will never hunger or thirst again. But what do we do when the terrain doesn't match the map?  We experience pain and loss.  We think, where is that on the map?  We get discouraged.  Again, this seems like a valley not on the map.  We begin to say to ourselves, “What good is this map?  I thought Jesus would take care of my every concern?  He said to pray.  I did.  He did not do what I wanted.  What good is this map?  By this, we really mean, ‘Does Jesus exist?  Should the map be discarded?’”

Sometimes the terrain beneath our feet is difficult and doesn't match what we want.  That is because the map, Jesus, leads us into righteousness, bringing us one step closer to Him every day.  Many of those moments of transformation occur under difficult personal circumstances.  Judas wanted nothing of it.  Jesus was not leading Judas where he wanted to go.  So, to Judas, betraying Jesus seemed like the right thing to do, given how disappointed Jesus had disappointed him.  Judas teaches us not to focus on our desires.  Instead, we should focus on what Jesus said: “Follow Me.” Let Jesus determine our destiny.

“Follow Me” sounds like a simple command.  Judas and many others couldn't do it because they couldn't reconcile where Jesus was going with where they wanted to go.  But Mary also reached a moment when the map she carried in her mind of what was to happen didn't match the terrain beneath her.  She poured perfume on Jesus’ feet as an act of worship.  But Jesus told Mary that she had anointed his body for burial. Mary was not expecting Jesus’ death, and no less than a death upon the cross.  In that moment, Mary could have left Jesus side, but she did not.  She stayed and worshipped him. 

Let us learn from Judas that our expectations may not match the direction Jesus is going, but we should not discard Christ; we should follow Him.  Let us learn from Mary that, no matter the terrain, we should worship Jesus and stay open to bringing the nonbelievers we love along with us.  Amen and Amen.

THE PRELUDE

THE MESSAGE

Have you ever had a mountaintop experience?  A mountaintop experience is a temporary, profound moment of spiritual clarity, divine revelation, or intense emotional and personal breakthrough.  Moses had such an experience.  He was drawn to the mountaintop and received the Ten Commandments from God.  John’s Gospel records Jesus repeating that mountaintop experience when he took his disciples up the mountain to teach them. On the mountaintop with Jesus, the disciples stood in awe as Jesus took five barley loaves and two fish, multiplied them, and fed over 5,000 people.  The feeding of the 5,000 was a profound moment of spiritual clarity and made it unmistakable that Jesus was from God.  It set Jesus apart from Moses, the dominant personality of the Jewish people.  The Twelve could see that, but the well-fed crowd saw Jesus as something else.  John said that Jesus, “15 Perceiving then that they [the crowd] were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (John 6:15).  To the people, Jesus appeared as perhaps a new Moses, able to feed them endless amounts of bread and fish.  Jesus did not want the people trying to force a change to God’s plan or see him as another Moses.

John wrote that after Jesus departed from the disciples and the crowd, “16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going” (John 6:16-21).  Seeing Jesus walk on the water was another mountaintop experience for Jesus’ disciples.  But Jesus walking upon the water was another sign that Jesus was not a new Moses.  God parted the Red Sea so Moses and the Hebrew people could walk on dry ground through the sea.  Moses needed God to part the sea because he and the Hebrews could walk only on dry ground.  That was true for them, and it is true for us as well.  Jesus walking upon a moving sea was not humanly possible.  So Jesus walking on the water dispelled any idea that he was a new Moses and just human.  Jesus was and is superior to Moses in all regards because he is also divine.

The next day after Jesus walked on the water, the crowds that had followed Jesus awoke with stomachs desiring food.  But they saw neither Jesus nor his disciples.  So they got in boats and rowed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. “25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26 Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves’” (John 6:25-26).  The crowd still saw Jesus as a new Moses able to fill their stomachs.  They worked that morning against the wind and waves to row their boats in search of Jesus that they might be fed more bread and fish.

Jesus told the crowd plainly, “27 Do not work for the food that perishes” (John 6:27).  The crowd had in mind that, “Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” (John 6:30).  They wanted bread from Jesus and were willing to physically follow him to receive it as their ancestors had followed Moses and received bread from him.  Jesus reminded the crowd, “It was not Moses who gave the bread, but my Father” (John 6:32a). Jesus also said, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and died” (John 6:49).

That morning, the crowd rowed boats to find Jesus so they could be fed bread.  Jesus said, “27Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27).  There is that word again that is so important: but.  “Do not work for that which perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27).  The message was clear.  Do not work only for food to keep your body alive.  Food is perishable, as is your body.  Do not work alone or only for food, as your ancestors did; they all ate and died.

But.  “But [do work] for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27b).  Jesus was revealing his identity as the Son of Man, someone on whom God the Father had set his seal.  Setting a seal on someone was symbolic: a sign of something greater.  To set a seal meant you were authenticating, authorizing, or otherwise granting someone the full backing of the sealer’s authority.  Whatever, or in this case whoever, bore the seal was the sender's true word.  Jesus was the true word of God the Father.  Whatever message Jesus gave the crowd, whatever words He spoke, were God's very words.

The crowd, now wanting food that was imperishable and led to eternal life, said to Jesus, “28 What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28).   Said most simply, “What work does lead to eternal life, then must we do?”  “29 Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him [Jesus] whom he [God the Father] has sent’ (John 6:29). Here then was the key to understanding this passage.  The work that leads to eternal life is to believe in Jesus and God who sent him. Believe!

But here, belief is not intellectual assent, as one might believe that 4 plus 4 equals 8.  To “believe” as Jesus uses it here means so much more, far deeper, more transformative, and more trusting.  If we do not understand this point, we could miss the entire message of this passage. Let’s walk through this important point together.

While we have read from this passage in Chapter 6, this passage began in Chapter 5 with Jesus arguing with the religious leaders, telling them, “39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40).  The religious leaders did not believe in Jesus.  They were unbelievers.  They turned away from Jesus.  They worked for their daily bread, ate it, and would one day die.  There would be no eternal life because they never believed. Many people today do not believe. They will work for their daily bread, eat it, and one day die for all eternity separated from God.

Two other groups, however, followed Jesus.  There was a crowd of disciples and Jesus’ Twelve.  Both groups were believers.  The crowd of disciples believed Jesus was a prophet sent to fulfill the work of the prophet Moses promised.  They saw Jesus multiply the loaves and fishes, and they wanted him to do it again and again.  They had a belief in Jesus.  Jesus’ Twelve believed in Jesus, but differently than the crowd.  The Twelve saw Jesus as the prophet, the Messiah, the Son of God, and they had answered Jesus’ call to “Follow me.”

   The crowd said to Jesus, “30 Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?” (John 6:30).  Ugh!  “Jesus, what sign can you do, what work can you perform, that we would believe you?” The crowd of disciples believed in Jesus but not as one sent by God to lead them to the Father.  They wanted more signs, probably more food.  Jesus tried again, saying, 33b “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32b-33).  “34 They [The crowd] said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always’ (John 6:34).

The crowd’s response, “Sir, give us this bread,” signals to John’s original readers that the crowd misunderstood: they thought Jesus was speaking of physical bread.  We see Jesus correcting the crowd’s misunderstanding in the next verse: “35 Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe’” (John 6:35-36).  These verses hold the key to understanding what Jesus has been talking about and what is about to happen.  Understood properly, picking up that key is a mountaintop experience of great spiritual clarity.  The key, of course, centers on the word “believe.”  And I hope that I can adequately illuminate its importance.

We have heard the word believe time and again.  Jesus used it here with the crowd of disciples.  John’s Gospel contains the most treasured verse of the New Testament with the word believe: “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  But what does believe mean when it comes to our relationship with Christ?

We said earlier that the religious leaders did not believe in Jesus and turned away from him.  We know people in our own lives who do not believe in Jesus.  So we know what unbelief looks like.  Knowing what unbelief looks like leads us to think that the opposite of unbelief must be belief.  But.  There is always a but.  But the opposite of unbelief is not belief.  Why is that? Because even Satan, unclean spirits, and demons believed in Jesus as the Christ but were not saved, as John 3:16 promised.  Draw that in for a moment.  Even evil believes; perhaps a stronger word than believed could be used with Satan and his minions: they “knew” who Jesus was.  They had no doubts whatsoever that Jesus was the Son of God, but their belief did not lead to salvation.  So the opposite of unbelief is not belief.  Scripture calls for a dimension of belief in Jesus beyond simply acknowledging who Jesus is.  What is that added dimension?  I think the best word to describe this added dimension is the word surrender.  The belief Jesus was speaking about leads to surrender.

Surrender.  What does it mean to surrender?  The word is most often used in the context of an armed combatant dropping their weapons and giving themselves over to a superior combatant.  I think I can safely say that none of us have experienced surrender in that way.  So it may be hard for us to relate.  Perhaps we should look at surrender in a way we can all relate to.  Some of you have personally surrendered in life.  And if we have not personally surrendered, we have a loved one who has.  Some of you have had life-threatening illnesses.  Perhaps it was a heart condition, cancer, or injuries from an accident, to cite a few examples.  All of us have had a loved one with a life-threatening condition.  What do we do when faced with this reality?  We seek medical help.  We seek out a surgeon or other physician.  We listen to what they have to say about our condition and a course of treatment.  And then we believe.  We believe that they can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And so we surrender our bodies to them. In that surrender we place our life in their hands.  We allow them to put us to sleep.  To cut into us with sharp instruments to remove cancers or correct defective blood vessels.  We surrender to allow them to use the right doses of lethal toxins and radiation to kill cancers without killing us.  We surrender in trust because we believe they can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. That is a picture of belief we can all relate to and have experienced or witnessed.

When we apply that illustration of belief, belief unto surrender to Christ so that he can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, we see that Satan, unclean spirits, and demons, while they believe, are not saved because they will not surrender to Christ.  Watch how this played out in John 6.  When Jesus addressed the crowd of disciples, “35 Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe’” (John 6:35-36).  The crowd of disciples had not surrendered to him.

  When Jesus pressed on.  “53 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-55).  “60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” (John 6:60).  “66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66).  People who believed in Jesus, who claimed themselves as his disciples, were likely baptized, left Jesus, and never returned. They believed but would not surrender to him.  They, like Satan and his minions, believed in Jesus but would not yield themselves to him.

Jesus then turned to the Twelve: “67 You do not want to leave too, do you?”  68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:67-68). The Twelve believed unto surrender and knew that Jesus could give them life they could not give themselves. What a beautiful ending.

But.  To make sure his readers understood belief unto surrender, John added this postscript. 70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him) (John 6:70-71).  Judas' belief in Jesus was like that of Satan’s belief.  He believed but never surrendered.  Judas believed in Jesus, yet he came to betray Christ rather than surrender to him.

Where does this leave you and me?  Using bread, Jesus revealed that he is the bread of life, who had come down from heaven to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  He came to give us abundant life now and eternally. But that blessing was only for those who believed, surrendering to Him.  I think all of you here today believe in Jesus Christ.  But I leave you with this question: “Do I believe unto surrender?”

THE PRELUDE

THE MESSAGE

            October is a good month in our area.  Many apple orchards have reached harvest time, and picking has begun.  Workers do this, or, increasingly, families enjoy the chance to pick apples.  When families pick apples, it is a recreational activity, not one their survival depends on.  That is not true of all crop harvesting.  For all of us, farmers must harvest crops to provide the food we need to live and thrive. In Biblical times, I think we can safely say every harvest was essential.  There were few, if any, social safety nets to cover shortages.  Most food items were perishable.  The phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us our daily bread,” showed a daily reliance upon God’s provision.

The fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, however, offers a different understanding of food and harvests as essential to our survival and thriving.  That account begins with an awkward introduction.  John wrote, “1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee” (John 4:1-3). We have five characters mentioned here. Jesus, Jesus’ disciples, John the Baptist, John’s disciples, and the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders. To understand what is happening in verse 1 of Chapter 4, we need to turn back a page to the end of Chapter 3. There we would read, “25 Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification” (John 3:25).  John the Baptist had disciples, and the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees, had a continuing interest in John and his baptismal practices and their meaning for purification.  We see that in Chapter 1 of John, where he wrote, “19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews [Pharisees] sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him [John], ‘Who are you?’ 20 He [John] confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ 21 And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He [John] said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he [John] answered, ‘No.’… 24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him [John], ‘Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’ (John 1:19-21, 24-25).

Why were the Pharisees so interested in John?  There are a few reasons.  First, the Pharisees practiced ritual washing by immersion to make themselves ceremonially clean for worship and service.  Each person immersed themselves to make themselves outwardly clean. On the other hand, John’s baptism was for the repentance of sin, an act that signified inward cleanliness.  John baptized the person.  People being baptized did not do it themselves, as was done in a Jewish ritual bath.  Second, the Pharisees believed the Messiah would purify the nation with water.  Ezekiel 36:25-26 was a key passage.  “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:25-26).  And so the Pharisees wondered whether John the Baptist was fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel, hence the questions: “Are you the Christ? Are you the Prophet?”  The Pharisees wanted to know John’s authority and purpose for baptizing for inner purity. They also asked, “Are you Elijah?” because John was baptizing along the River Jordan, where Elijah had ascended into heaven.  Moreover, John the Baptist dressed like Elijah.  Elijah wore a garment of hair with a leather belt about his waist (2 Kings 1:8). John wore camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist (Mark 1:6). So, the Pharisees were interested in the authority of John, the type and meaning of his baptism, and his creating disciples.  The Pharisees wondered, “Were John’s baptisms a sign that God was acting upon the Messianic prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures?” 

So when the Pharisees learned that Jesus, in reality, it was his disciples, were also baptizing people, and more people than John, it would have been natural for the Pharisees to pursue Jesus with the same set of questions: “Are you the Messiah?  Are you the Prophet?  Are you Elijah?”  Jesus would answer those questions, but on his timetable, not the Pharisees'.  So Jesus moved away from Jerusalem and the inquisitive Pharisees and toward Galilee.  John wrote, “4 And [to get to Galilee] he [Jesus] had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour [noon]” (John 4:4-6).  The text says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria.  In one sense, this is not a true statement. Jesus could go to Galilee without going through Samaria.  So the sense we should have here is that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” was a compelling movement of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was moved to pass through Samaria because essential work needed doing.

John placed Jesus in Samaria, at the location of Jacob’s well. Jacob, who would be renamed Israel, fathered 12 sons, each representing the different named tribes of Israel. This New Testament scene is steeped in Old Testament imagery and meaning.  John said Jesus was weary.  He was experiencing the natural tiredness of the human body, brought on by work, travel, and a lack of rest, food, and water.

John then wrote, “7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans) (John 4:7-8).  Let’s pause there for a moment.  The opening of chapter 4 describes an increasing number of baptisms by Jesus' disciples, who are absent from this scene because they all went into town to get food, leaving Jesus alone at the well to encounter a Samaritan woman.  This account has two interrelated storylines. One storyline follows Jesus’ disciples, and it appears to be told through an illustration involving food.  The second storyline introduces us to a Samaritan woman and her encounter with Jesus at the well.  So we now see that a second storyline is present involving water from the well of a descendant of Abraham and Isaac, namely Jacob, the founding father of the tribes of Israel.  That second story of Israel’s history and standing with God is told not through an interaction with Israel's most revered members, the Pharisees, but through a Samaritan woman.  John begins two stories: one about Jesus and his disciples, and the second about Jesus and a Samaritan woman.  John turned to the second story first, which we will only look at briefly.  And we begin with John’s parenthetical last line, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”

Why did Jews not deal with the Samaritans?  Because the Jews believed the Samaritans were in a continual state of external uncleanliness, and anything they touched would likewise be unclean.  This Samaritan woman stands in stark contrast to the Pharisees, who were exceptionally careful to remain ceremonially clean through frequent spiritual baths.  Jesus' decision to speak with this woman and ask her for a drink showed John’s readers that Jesus was unconcerned with the external. He was concerned with the lost. People are not lost because they do or do not engage in ceremonial washings.  They are lost and are only saved through the grace Jesus offers to wash and make right their inner being.

In the interest of time, I want to look at just a couple of points from Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman.  “16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ 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 now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’ 19 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet' (John 4:16-19).  The Samaritan people are descendants of the tribe of Joseph and the tribe of Levi. These tribes once followed the five books of the Torah.  In Scripture, marriage often describes a people’s relationship with God.  Jesus’ allusion to this woman having had five husbands speaks to her personal life but, more broadly, his statement applies to the lives of the Samaritan people.  At one time, the Samaritans were part of the nation of Israel gifted with the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, to husband the people.  When the Assyrians conquered the northern tribes of Israel, many of Joseph's tribes and the Levites stayed on the land and intermarried with the Assyrian conquerors, becoming the Samaritans. The Samaritans developed their own Scripture, taking some from the Torah and mixing it with Assyrian beliefs.  This is suggested by the allusion that the woman, and the Samaritan people, had no husband at all.  Their relationship with God through their own scripture was illegitimate.  Having heard Jesus speak about her marriage and illegitimate relationship, she said to Jesus, “You must be a prophet.”

And so we have here a Samaritan woman, someone as far away from being a pious male Pharisee as you can be, saying Jesus is a prophet.  Then “25 The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things’” (John 4:25).  Again, a Samaritan woman, not a pious Pharisee, is contemplating Jesus' identity as either a prophet or the Messiah.  Now to end her contemplation, Jesus says most plainly, “26  ‘I who speak to you am he’” (John 4:26).  So Jesus, seeking to avoid the Pharisees and their questions about his identity, “Are you the Messiah?  Are you the Prophet?  Are you Elijah?,” revealed his identity as prophet and Messiah to the least likely person, a Samaritan woman.  Why? Because he had to pass through Samaria, and the time had come to let others know that God wanted all nations to come to Him.

Just at this pivotal moment in the second story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, the first story of Jesus and his disciples jumps back to life. John wrote, “27 Just then his disciples came back [from town buying food]. They marveled that he [Jesus] was talking with a woman [a Samaritan no less], but no one said, [to her] “What do you seek?” or, [to Him] “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ 30 They [the people of the Samaritan town] went out of the town and were coming to him [Jesus]” (John 4:27-30).  So the woman could not even wait to fill her water jar before going to town to share that she had met God’s Christ at Jacob’s well. The response to her testimony was immediate.  People began flowing out of the town to meet Jesus.  This completes the story of the Samaritan woman.  But her story is necessary to understand the story and the teaching for Jesus’ disciples and for us.

John returned to the disciples’ story.  John wrote, “31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat. ’ " (John 4:31).  The disciples who left Jesus and went to town for food are now urging Jesus to eat something. They wanted Jesus to eat.  We now know that mealtime with Jesus is never simply about food and calories.  It was always a time of divine revelation.  “32 But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about ’" (John 4:32).  Jesus’ response caught the disciples off guard.  No doubt the disciples had managed all the supplies, including food.  They knew they were out of food and needed to go into town to buy some, which they did. Jesus had no separate stash of food. “33 So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’” (John 4:33). They took Jesus’ words literally, believing someone had stopped by and left him food.   We soon see this is a misunderstanding.  John often uses misunderstandings to bring Christ's divine revelations to life.

“34 Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work' (John 4:34).  Jesus food is to do God’s will.  He did God’s will by obediently going through Samaria and by engaging in conversation with a Samaritan woman.  That was Jesus’ food.

Food, we know, is the substance that gives our bodies life and energy.  When we seriously lack food, we feel weary, lethargic, and grumpy.  But when we eat, we feel satisfied, joyful, and energized. Jesus used food as a metaphor. Jesus was saying that doing God’s will—specifically the spiritual work of revealing himself and leading people to faith—nourished and satisfied him more than physical food.  Jesus was always looking for the opportunity to reveal himself to those whom others would be lost.  Doing so satisfied Him because He was doing what God the Father desired most. This is spiritual food.

Jesus said the disciples knew nothing of this, at least in part, because they had become focused on physical food alone.  All the disciples had left Jesus by the well to go to town to buy food.  Physical food was foremost in their minds.  While in town, none of them shared the good news.  The disciples had already called Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, the prophet promised by Moses, and the Christ; they were practicing baptisms, yet none told the Samaritans Jesus was at Jacob’s well, a short walk away.  The disciples returned to Jesus from the town, spiritually empty-handed.   The Samaritan woman, on the other hand, spoke about Jesus as the Christ, and the townspeople began walking to the well.  They were eager to see and experience Jesus for themselves.  Jesus said, “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 town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 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” (John 4:38-40).  Jesus had labored, the Samaritan woman had labored, and the townspeople of Sychar of Samaria were saved.  Jesus' disciples, having had their fill of bread, may have been there to baptize the people as a final symbol of commitment to Christ, but they had largely missed an opportunity to do God’s will.

What do we learn from these stories that help us in our faith journey?  Let’s start with the second story of the Samaritan woman.  Drawing from the Old Testament understanding that marriage is used to illustrate our relationship with God, the woman’s story of multiple husbands and illegitimate marital relationships teaches us that we must be husbanded by God’s Word, his written word and his living word, Jesus.  We would understand this point in the Gospels.

• “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper [husbandman] of the vineyard.  He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2). God husbands his people, caring for them and, yes, pruning when and where it is needed.
• “For my [Jesus] flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55).  Our standing with God comes through one relationship, through Jesus.  All other spiritual relationships are illegitimate.
• “1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.3 And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ 4 But he answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Quoting Deuteronomy 8:3) (Matthew 4:1-4). Throughout Scripture, we are told that God’s Word, in text and in the person of Jesus, is the source of life and the bond of our relationship with Him.

We therefore see in the second story that the Samaritan woman’s life was transformed when she encountered the living word of God and understood he was the prophet and Messiah she had always desired.  We must then ask ourselves, with whom do we have our primary relationship in life?  Are we wed to God through Jesus Christ and husband by God’s Word?

            The second lesson comes from the first story with Jesus, his disciples, and food.  Jesus found that what gave him the energy and satisfaction of life was doing God’s will.  The disciples were more focused on their stomachs.  The disciples were so focused on the temporal things of life that, when they went into town to gather food, none shared the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus counseled us, saying:

• “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27).  What is the object of our time and effort in life? Is it temporal things like food, or is it the eternal?  How many times do we go to the grocery store for food and never take the opportunity to share a word about Christ? 
• Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34).  Can we make that claim?

A meal with Jesus was not an ordinary experience.  It was never intended to be.  A meal with Jesus was an extraordinary experience that helped us understand the eternal life to which he is calling us.  Let us rise to the occasion and experience the extraordinary and be willing to proclaim at every opportunity that Jesus is the Savior of the world.  Amen and Amen.

THE PRELUDE

THE MESSAGE

            The Gospel of John is one of the Bible's most beloved books.  Christians worldwide consider John 3:16 the most beloved verse.  “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

            The Gospel of John tells Jesus’ story through several themes.  For example:

• John wrote of “signs” Jesus performed to show forth his glory, from turning water into wine to healing people.
• Water features prominently in John’s account with Jesus’ baptism in Chapter 1, the woman at the well in Chapter 4, healing people in the bathing pools in Chapters 5 and 8, walking on water in Chapter 6, and washing the disciples’ feet with water in Chapter 13.
• John wrote about Jesus’ “I am” statements: “I am the light of the world,” “I am the gate,” I am the true vine,” “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the bread of heaven,” and “I am the resurrection and the life.”

We could explore more themes, but I would like us to continue with the one we started with last week: using food and drink to bring forth Jesus’ story.  Last week, we spoke about drink, specifically, Jesus turning water into wine to show forth to his disciples his glory and to strengthen their faith. Today, I would like us to turn our attention to the food theme in the Gospel of John, which appears prominently throughout Chapter 6.  One thing we discover is that the gospels don't include any simple meals with Jesus. Every meal involves a divine revelation. Let’s look at parts of that chapter today.

            Chapter 6 begins: “1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias” (John 6:1). This opening verse should immediately stop us in our tracks because no one would expect a new chapter to begin with the phrase, “After this…”  “After this?”  After what? And so here we need to remember that John’s original writing was not parsed into chapters and verses.  John wrote one continuous story.  Chapters and verses of the Bible did not come until hundreds of years later.  To understand the opening of Chapter 6 and its awkward start, “After this…,” we need to go back a bit into Chapter 5.

            A quick look back shows that Jesus had been arguing with the Pharisees and other Jewish religious leaders.  The authorities would not even consider the possibility that God sent Jesus.  John said that the scene ended with Jesus saying, “45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45-47).  The end of Chapter 5, with the people focused on hope found in the monumental figure of Moses, is important for understanding the action in Chapter 6.

            Chapter 6 then begins, “1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand” (John 6:1-4).  This chapter begins with imagery associated with Moses, now enacted by Jesus.

• After this, Jesus went across to the other side of the sea.  Moses had crossed the Red Sea.
• A large crowd followed Jesus because they saw the signs he was doing (healings).  The Hebrew people followed Moses because they saw the signs he was doing (plagues).
• Jesus went up on the mountain.  Moses went up on the mountain to talk to God.
• The Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Moses received God’s command to celebrate the Passover.

John’s readers would have recognized two things.  First, the unmistakable allusion to Moses, whom the Jewish religious leaders had placed their hope in.  Second, Jesus sat down with his disciples.  Jesus sat in a posture to teach, and his disciples in a posture to receive.  When we see this painted for us, then it is safe to assume that whatever follows would be for the benefit of his disciples.  The disciples are clearly now a group.  They will be the first group in this story.  We will call the disciples the “us” group.

            John wrote, “5 Lifting his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?’ 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do” (John 6:5-6).  Jesus had decided it was mealtime.  Not just for the disciples, but for the crowd that followed him.  The crowd is the second group in this story.  We will call the crowd the “they/them” group.  So Jesus turned to Philip and asked, “Where are we (the first group) to buy bread, so that these people (the second group) may eat?”  Why Philip and not any other disciple?  John said Jesus wanted to test Philip.  Again, this alludes to Moses.  The Hebrew people had followed Moses into the wilderness and now were hungry and without food.  They complained to Moses, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3).

            Knowing the crowd following Jesus was in a remote area, Jesus decided to test Philip with the people’s hunger, like Moses was tested.  How will the people be fed?  But why Philip?  There are likely two reasons.  First, Philip’s hometown, Bethsaida, was nearby.  He seemed like a logical choice to ask about a location with enough food to meet the need.  This is the practical side of Jesus’ question, but it is not the purpose of the test.  The test comes in the second understanding of the question.  Namely, we first met Philip in Chapter 1 of John’s Gospel. There we would read, “43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph’ (John 1:43-45).  Philip saw Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel through Moses.  So here we are in this scene steeped in allusions to Moses, coming from a hot debate with the religious leaders about placing their hope in Moses, with a hungry crowd, and Jesus chooses to test Philip and his understanding of who Jesus is by asking Philip, “Where are we going to buy food for the crowd?”  We can now see that the story at the beginning of Chapter 6 continues the same tense argument from Chapter 5 and is the second part of the same story.

            John wrote, “7 Philip answered him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little’” (John 6:7). Somehow, I don't think Philip passed the test.  Philip didn't even answer Jesus’ question about where to buy bread because he knew that even if there were such a place, they wouldn't have enough money to give everyone even one bite of bread.  Philip had become fixated on the crowd, not on Christ, whom Philip said was the prophet Moses promised.  This was a test of faith.

            Then another disciple, Andrew, stepped up.  “8 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9 ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?’” (John 6:8-9).  Andrew brought to Jesus a boy with a small amount of food and acknowledged that these provisions alone were no match for the hungry crowd.  What is unspoken is what these provisions can do in the hands of Christ, who turned water into wine, freed people from demonic possession, and healed people of lifelong illness.

            “10 Jesus said, 'Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number” (John 6:10).  The crowd, the second group, had 5,000 men, a total that does not include the women and children.  This is a large group.

            John wrote, “11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted” (John 6:11). The crowd following Jesus was fed.  This part of the story, again, alludes to Moses.  In Exodus 16, we read, “11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 ‘I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat (quail), and in the morning you shall be filled with bread (manna). Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God’” (Exodus 16:11-12).  The crowd before Jesus had been fed meat, in this case fish, and bread, and they were filled.  What was the purpose?  So that the disciples would know that Jesus was the Lord your God.  In Exodus, the Creator, God, multiplied the substance of quail and manna.  In John, the Creator, Jesus, multiplied the substance of fish and bread.

            John then wrote, “12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, 'Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.’ 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten” (John 6:12-13). Jesus shifted his attention from the crowd to the disciples and directed them to go among the people.  He told the disciples, tasking them to gather up the leftover pieces, to ensure that nothing was lost.  Jesus’ words here are not accidental.  They are the final part of the story’s teaching.

            Jesus did not say, “Gather the fragments so that nothing is wasted,” as we might say after a fellowship dinner.  Jesus said, “Go among the people and collect the fragments so that nothing is lost.” It is that last word, lost, in the Greek, apollymi, ἀπόλλυμι, that gives Jesus’ words the context.  Whenever John uses the word apollymi, he uses it to mean perished as one lost forever.

• “15 That whoever believes in Him should not perish (apollymi) but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish (apollymi) but have everlasting life. (John 3:15-16)
• 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose (apollymi) nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. (John 6:39)
• 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (apollymi). I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
• 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish (apollymi); neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

There are other such examples.  The point is that Jesus' command to the disciples foreshadowed his commissioning of them.  The time would come when Jesus would commission his disciples to go among the people and gather up the faithful, so that none would be lost but would have eternal life in Christ.  What was the result of Jesus' task to his disciples, the first group?  John recorded it for us: “13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten” (John 6:13).  The twelve baskets, perhaps each one representing a tribe of Israel, were full.  It foretold what the completed work of the first group, the disciples, would look like – none of the faithful will be lost.

            This scene ends with a postscript note from our narrator, John.  “14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”  15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (John 6:14-15).  The second group, the crowd, believed Jesus was the prophet Moses promised.  But they thought it best to force a violent confrontation to make Jesus an earthly king.  Jesus would have none of it.  Instead, the story ends with the crowd left to consider the miracle, the disciples left to consider Jesus' teaching, and Jesus left to spend time alone with the Father.

            I love this story for two reasons.  First, this story relates so perfectly to the Old Testament that we come to realize that God does have a plan, the best plan, even if we don’t always see it as we live it out.  The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is the same.  Secondly, we learn that one God wants one thing: that none be lost (apollymi).  No matter your life circumstances, God is pursuing you.  Even if you don't always feel at peace in this moment, you are not lost. God wants you to be part of his family. He sent his Son to show you that. And his Son sent his disciples to continue that work.  Each one of us is here today because one of those disciples collected a fragment- a believer standing alone- and brought them into the collective basket of the faithful.  From there others went out to do the same again so that none, including you, may be lost. It is your responsibility and mine now to keep going among the crowd and gather others so they may not be lost.  We shall not perish (apollymi) but have eternal life.  Amen and Amen.

THE PRELUDE

THE MESSAGE

            When I began attending Baptist churches in 1985, I was told that Baptists do not recognize the authority of the Pope, but they do recognize a good casserole when they see one. Sharing food at fellowship meals or potluck events is a big part of the Baptist experience.  Sharing food and drink is a major theme in Jesus’ story, particularly in the Gospel of John.  So Baptists may be demonstrating some theological insights through fellowship meals and potluck dinners.

            Biblical scholars have concluded that Christianity spread primarily through sharing testimony, gospel accounts, and New Testament writings at communal meals.  Even from my own childhood, I can recall two things about mealtimes.  First, no one ever ate alone.  My father always prepared breakfast for each person in the household and sat with them while they ate.  My mother made lunch for the family every day, and everyone ate together.  The same was true for dinner.  Meals together were a time to share what was going on with each person and to talk about history, values, and beliefs.  In the United States, family meals began to decline in the mid-1970’s and accelerated into the 1990’s.  Even now, when people dine together, they may not share as much with each other as they do with their Smartphones.  That is not a good thing.

Biblically, family meals, communal meals, feasts, and festivals played a central role in sharing God’s Word, deeds, and promises.  When we look at the formation of the Hebrew people, as chronicled in the Old Testament, we see that food was enormously important to that process.  The Torah, the first five books of the Bible, lays the foundation for the Hebrew people's dietary laws.  The Torah contains between 80 and 100 verses that define the Hebrew people's dietary restrictions.  These laws set the Hebrews apart from the surrounding peoples.

Now, almost every group of people, ancient and modern, shapes its culture and identity through its choices of food and drink.  It becomes part of that group’s identity.  Not sure what I mean? Look at the types of food and drink people consume, and it will likely tell you something about their homeland and history.  People in Italy and people in China consume very different food and drinks.  In America, which has incorporated many cultures, people enjoy and celebrate those different cultural food selections.  So the Hebrew people, moved from Egypt by the hand of God, became an identifiable group, in part through the dietary laws God set forth.  We should not be surprised, then, that food and drink would be a theme or vehicle for telling Jesus’ story.  Over the next few weeks, I would like to use the food-and-drink theme woven into the Gospel of John to strengthen our faith journey, starting with a familiar story of a wedding in Cana of Galilee.

In the opening chapter of John’s Gospel, we find that Jesus had been baptized by his relative, John, who called Jesus, “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b).  We find that Jesus then met his disciples Andrew, John, Peter, James, Philip, and Nathanael.  Andrew, after meeting Jesus, told his brother Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ)” (John 1:42b).  Philip shared with his best friend Nathanael, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45).  Nathanael, upon meeting Jesus, said to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel” (John 1:49).  Clearly, Jesus’ first disciples were immediately overwhelmed by the person and the teachings of Jesus believing God sent him in fulfilment of God’s promises in the Hebrew scriptures.

After meeting Nathanael, Jesus decided to leave the River Jordan, the place of his baptism, and go to Galilee, about 75 miles away.  John wrote, “1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples” (John 2:1-2). The opening words of this passage show that John intended to narrate Jesus' story through a gathering involving food and drink, specifically through a wedding celebration.  We never learn the identity of the wedding couple or their families, but clearly Jesus and his family knew them.  The text implies that Jesus’ mother was at the wedding venue as a guest when Jesus and his disciples arrived.  John's details matter because this is the first time Jesus and his disciples, along with Jesus’ mother, are identified as a group.  Up to this point in Jesus' story, John treated each character separately.  Now, Jesus, his disciples, and his mother form a group.  John’s identification of this group at the beginning of the story means whatever follows will be done for this group's benefit.  Any other characters we may encounter or dialogue they offer ultimately serves to reveal something to this group.  And since we are reading from John’s Gospel, anything about food or drink in this story serves to tell Jesus’ story and strengthen this newly formed group's faith journey. 

Finally, we want to keep in mind that wedding scenes are used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament, as a symbol of God’s covenantal relationship with Israel and the coming of the Messianic age and salvation.  Therefore, John’s original readers would likely have expected something significant about God’s promises to follow during the wedding scene with Jesus, with the backdrop of Jesus’ baptism and the announcements of different disciples that Jesus is:

• John the Baptist - “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b).
• Andrew - “The Messiah” (that is, the Christ) (John 1:42b).
• Philip – “The one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45).
• Nathanael - “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel” (John 1:49).

And so, let’s look into this scene and experience what God intended.

             John wrote, “3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine’” (John 2:3). We quickly learn that the wedding celebration was apparently going just fine.  Plenty of food and wine were provided for all the guests. But Jesus’ mother reports that the wine was all gone.  “They have no wine.”  Interestingly, John did not write that Jesus’ mother said, “We have no wine,” or “There is no more wine.”  Instead, Jesus’ mother said, “They have no wine.”  Her expression conveys two things.  First, practically, if anyone is looking for wine, there is not a drop to be had.  Secondly, her expression separates Jesus, her, and presumably his disciples from the rest of the guests.  There are two groups.  In Jesus’ mother’s view, there is the " us " group: her, Jesus, and his disciples, and the “they/them” group of everyone else.  “They have no wine.”  This helps John’s readers stay focused on that newly formed group and what makes it different from everyone else.

            Jesus, hearing his mother’s words, “They have no wine,” used those words to take the conversation in a different direction.  This may be the first time Jesus took someone’s statement and shifted the conversation from human experience to divine revelation, but it would not be the last time. Jesus replied, “4 And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come’” (John 2:4). The first part of Jesus’ response, 'Woman, what does this have to do with me?’ plays out in two ways.  First, the lack of wine at this gathering did not concern Jesus. His mission was not about wine to quench a physical thirst.  But wine was nevertheless an important symbol in this story and in Jesus’ mission.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, wine symbolized God’s relationship with His people.  The absence of wine, 'They have no wine,’ would have been seen as a sign of God’s disfavor.  Here are a couple of Old Testament examples.

• 10 And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting. (Isaiah 16:10)
• 11 There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished. (Isaiah 24:11)
• Though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them. (Zephaniah 1:13b)

The message that “They have no wine,” while referring to the lack of wine to drink at the wedding, also refers to their separation from God's presence.

This leads us to the second part of Jesus’ response to his mother’s statement.  Jesus said, “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4), meaning the time for Jesus to reveal himself to the other group as the “Lamb of God,” “The Son of God,” “The Messiah,” and “The Prophet” had not yet come.  Timing mattered, and symbolism mattered.  Jesus intended to use the lack of wine to show this new group God's presence by changing the situation from no wine to an abundance of wine.  Why?  Because the Hebrew Scriptures also said that the abundance of wine would symbolize God’s blessing and the coming of the Messianic age.  Again from the Old Testament:

• 6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. (Isaiah 25:6)
• 18 And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine. (Joel 3:18a)
• 13 The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.  (Amos 9:13a)

Jesus’ response, “My hour has not yet come,” conveyed that now was not the moment for him to reveal to the others the presence of God’s blessing and salvation-in a word, the Messiah- but it was time to confirm the testimony of his own disciples.  His mother’s reply, perhaps without knowing it, was the perfect reply for the newly formed group and those who would seek to be part of it.  She said, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5b).

            John, our narrator, interjected, “6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons” (John 2:6). In this scene, John pointed out to his readers that there were stone jars able to hold between 100 and 180 gallons of water.  These jars tell us something about the other group of people, the “they/them.”  “They” were observant Jews who followed dietary and cleanliness laws by washing their hands as well as their eating and cooking utensils.  It was to these jars: “7 Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water.’  And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.’ So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now’ (John 2:7-10).

            The water of purification had now been transformed into abundant wine of the finest quality.  The wedding festival could continue.  This is the practical side of this event.  More importantly, the water of purification had been transformed in a way human desire could not.  In fact, water is not directly used to make wine.  Wine is 80% to 90% water, but that water comes from the crushing of grapes.  So changing water into wine represented a change in God's creative process.  No one in the “them/they” group knew where the wine had come from.  They only knew that they were out of wine and now were not.  And for this story, that was fine because the actions weren't for them. The story was always for another group's benefit.  We see that point being made as John finished up the story this way: “11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11).  And so we see that the food or drink in this story serves to tell Jesus’ story and strengthen the faith of this newly formed group of disciples.

            What then do we do with this story?  I would like us to consider one thing.

            This account of the wedding at Cana is less about the miracle of turning water into wine than it is about affirming that God is a God of promises.  God promised to send the unmistakable Messiah to inaugurate the new covenant.  It would be a covenant in which God would not just be a presence but would live within the believer.  The wedding party and the master of the wedding were observant Jews using their purification practices as a means of seeking God.  The new group under Jesus would have the Holy Spirit within them to guide their inner thoughts, not just their outer behaviors.  Symbolically, the water of purification would no longer be needed because God’s presence would be poured out into the disciples like huge amounts of the highest-quality wine.

The Gospels are describing the formation of a new people group. They are the people of the new covenant. They are the people who have come to believe that Jesus is the “Lamb of God,” “The Son of God,” “The Messiah,” and “The Prophet.”  They are people saved by faith.  The earliest among this new group were Andrew, John, Peter, James, Philip, and Nathanael.  And now this group includes you and me. 

If you have accepted Christ, then you are part of Jesus’ group. You have been called out of the world and into God's presence.  You can come to God’s table because he has forgiven your sins.  We know this to be true because Jesus would later say, “20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).  We were never designed to eat alone.  God always intended that we would dine with Him and with other believers.  Since we are now part of Jesus’ group, let us then “Do whatever he tells you.”  Amen and Amen.      

THE PRELUDE

THE MESSAGE

This week our nation will pause and observe the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  In some ways, it does not seem possible that it has been 25 years since that fateful and terrible day.  I have shared in the past that a friend of mine from college was murdered that day.  His name was John.  He was the pilot of the first aircraft hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center.  I was working for the US Government at the time and was responsible for the security of many militarily sensitive facilities across the country.  Every day for many years after John’s murder, I started my day remembering John.  Doing so helped motivate me to be relentless in making my facilities as difficult to attack as possible.  I did not see another way to personally make sure that John’s death was not in vain.  I kept that approach to work until I retired 13 years later.

I share that story not to use the sermon as a tribute to John and the other 2,957 innocent people killed that day or the nearly 7,000 people who have died since that day due to toxic exposure from that day.  I share that story to say something about what it means to remember.

God has given humanity a unique capacity to remember.  Yes, the animal kingdom has the capacity to remember.  Animals can remember smells, sounds, and visual images that help them navigate their lives. Still, an animal’s memory is limited and focused, stimulated by recognition of something familiar in its environment, whether pleasant or threatening.

When it comes to memory, what sets us apart from the animal kingdom is that God gave us the ability to bring something from the past into the present at will.  By bringing that memory into the present, humans can relive it as a recollection or bring it to life.  That capacity of remembering, to relive or give life to memory, is unique to humanity because it is an attribute of God.

What then is it that we can say about God’s attribute of remembering? To say that God remembers is a way of describing His faithfulness toward those He has called.  Phrases in Scripture such as “God remembered” therefore use human language to highlight His attentiveness, faithfulness, and intervention on behalf of His people.  In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word zakar is used not merely to describe a mental recollection, but it means to bring someone or something into the present for action.  I did not know it then, but I now know that when I would daily recall John’s memory, his life and his death, I was practicing Biblical remembering.  I was remembering something from the past to prompt me to act in the present.  I was not remembering for historical purposes; I was remembering constructively, in a way that prompted my hands, feet, and lips to act on my memory.

Therefore, God’s remembrance almost always results in concrete action, such as deliverance, provision, judgment, or the fulfillment of a promise.  God’s remembrance is often tied to His covenants and his commitments, even when His people feel forgotten or when circumstances appear hopeless.  Consider a few examples:

• In Genesis 8:1, after the flood, “God remembered Noah… and God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.” God had not forgotten the ark; He now acted to end the judgment and preserve life.
• In Genesis 30:22, “God remembered Rachel… and opened her womb,” and she gave birth to Joseph.
• In Genesis 19:29, God remembered Abraham and rescued Lot from Sodom.
• In Exodus 2:24–25, God heard the groaning of the Hebrew people and “remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob,” and freed them from the Egyptians.

In each of these circumstances, we see that God remembered His people and acted to provide for or save them.

            Now, because we are created in God’s image and share God's attributes, God expects us to remember as He remembers.  Staying with the Old Testament for a moment, God repeatedly commands His people to “remember” key aspects of His character, actions, and covenant—not as mere mental recall, but as an active, ongoing response that shapes identity, obedience, gratitude, and ethical living.

• In Exodus 12, God commands that the Hebrew people shall place the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their homes so that when He entered the land to impose the tenth plague upon Egypt, God would pass over the homes of the Hebrews.  God also commanded that, every year thereafter, the Hebrews were to observe the Passover as a means of remembering that God led them out of Egypt and to recommit themselves to worship of God.  The Hebrew people were to remember God’s past actions by living them out in the present.
• The fourth of the Ten Commandments says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). This is the only one of the Ten Commandments that begins with “remember.” 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates” (Exodus 20:9).  Again, the Hebrew people were called to remember what God had accomplished for them and to live that memory into the present.

We could go on with other examples.  I think it suffices to say that there are many Old Testament references to God calling His people to remember His deliverance and provision in the past, and to do so in a living and loving way in the present.

            From this quick review of the Old Testament, we learn that God remembers and calls His people to remember.  Not just to remember historically but to remember actively.

            But.  There is always a but.  But God’s capacity to remember is paradoxical.  While God has an infinite capacity to remember His people, God also has an infinite capacity to “remember no longer” the sins of His people. That is the paradox of God’s memory. He has an infinite capacity to remember His people and, at the same time, has an infinite capacity to no longer remember their sins.  We see the latter part in Isaiah.  “25 I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).  In Jeremiah, we would find similar words.  “Declares the Lord, ‘For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more’” (Jeremiah 31:34b). And so we learn that God’s attribute of remembrance includes the capacity not to remember sin.

God’s capacity not to remember sin is what we call “to forgive.”

            The Hebrew word “salach” means to forgive or grant a pardon, and it is always attributed to God’s forgiveness.  God’s forgiveness is a particular type of forgiveness in which not only is the offense forgiven, but the offense is no longer remembered.  This is where God’s attributes of remembrance and ours diverge. We may forgive someone for an offense, but it is almost impossible for us to forget it.  Oh, certainly, an offense may fade from our memory.  But a fading memory is still a memory.  To forget completely as though the offense never happened is a sign of God’s perfection.

            The paradox of God’s capacity to remember His people and to forget their offenses is a sign of His faithfulness in commitments.  Once God commits, He holds to it and does not forget.  God’s capacity to remember is a sign of His capacity to grant mercy.  In one case, He remembers and rescues, delivering those who are oppressed, lonely, and forsaken from circumstances they cannot escape on their own.  He also grants mercy by forgetting sins that cannot otherwise be wiped away.

We see the attributes of God’s remembrance and remembering play out in the person of Jesus, God’s Son.  Jesus was sent to earth as the Messiah, a promised Savior.  The mere fact that Jesus came was evidence that God remembered His people and his promises.  God did not remember those commitments in a historical sense, but in the present, prompting His hands, feet, and lips to act on His memory.

Virtually everything Jesus said and did came as a fulfillment of God’s Word, the Old Testament.  Why? So that the people would remember that God was a God of His Word.  The entirety of Jesus' life is about remembering God.  To make that latter point about Jesus, we learn from the Gospel of Matthew:

• Birth in Bethlehem — Micah 5:2 (combined with 2 Samuel 5:2; Matt 2:5–6). 
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• Flight to and return from Egypt — Hosea 11:1 (Matt 2:15; typological, originally about Israel). 
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• Massacre of the infants — Jeremiah 31:15 (Matt 2:17–18). 
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• John the Baptist preparing the way — Isaiah 40:3 (and elements of Malachi 3:1; Matt 3:3). 
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• Ministry in Galilee — Isaiah 9:1–2 (Matt 4:14–16). 
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• Healings — Isaiah 53:4 (Matt 8:17). 
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• Gentle servant ministry — Isaiah 42:1–4 (Matt 12:17–21). 
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• Teaching in parables — Isaiah 6:9–10 (Matt 13:14–15); Psalm 78:2 (Matt 13:35). 
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• Triumphal entry on a donkey — Zechariah 9:9 (Matt 21:4–5). 
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• Betrayal/price of 30 pieces of silver — Zechariah 11:12–13 (attributed to Jeremiah in Matt 27:9–10). 

From the Gospel of Mark:

• Parables and hardness of heart — Isaiah 6:9–10 (Mark 4:12).
• Triumphal entry — Psalm 118:26 (“Blessed is he who comes…”; Mark 11:9).
• Rejection of the cornerstone — Psalm 118:22–23 (Mark 12:10–11).
• Shepherd struck, sheep scattered — Zechariah 13:7 (Mark 14:27).

From the Gospel of Luke:

• John the Baptist — Isaiah 40:3–5 (Luke 3:4–6).
• Jesus’ synagogue reading — Isaiah 61:1–2 (with elements of 58:6; Luke 4:18–21: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”). 
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• Counted among the transgressors — Isaiah 53:12 (Luke 22:37).

From the Gospel of John:

• John the Baptist — Isaiah 40:3 (John 1:23).
• Zeal for the temple — Psalm 69:9 (John 2:17).
• Triumphal entry — Zechariah 9:9 (John 12:14–15). 
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• Betrayal by a close associate — Psalm 41:9 (John 13:18).
• Hatred without cause — Psalms 35:19 / 69:4 (John 15:25).
• Garments divided / lots cast — Psalm 22:18 (John 19:23–24).
• Thirst / sour wine — Psalm 69:21 (John 19:28–29).
• Bones not broken — Exodus 12:46 / Numbers 9:12 / Psalm 34:20 (John 19:36; Passover lamb typology).

These are just a few examples to show that the life of Jesus was about remembering God and God’s commitments in the Scriptures.

            But we need to remember that God’s capacity to remember is a paradox.  God has the infinite capacity to remember His people and the infinite capacity not to remember their offenses.  The Greek word aphiēmi [G863] is used more than forty times in the Gospels to speak to the unconditional release from sin and offense.  The word is used in the Lord’s Prayer to ask for forgiveness of our sins.  When Jesus said to someone, “Your sins are forgiven,” the context was aphiēmi, meaning “sins that are no longer remembered.”  The context of aphiēmi, total forgiveness, was also shared by Jesus as a warning.  Jesus said, “32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven (aphiēmi), but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven (aphiēmi), either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:32).  While God possesses the capacity to forget our sins, He chooses to limit that capacity by remembering the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, that is to ascribe to God the work of Satan or to ascribe to Satan the work of God.

            Why is God’s capacity to forget our sins so important?  It is for this reason.  The standard for heaven, the standard to be in God’s presence, is perfection.  Sin is the ultimate imperfection.  But if our sins are forgiven and forgotten by God, then our image before God is perfection.  What must we do to be forgiven?  We must repent and believe in Jesus Christ.  It sounds almost too simple, too easy for something so monumentally important.  Repent and believe in Jesus Christ.  But that is what God asks us to do.  Because in repenting and believing, in placing our lives in Jesus’ hands, we must take on the posture of humility and surrender.

            This brings us to our final point on remembering.  Jesus commanded us to remember not in a historical way, but in the present moment, and to recognize, in that moment, his humility and surrender.  He commands us to remember and to be humble and surrendered in spirit before Him.  Paul wrote most descriptively about this occasion.  Paul wrote, “23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).  Jesus commanded that we “do this in remembrance” of Him.  We are to take the bread and the cup.  The bread and the cup are symbols of Jesus remembering many things from God’s Word.

• The bread and the cup are symbols of Jesus remembering the Passover, in which the blood of the unblemished lamb was shed so that God’s people would be spared death.
• The bread and cup are symbols of Jesus, the great high priest, acting in the present to offer bread and wine as God’s priest Melchizedek offered to Abraham.
• The bread is a symbol of Jesus remembering God’s provision of manna from heaven, with Jesus acting in the present to remind his apostles that he is the bread from heaven.
• The cup is a symbol of Jesus remembering that God sealed his covenants with blood, as He would with the new covenant.

We are commanded to remember by acting in the present.  In a few moments, we will have the opportunity to follow Jesus' command and remember.  To take the bread and cup properly is a moment of humility and surrender. It will be our time to remember that “God is not a God of punishment, but a God of forgiveness. God is not a God who records all wrongs, but a God who washes them away. God is not a God who demands perfection from us, but a God who asks for a contrite heart when we can’t measure up. God is not a God who gives us only one chance, but a God who gives us infinite chances. God is not a God who waits for us to come to our senses after we have fallen, but a God who comes searching for us, full of understanding and care” (Bruised and Wounded, Rolheiser).

            Come, let us remember. Amen and Amen.

THE PRELUDE

THE MESSAGE

            “The end is near! The end is near!”  Street preachers frequently cry out the prediction of the world's end.  Poets, politicians, and priests have been predicting the end of the world for centuries. One man, William Miller, calculated the end of the world would happen on October 22, 1844.  In case you were wondering, the world did not end on that day. Miller later concluded that the end did not happen on that October day because Christians had not properly observed the Sabbath.  That day's disappointment led to the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist movement, beginning in Albany, New York.

            “Is the end near? Is the end near?”  This was a question that weighed heavily on Jesus’ own disciples and upon the early church.  One time when Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jerusalem, one of his disciples said, ‘Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!’ 2 And Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down’ (Mark 13:1b-2).  To Jesus’ disciples, the destruction of the Temple would be the end of the world.  For the rest of Chapter 13 of Mark’s Gospel, Mark records a monologue essentially by Jesus on the end times.  Jesus said:

• 9 “But be on your guard… 10 The gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations” (Mark 13:9a, 10).
• 14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains… 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand” (Mark 13:14, 23a)
• 26 “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (Mark 13:26, 27)
• 32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake” (Mark 13:32-37).

Jesus pointed out to his disciples that the world would come to an end was known, but the specific day was unknowable, as such knowledge was God’s and God’s alone.  The day could not be calculated and would come without warning.  Therefore, the most important thing Jesus’ apostles could do would be to be ready, always, to be awake always.

            Apparently, the question of the end times did not end with Jesus’ apostles but was a concern for the early church as well.  The Apostle Paul saw this as a concern among the people of Thessalonica.  Last week, we looked at Paul’s opening words on this matter in the latter half of the fourth chapter of his first letter to the Thessalonians.  Today, I would like us to look at the conclusion of Paul’s thoughts found in the first half of the last chapter of that same letter.

            Paul wrote, “1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2).  Paul began his explanation of the end times by reminding the Thessalonians that they did not need instruction on the coming of the Lord any more than they need instruction on the coming of the next season.  The Thessalonians, as we do, know that our seasons follow the pattern of spring, summer, fall, and winter.  We know that by learned experience.  We do not need someone to write us a letter explaining the sequence of the seasons.  Neither did the Thessalonians need a letter on the seasons.  In a like manner, Paul said, the Thessalonians do not need a letter telling them about the day of the Lord’s coming because they already knew the day would come like a thief in the night.  The latter phrase implies that a thief comes to steal from a homeowner without any advance notice.  The thief arrives at a time of the thief's choosing.  And so the Thessalonians do not need a letter telling them the day of the Lord’s return is unknowable because they are aware of that fact. Paul’s teaching here is the same as Jesus’ teaching to his apostles.  The day of Jesus’ return is known only to God the Father.  So one of the things we can immediately take away from what Jesus said and what Paul taught here is that anyone who carries a sign and shouts, “The end is near!  The end is near!”  is trying to convince others of something only known to God the Father.  We know the end is near, as God perceives the sense of near, and that we cannot know the date and time any more than we could know the date and time a thief would seek to enter our home.  We can, therefore, stop listening to the William Millers of the world who claim they know the day of the Lord’s return, for they do not know because they are not God.

            Paul continued, “3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).  Paul said people are saying, “There is peace and security.”  What people was Paul speaking of here?  Paul was speaking about non-believers.  Nonbelievers were saying to each other, “What a wonderful time we are experiencing because we have peace and security.  We have nothing to worry about and nothing to fear.”  At the time of Paul’s letter, much of the Roman Empire was at peace, meaning there was no war.  Much of the Roman Empire was experiencing a time of security, a law-and-order period. Many people felt comfortable and safe, believing that no calamities could or would befall them.

            But Paul said, from this posture of peace and security, “Then sudden destruction will come upon them” (1 Thessalonians 5:3b). Jesus' return will be to the nonbeliever like an invading army swarming over the Roman Empire and conquering them as an enemy, swiftly and without mercy.  It will be the ultimate “Shock and Awe” experience as Jesus conquers the whole world in an instant.  To make the comparison relate to the individual human experience, Paul said the suddenness will come “as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman,” meaning again, not at a time of her choosing.  Labor pains come with an intensity and persistence that rule over the pregnant woman such that she has no choice but to yield her body to the will of the pain until the pain accomplishes its purposes.  Finally, Paul said, in rather sobering language, “and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3c).  When Jesus returns, the nonbeliever will not escape judgment.

The nonbeliever lives a life of denial, believing that peace and security come from their own efforts, but upon Jesus return they will find out that they are an enemy of God, that they will be pain and gnashing of teeth, like that of a pregnant woman giving natural childbirth, and that though they may think they can avoid the judgement, there will be no escape for anyone. The verse again is, “3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3), is a frightening revelation of the nonbeliever’s future.

Offering relief from this dreadful future, Paul began again with the word, “But.”  We now know that whenever we see the word “But,” it should suggest to us that some reversal of what had just been spoken of was coming.  From the bleak outcome for nonbelievers, Jesus said, “4 But you [believers] are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5a).  Paul was saying to the believer here that while you may not know the day the Lord returns, you will not be surprised by his coming.  You are expecting Him to come. You are excited for Jesus’ coming.  You know that when He comes, the nonbeliever will see Him as King and Judge.  You know that when He comes, the believer will experience him as the long-awaited King and Savior.  It is not going to be a surprise to you, as though an unwelcome thief had come into your house, but it will be a welcome visitation from God.  How is it that the believer knows and welcomes the Lord, and the nonbeliever is clueless?  Paul said this is so because the believer is a child of the light, a child of the day.  Believers are believers because they have moved from death to life, from darkness to light.  People of the light have been saved and exist already in the world of darkness as light. When Jesus returns, He will come as blinding light over all the world, coming for those who are already living in His light.  The psalmist offers, “The Lord is my light, and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1).  That statement is true in life and will be especially true on the day of the coming of the Lord.

Paul concluded his thoughts by reminding the believers in Thessalonica that as new creations in Christ they are different.  And to emphasize this difference, Paul switched language to the plural, “We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:5b-8).  Paul’s was pointed.  Christians live their lives in the light of Christ; therefore, they do not live in the darkness of nonbelievers.  They pursue a healthy lifestyle, believing their bodies are temples of God’s Holy Spirit. And to guard the purity of that life, Christians, Paul said, need to dress in appropriate spiritual armor: a breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 

Paul revealed two themes of Christian theology here.  The first is faith, love, and hope.  This is how Paul opened this letter to the Thessalonians.  Paul said, “2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3).  Paul would talk about faith, love, and hope in other letters.  For example, 

• 1 Corinthians 13:13 — The most famous: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
• Colossians 1:3-5a - 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. 
• Galatians 5:5-6 - 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

The second theological theme Paul introduced here was the idea of putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  Paul spoke again of the armor in Romans 13:12, “12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12).  And famously, Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.”

            These two themes of faith, love, and hope, and spiritual armor lead us to our application of Paul’s words to our life.  First, Christians, Paul said, are to be alert and sober, expectantly awaiting Jesus’ return. We do not know the date, but we know it will happen.  Our view should not be one where, out of exasperation or disappointment in life, we say, “Oh, Jesus, would you please come today.  I am so tired of all this nonsense.”  Our attitude should be one of excited expectation: “Today might be the day. Let me be ready because I can hardly wait.”

            Second, as we wait, we want to be people of the light in the world that is very much held in the darkness of nonbelief.  How do we do that?  We don’t. At least not on our own.  Paul said that to be that light in the world, we need to be equipped with the armor of God.  Now, most of us don’t walk around in suits of armor, and we don't see soldiers on our streets equipped with shields and swords.  So what do Paul’s words mean to us in our context? I think the simplest thing to keep in mind is to ask, “What is the spiritual armor God has given us?”  First, there is salvation.  Salvation is God's spiritual equipping to move us from darkness to light.  We are moved from being enemies of God to friends of God.  Why is that so important?  Because when Jesus returns, he will come as though he comes to conquer enemy territory to gather up His friends.  We need to remember that we are saved even before the battle begins. Second, while we await, we have God’s word in Scripture.  The Bible is God’s battle plan.  God’s Word guides us in how to live as God’s friend while living in enemy territory. The Bible is spiritual armor.  It is the truth, and we need to use it to equip ourselves.  Finally, we have the message of peace, the gospel.  Even though we live in enemy territory, with those who are at war with God, God has given us a peace treaty to make known to others.  It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  God wants all those who are enemies of his to become his friends before the day of judgment.  And He has given us the task of sharing peace, sharing the gospel that Jesus died for the sins of all, and that, to all who believe, can be saved. And God has said to those who are saved, share this peace offering with God’s enemies.  We are equipped.  We are saved. We have God’s plan.  And we have God’s peace treaty to offer.

            Now, to show that we are equipped by God, God said Live your life with faith, love, and hope. Express your faith.  Show love to God and others.  Live with hope and excitement about Jesus’ return.  For the believer, a life of faith, love, and hope evidences that we are friends of God, equipped and ready to follow his plan.  To the nonbeliever, the lyrics of our open song should speak to you: “One day He'll come.  And we'll stand face to face.  Come and lay it all down.  'Cause it might be today.  The time is right now.  There's no need to wait.  Your past will be washed by rivers of grace.”  Become a friend of God.  Amen and Amen.