“I am the resurrection and the life…”  For the last several weeks, we have been studying the “I am” statements of Jesus. We’ve been using the book, “Jesus Revealed” by United Methodist pastor and author Matt Rawle to guide our study, and he says this last I am statement, “I am the resurrection and the life” is the capstone of them all.  It is the distinctive belief of Christians, proclaiming that Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

Jesus offers this capstone, “I am the resurrection and the life”, in the midst of a very poignant scene.  Two sisters, Mary and Martha of Bethany, have become treasured supporters and friends of Jesus.  But their brother Lazarus has fallen ill and died.  Earlier in chapter 11, John reports that Mary and Martha sent word of Lazarus’ illness to Jesus, apparently hoping he would come quickly and heal their brother.  But Jesus didn’t immediately go.  Instead, he offered a promise, that Lazarus’ illness will not end in death (John 11:4).  Jesus waited two full days, and then, declaring that their friend Lazarus had “fallen asleep” he and the disciples made their way to Bethany.

By the time they arrived, Lazarus had passed away.  He had not “fallen asleep” in their eyes.  He died and had been in the grave for four days!  Can you imagine what that time of waiting was like?  They had heard a promise from Jesus, that Lazarus’ sickness would not end in death.  But their brother Lazarus had indeed died!  The reality of his death impacted even Jesus, which we know from the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, which says simply, “Jesus wept.”  Jesus wept for the loss of Lazarus.  He wept because his good friends were grieving.  And he wept because he is our savior, and the reality of death impacted him in a special way.  To do something about the pain of death would require him to suffer much pain—to go the way of the cross.

The author we’ve been studying these last several weeks, Matt Rawle, says that when Jesus called himself “the way”, he was putting us on notice that the way of Jesus is suffering.  Jesus was clearly moved by the suffering of Mary and Martha and the others who were sitting shiva after Lazarus died.  He was moved to action, to using his power to raise Lazarus from the dead.  But in doing that, he knew he was putting himself solidly on the way toward the cross.  He was going to “catch hell” for this!  But this is the way of Christ.  It sees suffering, responds with sacrificial compassion, and trusts that God will redeem the suffering for his glory and our ultimate good.

I’ve been thinking a lot about our key verse this month, John 14:6, where Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  He goes on to say,
“No one comes to the Father but through me.”  These are controversial words.   Many Christians use them as the basis of an exclusive view, that only Christians will go to heaven when they die.  Interestingly, none of my seminary professors saw it that way.  Even the professors of evangelism and missions. And I went to Eastern Baptist, a fairly conservative seminary!  I remember one professor, Dr. Ward, saying, “Jesus is the way.  And what is that way?  It’s the way of love.”  That stuck with me.  I’m officiating at a wedding next weekend and the couple has chosen 1 Corinthians 13 as one of their scripture passages, where Paul basically says, I can speak in tongues, I can have prophetic powers, I can have faith that moves mountains, but if I have not love, I am nothing.  Jesus calls us to a way of life that centers around loving others, not judging them.

The way of Jesus is sacrificial suffering.  The way of Jesus is love.  Both of these viewpoints are helpful and call us to self-examination.  How are we doing, living lives that focus on love and not judgment?  Good question.  But here’s another one:  What people who do not believe in Jesus?  What do we do with Jesus’ statement, “no one comes to the Father except through me”?

In my last year of seminary, I wrote a paper about Christians being in relationship with people of other faiths.  Academics call this “pluralism”.  There’s secular pluralism, which most Christians think is a good thing.  I guess there are a few exceptions—the Amish come to mind—but most Christians think being in community with people of other faiths is a blessing.  We don’t cloister ourselves away from everyone else, but we intentionally live in the world in relationship with people of other faiths.

We do this as a way of following Jesus’ example.  He had deep encounters with diverse groups of people, including Samaritan women, Roman centurions, Gentiles who were of course not Jewish and followed other faiths, and quite possibly, people of no real faith.  Just as Jesus interacted and blessed a wide variety of people, we believe we are called to love all of our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of their religious views.  Our lives are enriched by people with different viewpoints, and we can do a lot of good together.  John Wesley encouraged a “catholic” spirit, where we join hands in service to our world with people of every faith who want to make the world better.

That is secular pluralism, and to me, this is something to celebrate and cultivate.  It is based on the truth that all people are of equal worth.  But religious pluralism is different.  This is the view that all are religions equal, that they are “all the same”, that it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you are a good person.  This view is problematic to say the least!  It waters down the distinctives of every religion, not just Christianity.  Religions are not all the same.  They have particular beliefs and practices that must be meaningful, or why do them?  And people must have found truth in them, or why would they invest themselves?  Most people of faith are proud of their religious distinctives and want to maintain them in the world.  But how do we do this in a way that isn’t judgy, arrogant, or boastful?  We know things are the opposite of love.  What does Jesus want us to do with our belief that he is Lord?

Recently I drove past a nearby synagogue on the evening of Yom Kippur.  Their parking lot was overflowing.  A police car was parked out front.  I quickly said a prayer, “God, let them worship in safety tonight!  Bless them on this holy day.  Take care of them!”  This is secular pluralism.  It’s love of neighbor.  It wants freedom of religion, safety and shalom, well-being and peace for everyone in our community, regardless of religious beliefs.  We can support Media Food Pantry together.  We can work to resettle Ukrainian refugees together.  We can lobby for gun safety, public education, and the environment together.  We can do a lot of good!

But I felt the tension again, what do we do about verses like Jesus saying, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die.”  What about those who don’t believe?  I thought again of Jesus saying, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father but through me.”  I don’t know anyone who believes this in a hard and fast way.  We make exceptions for those who die too young to believe, or who have cognitive limitations, things like that.  But what about those who never hear about Jesus?  Or, what if people hear, but the gospel is not presented to them in a context which allows them to believe?  Most Christians accept a degree of ambiguity around this issue.

Even after 2,000 years of missionary work, only about 30% of the world’s population is Christian.  That means the vast majority of people who ever lived died without having professed faith in Christ.  That is truly heartbreaking.  And if I, as selfish and unloving as I am, find that heatbreaking, how much more would the loss of all those people break our Father’s heart?  You will never hear me say all religions are the same.  Frankly, I find that offensive.  But I cherish the hope that resurrection and new life are God’s plan for the world, not just for a select few.  As 1 Timothy 2:3-6 says, God our Savior, “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.”

I cherish this hope because Jesus is God’s way.  Jesus is God’s way of showing love to the entire world.  I learned this from a different seminary professor, the one I wrote the paper for on Christians in relationship with people of other faiths.  Dr. Brauch wrote a comment on my paper, “To assert with John that Christ is the only way is not to say that only those who make a conscious decision on the basis of a meaningful encounter with Christ to believe are saved, but rather that Christ, as the incarnation of God’s redemptive embrace of the world, is God’s way of redeeming a lost and broken creation.  Thus Abraham is saved by Christ, even though he never knew him, because he dared to trust his life to the God who seeks the world, the God who was/is (always) in Christ, reconciling…”

In our gospel lesson today, we find ourselves at the intersection of Suffering Street and Hope Way.  Lazarus’ death was a reality.  He had been sick, he died, and even though it smelly and gross, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  I believe Jesus is the way, not only because of stories like Lazarus’, but mostly because of my own experiences of resurrection.  Time and time again, I have found myself at that intersection, of suffering and hope, and when I turned toward God, I experienced some kind of new life.  That is why I am a Christian.  Because I have felt God’s promises come true in my life.  I have nothing but gratitude for the gift of my faith.  And even as I long to share that faith with others, I cannot deny the fact that many people of different faiths have also experienced God’s goodness at work in their lives.  They too are grateful for the gift of their faith tradition.  Jesus said he has sheep that are not of this fold.  It is not our job to make any proclamation about who goes to heaven and who doesn’t, except to say no one goes without God’s grace!

I think the best course of action when it comes to religious pluralism is to trust in God’s prevenient grace, that God is at work for good, in ways we cannot yet understand.  We can do this with confidence that God loves the world so much, God sent his son Jesus.  We can do this with confidence that God will bring to completion the good work God has begun.  We must do this with humility.    Long-time missionary Kenneth Cragg put it this way, “Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion, is to take off our shoes.  For the place we are approaching is holy.  Else we may find ourselves treading on another’s dreams, and more seriously still, we may forget that God was there before our arrival.”

May we follow Jesus, the Way of Suffering, the Way of Love, God’s way of redeeming the world, through every death, and into resurrection.  Amen.

 

 

Children’s Sermon:

Show some bulbs that will be planted in the fall.  Talk about how they will spend the winter underground, but in the spring, will emerge as tulips and daffodils.  All we have to do is put them in the ground, and God will do the rest.  This is what faith is:  doing our part, and trusting God with the rest.  Send every child home with a bulb and encourage them to plant the bulbs this week.