May 11 – Sermon
Dear Heavenly Father, we give You heartfelt thanks for Your Son, Jesus the Christ, who gave His life for our redemption. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to Your word, that we might grow in faith, trusting in Your gift of grace. Empower us to live as Your redeemed saints. This we ask in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
“How long will You keep us in suspense?” the religious leaders ask Jesus in today’s Gospel. We’ve all had times of suspense in our lives.
Suspense can be a time of excited waiting and expectation. The kind of suspense when we receive a gift we can’t wait to open, or the suspense of going on a trip, the suspense of a child’s birth. But that’s not the same kind of suspense we hear about in today’s gospel.
The Gospel is about the suspense of waiting for something to happen and the uncertainly about what comes next; times when we are undecided; circumstances that leave us anxious or apprehensive about what will or will not happen. They are times of ambiguity and we feel ungrounded and untethered. Our life is suspended, on hold, in limbo.
Maybe parts of your life are in suspense today. It could be about your marriage, your children, a work-related issue… Maybe the suspense is about your faith, vocation, money, health, grief and loss.
Regardless of how it comes about I think suspense is ultimately a spiritual condition. It’s more about what’s going on within us than what’s going on around us. Yet most of us deal with the circumstances rather than the real issue. We seek an exterior solution for an inner discomfort, which rarely—if ever, works. Chemical dependency is a prime example—a self-medicating to ease the uncertainty within us.
The religious leaders wanted information. “If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly,” they say to Jesus.
The words “if You are” are repeated many times in the Gospels. It began with Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness and ended with his crucifixion.
- If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread;
- If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from the peak of the temple;
- If You are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us;
- Tell us if You are the Messiah, the Son of God;
- If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross;
- If You are the Messiah, tell us;
- If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!
If You are” is in all four of the Gospels.
If You are wise and all knowing… If You are powerful… If You are merciful…If You are loving… If You are good… If You are compassionate… If You are generous… If You are forgiving… If You are caring and concerned… If, if, if.
Every “if You are” statement says more about the one asking than it does about Jesus. It points to what’s going on inside that person. It’s about wanting to be rescued from discomfort. It’s about who Jesus should be. I want Jesus to prove Himself in ways that fit my image of who I think He should be. That’s the issue for Jesus in today’s Gospel.
“You do not believe because You do not belong to my sheep,” Jesus says. That’s not the way we often think about believing and belonging. We tend to give priority to believing. We think right beliefs lead to belonging. But it’s really the other way around. Believing is not the prerequisite to belonging. And that makes all our “if You are” statements irrelevant. Jesus rarely offers us information about himself. Instead he invites us to experience himself. He shows himself to us rather than telling us about himself.
What if Jesus had said to the religious authorities in today’s Gospel, “Let me clarify this once and for all. I am the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one?” If Jesus had responded to each of the religious leaders the way they wanted, would that have satisfied them? Would it have transformed or changed their lives. Very likely not…
What’s in our head doesn’t matter as much as what’s in our hearts.
Think about a particular time of sole searching suspense in your life. A time when you were looking for answers and wanting information to make sense of what was happening. But when you had the information—or the answers, what difference did it make? Because in every situation like that, we still have to decide how we will live our lives and then live it.
That’s what I hear when Jesus says, “My works testify to me.” He’s shown us who He is in changing water into wine; cleansing the temple; feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fish; enabling a lame man to stand up, take his mat, and walking; forgiving the woman caught in adultery; giving sight to the man blind from birth; raising Lazarus from the dead. Then at Easter, He has shown us that life comes out of death. How does any of the info about Jesus make any difference in the way you live your life?
Ultimately it means each of us have to live in a relationship with Jesus… we have to commit our lives to Him. Therefore:
If I am hearing Jesus’ voice… If I am known by Him… If I am following Him… If I have already been given eternal life… If I am held safely in His hand…
If I am all these things, I will surely thank, praise, serve, and obey Him.
This is most certainly true! Christ has risen!
