August 2, 2015 John
5: 25-30
The whole passage is “Listen Up” VERY TRULY I TELL YOU… The Mode & Means of judgment are being
expressed. The Mode: ALL the dead will
awaken. It is a practical outpouring of
Jesus’ “Life Power”. His authority to
execute judgment is confirmed once again because he is the Son of God. The Means: Everybody wakes up. For the Good:
resurrection of life. For the Evil:
Resurrection of condemnation. It is a Balance
of Power: Jesus does this because he
does the will of the Father.
This passage pivots around the age
old question of “good” vs. “evil”. We
are framing it very particularly this morning: Who Would Jesus Send to Hell?
Evil can be defined in different
ways, we need to understand its use in John.
In Jay McCarl’s book “Answering Evil”, he leads with a story. A Chaplain is called to do a death notification
to a Christian man whose wife was killed by a drunk driver. The heart of the book is evil non-personified. The ‘evil person’ would be the drunk driver. But was he evil? Stupid?
Broken? Lost? Blame and judgment are not part of McCarl’s
thesis. His point is how we deal with
evil when we cannot point the finger.
We are talking about evil when
there is someone at whom we can point the finger. How about some name dropping? Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, Osama Ben
Laden… I think these are suitable candidates
for Jesus to send to hell.
Remember, Jesus has taken over the
judgment powers of God. He is still
backed by the full faith and power of God in heaven. But every dead person is going to come back
to life and face their Maker. And for
anyone keeping track, Jesus was identified as the Maker back at the very
beginning of John. “In the beginning was
the Word (Jesus)…and the Word was God…All things were made through him (the
Word-Jesus)…” John 1: 1 and 3.
The title of this sermon is not “Who
would Jesus Send to Heaven?” But we will
come to that.
Which teaser for Good
Morning America would be more effective?
“Jesus Sends Ten People To Heaven-Details in the Social Square with Lara
Spencer…” or “Jesus Sends Ten People to
Hell-Next, moral commentary by George Stephanopolis…” What gets our attention?
“Jesus as Judge” is a very relevant
question for our times. A lot of
churches out there claim divine authority to condemn others. And it drives a lot of good people away. It’s a message of “behave or else”. That message did not work on me as a
teenager, it surely does not work on me as an adult.
The flip side is that there is no
judgment. There is no hell and there is
no consequence. We can do whatever we
want & Jesus welcomes us with open arms.
But that mocks the very meal we celebrate this morning-that Jesus gave
his body and blood for us. We might as
well dismiss Jesus as a cannibal vampire.
Instead of being “a neighborhood in the Kingdom of God”, our motto could
simply say “be nice”.
How do we, as members of this
Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God, truly respond to the question of judgment? How do we take seriously that Jesus is our
Lord, our Savior, and our Judge?
There is a maxim that says: for difficult
Scriptural passages, let Scripture interpret Scripture. The gospel writer has been building to this
point. How about we consider the people
who have come into Jesus’ life thus far to help us divide the good from the
evil?
Here is a brief review: Chapter 1: John the Baptist and the first
disciples. It is prophesying about, following, loving Jesus. Good Side of judgment I’d say. Chapter 2: a little more divided, Part 1, water
into wine. It is Jesus’ first miracle, saved
the wedding banquet, people seem to have been grateful. Good Side again. Second part, driving the money changers out
of the temple. Turning God’s house into
a marketplace! It is the story of Jesus
the violent!! Those individuals completely
undermined the meaning of the temple and the Passover celebration for their own
ends. I see some Evil Side of Judgment
happening there. Chapter 3: more of the
good. First, Nicodemus, John 3:16-all
Good. Then baptism and John the Baptist
is back, more Good. Chapter 4: the first
two thirds are the woman at the well and her people from Samaria. They came and believed: Good, good, good. The last third, Jesus in Galilee, the people
wanting to see the circus act… The Royal
official, begs Jesus to heal his son, believes, gets the miracle. All to the Good.
Remember, our passage today
continues the story of Chapter 5, extra weight should be given to this tale. First, the man at Bethesda, healed, but
different from the royal official. He
does not praise Jesus, no faith is ascribed to him. In fact, when the leaders get in his face
about carrying his mat on the Sabbath day, the man blames Jesus. In fact, it seems to happen out of
spite. Jesus final words to the man are
almost a threat, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that
nothing WORSE happens to you.” In
response, “the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him
well.” It feels like a wasted miracle.
Again, the man shows no gratitude, the
man demonstrates no faith, the man certainly does not dance and confess Jesus
as Lord and Savior. He’s written as a
real jerk. Is it enough to send him to
hell? By the definitions of “being saved”
put out by a lot of churches today, the answer would be yes. But I would suggest that this is NOT his role
in the passage.
To demonstrate ‘doing evil’, there
is the Jewish leadership, the ones who start persecuting the guy, and then
Jesus, for Sabbath-breaking and blasphemy.
They know the intent of love in the law of Moses. They have perverted the law of Moses for
their own political control. It is done
intentionally and systematically.
What are the judgment criteria? From Verse 29: “Those who have DONE evil get
the resurrection of condemnation.” And
who is the narrative example? The Jewish
leaders perverting the law of God.
Those who have DONE good get the
resurrection of life. And who is the
narrative example? The guy of the wasted
miracle, without gratitude, without faith, in fact, selling out Jesus on the
Sabbath-breaking charge. The only good
he did was accepting the miracle. The
Gospel writer was many better examples for the ‘good people’, John the Baptist,
Nicodemus, the Woman at the Well, the Royal Official. But he picked the waster of miracles.
Who would Jesus send to hell? Those who know what is good but do evil
anyway. The Jewish leaders know the law,
they know best what God was seeking to say through the law, but they exploit it
for their own power and authority. Going
back a couple weeks, it is the person who uses their knowledge of Scripture to
justify committing domestic violence. It
is the person who uses murder and terror to get their own way. It is pretty clear.
Who is Jesus sending to heaven? Certainly the good guys, lots mentioned in
the Gospel of John and, at least, everyone this side of the Miracle Waster. How about people who’ve seen the power of
Jesus, but don’t quite commit themselves to it by name? How about people who may not say “Jesus is
Lord and Savior” but live lives of exemplary faithfulness? And the jerks who’ve received blessings from
Jesus but choose not to celebrate, or even recognize them? Is it fair to say that the mercy of Jesus’
judgment extends to all those who have not chosen to commit evil?
Perhaps the only thing we can be
certain of is that we truly do not know how far the mercy of the Lord will
extend, and I think it is safe to say we shouldn’t guess. I think we do best by being grateful that
Jesus is our Judge.
Amen.
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