Matthew 21:1-11  NRSVUE

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:

 

5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,

Look, your king is coming to you,

    humble and mounted on a donkey,

        and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

 

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

 

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

    Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 

10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

 

Palm Sunday was a Protest march that mocked the Roman Empire and the Religious Leaders who were collaborators with their oppressors.

This is another one of those things that was super clear to the people at the time, but because we lack the local context, we don’t see it.  So here’s the context.

You might want to keep your bulletin handy to reference the reading as we go along.

Verse 1 holds the key. 

“When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives”

If you look at a map of First Century Jerusalem, Bethphage and the Mount of Olives are on the East side of the city.  Much like Portland, the East side and Southeast Jerusalem were the poor side of town.  Bethphage was a suburb of East Jerusalem – kind of like Gresham is to Portland.  It’s a great place, but the money is on the West Side.

In verses 2 – 5, Jesus sends the disciples into the village of Bethphage, into Greshem if you will to get Jesus a donkey.  Now, in the gospel of Matthew, this gets a little silly because the Matthew writers were taking scripture a little too literally.  In verse 5 the writers are quoting Zechariah 9:9, but not understanding Hebrew poetry.  

–  I mean, riding two donkeys, especially 2 donkeys of different sizes would be awkward.  So awkward that it would be a  miracle if he was able to stay on both of them!  But that’s not what happened!  

What happened was that Jesus rode one donkey and the writers were trying to prove that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah by citing Zechariah totally literally- which is not how poetry works. 

In Hebrew poetry, things are often repeated for emphasis – we call that parallelism.  It’s not that Jesus was riding on 2 donkeys, it’s that Zechariah was poetically mentioning the one donkey twice.

Here’s what Zechariah 9:9 actually says: 

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you;

triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

 

It doesn’t say, the king was riding on a donkey AND a colt.  It’s a double description of the donkey.  

We might say it this way today:

He was so humble that he rode a donkey,  not just any donkey, a baby donkey – like he couldn’t even afford an adult donkey!

It’s meant to be a poetic humble-brag, not a circus trick!

What all of this East Side imagery is meant to do, is show Jesus as being of the poor and for the poor.

He starts his march outside the poor side of town, out in the village of Bethphage, and he’s gathering a crowd of poor people who are marching into the city.

In today’s context it might have looked like this:

 Jesus, rode into Portland through Gresham, and he couldn’t even afford a car, so he rode in on a bike – and not like a motor bike – I mean he rode in on a bicycle!  And the poor people started cheering and filling the potholes in front of him with branches and sticks and even their clothes, so he wouldn’t fall off his bike, and this people’s march marched through Gresham and into Lents and kept going right down Foster street into downtown.  Gathering more and more people as they went.

Meanwhile, maybe on the same day… maybe a few days before or after,  Governor Pilate marched into the city from the West.  The West side of Jerusalem was where Herod’s Palace was, and the new Roman Theater, and the High Priest’s house.  The West Side was the rich side of town.

So Pilate would march into the city to be there for the high holy days of Passover, because Romans believed in worshiping all the gods so as not to make any of them angry.

Pilate would have marched into the city as the representative of the Emperor of Rome, with a full on military parade.  Chariots, Legionaries, calvary, an honor guard, and Pilate at the end of the parade mounted on a war horse with standard bearers carrying gold plated Roman Eagles mounted on poles.  His entourage would have shouted the titles of the Emperor:

“Our Lord and Savior”

“Son of God” – meaning the Emperor was the son of Apollo

And the heralds would have proclaimed, “Peace on Earth”  or Pax Romana – the Roman Peace.

Basically, in today’s context:

Pilate rode in from Hillsborough, through the West Portland Hills, then into downtown.  Pilate was preceded by tanks and soldiers, and he rode in a Humvee Limousine, with Big Flags on golden poles with eagles on top, surrounded by rich and important people.  

And I’m sure they made sure to clear all of the unhoused folks and trash off of the route and fill all the potholes before he got there!

This is why some Bibles add the title: “Jesus’ triumphal entry” to the beginning of the Palm Sunday reading.

Jesus was cosplaying a Roman Triumph.

This is also why early Christians called Jesus our “Lord and Savior” and the “Son of God.”  Early Christians were taking the titles of the Emperor and giving them to Jesus.

Early Christians were trolling Rome!

Early Christians and then later Christians were pointing out that Rome doesn’t save anybody.  Rome was violent and oppressive, and definitely not the bringer of peace on earth.

So while Pilate’s procession was shouting the titles of the Emperor.

The east side folks at Jesus’ march were shouting 

Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Part of this is that they were shouting the traditional Passover Procession Liturgy from the Psalms 113 – 118 which would be used as the King of Israel processed from the Palace to the Temple with the people to celebrate the Passover.

But Pilate had replaced the traditional liturgy with a recitation of the Titles of the Emperor.  Taking their religious tradition and replacing it with Roman Religious Nationalism.

The word Hosanna is the Greekized version of the Hebrew words “hoshia na”  means “save us,” from the Passover Liturgy from Psalm 118.

The larger context that would have been obvious to the second century writers and readers of the gospel of Matthew was that Palm Sunday was a protest march.

In a time where the rich religious leaders were toadying up to the Roman Governor and even blessing Pilate using the most sacred Holy Day in the Jewish Liturgical Calendar to spew Roman Nationalism – Proclaiming the Emperor to be their Lord and Savior and the Son of God.  

While the religious leaders were endorsing Pilate Hegseth, for “enforcing the law,” against “those people.”

Jesus was leading a march using the traditional Passover Liturgy of a Davidic King going up to the Temple to celebrate the Liberation of the Hebrew people from the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh, when they lived in poverty and wage-slavery in Egypt.

Yes.  Palm Sunday was political.

So the other day, I was scrolling on Facebook, as one does, when I saw an article on United Methodist News about the many United Methodist Churches here in the US, who are participating in Palm Sunday Protest marches.  Isaiah – the interfaith coalition in Minnesota has asked folks add their events to the list, so that they know who’s with them – so there’s a lot of Palm Sunday Protests happening today – and I’m participating in the one here in Portland starting at Terry Shrunk Plaza from 3-5pm.

Of course I made the mistake of looking at the comments.

The comment section on everything UMNews posts has been vile, ever since the Global Methodist Church was formed.  Here in the US they troll our social media.  In Africa GMC folks have violently attacked UMC folks.

But there was one comment that caught my attention.   A woman confidently stated that “Jesus would never participate in a protest.”

And I thought,  this is why I went to seminary.

This is why we need seminary educated clergy leading our churches.

This is why clergy need to have the education AND the courage to explain to people HOW the Gospel is Political.

Because if you don’t know that East Jerusalem was the poor side of town and West Jerusalem was the rich side of town…

If you don’t know that, “our Lord and Savior” and “Son of God” were Titles of the Roman Emperor.

If you don’t know that Pilate appropriated the Passover procession and the High Priests participated in that garbage misuse of religion to try to gain favor with Rome.

If you don’t know,  you might think that Jesus never participated in a protest march.

But now you do know.

So if you can, I’m asking you to do what Jesus did.

I’m asking you to join me this afternoon at Terry Schrunk Plaza at 3pm.

And maybe you need to bring a lawn chair.

And maybe we want to carpool and have a designated driver.

And maybe your body just can’t, or you’re already committed to being somewhere else, and that’s OK.  On Friday, May 1 you can participate in the General Strike by not buying anything and not working.  Portland Public schools will be on a furlough day on May 1.  

Why strike and not shop? Because we know that the God of this Empire is money.

Because from the Epstein files to, cutting medicaid, to the unconstitutional violence of ICE – this administration’s actions are incompatible with Christian Teachings.

And I am tired of Christianity being twisted to justify the unchristian actions of this administration. 

I know what Jesus did and did not do.

Jesus led a non-violent protest march to take back His Religion from Roman Nationalism.

John 11:1-16; 30-41  NRSVUE

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

I edited the reading again –  you may have noticed that it jumps from verse 16 to 32- it’s a really long one!

This is a story of premeditated resurrection.

Jesus knew that Lazarus was going to die

And Jesus was planning on resurrecting Lazarus.

This whole story functions in the gospel of John as a foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So Mary, Martha and Lazarus were siblings who lived together – this is important because women couldn’t own property, and Mary and Martha had no husbands or children that we hear about in any bible story, so that makes Lazarus essential to their household.  No Lazarus – no house.

So Lazarus’ death wasn’t just the death of their beloved brother, his death meant the death of Mary and Martha’s economic, legal, and social existence.  Two women without male relatives were basically legal non-entities in the first century – no voting rights, no economic rights, no property rights, only the right to receive charity if they were old enough to not be forced to marry.  So their grief was compounded with panic 

-What were they going to do?  

-Where were they going to live?  

-How would they eat?  

-Would they be forced to marry?

-Would any man want to marry them?

-Would that man be kind?

In the portion of this reading that I cut out, the first thing Martha and Mary each say to Jesus is, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died,” (Jn 11:21) which we see Mary say in verse 32.  

“Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died,” 

It’s a question we all ask when things go sideways.

Jesus, we prayed and prayed, why didn’t you act sooner?

God, can’t you see what’s going on here?

How long, O Lord, must this suffering last until you step in?

(with vulnerability)…Jesus, do you even care?…

Meanwhile the disciples who are with Jesus don’t want him to enter the city.  We’re back in verse 7.  They don’t want him to go anywhere near Jerusalem because the last time they were there a bunch of people tried to stone Jesus.

The stoning is in chapter 10. Where folks are still mad at Jesus for healing the man born blind, so then they pressure Jesus to tell them if he is the messiah or not, which in the gospel of John, Jesus is totally willing to tell people for free… so Jesus said he is the son of God, and then the crowd gets mad and they are ready to throw rocks, but Jesus talks his way out of it and then they try to citizen’s arrest him and Jesus slips away.

The disciples did not love almost getting stoned to death – stoning being the practice of corporate execution by the whole group throwing rocks at you until you die.  So in verse 7 the disciples are like, “Hey Jesus, how about we go back to Judea where they aren’t trying to stone us?”

But Jesus…

But Jesus… is already on his way towards premeditated resurrection, not just for Lazarus, but for Jesus himself.  

In verses 9 and 10, Jesus speaks poetically about walking during the day and not stumbling at night to tell them that he can see where his path will lead him.  Jesus knows that he is moving towards his death and resurrection and Jesus knows he is moving towards Lazarus’s death and resurrection, and Jesus had told the disciples this, which is why Thomas, in verse 16 says, 

“Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Thomas, at least, is willing to believe that Jesus is set on a path towards death, but he does not yet see the possibility of resurrection.

If you live long enough, everyone encounters these moments in life where we recognize that the path we are on is a dead end.

Sometimes we’re on that dead end path for all the right reasons.

And

Sometimes it’s just a stupid dead end – the result of circumstances beyond our control or a series of unfortunate choices.

And sometimes there is no getting over it, no getting around it, and no getting away from it.

Sometimes “through it” is the only way.

I mean, sometimes we can and should walk away.

We as individuals don’t have to have every argument.

We as a country don’t have to fight every war.

But sometimes, sometimes we are just too far down an increasingly narrowing path of options that is leading us inexorably towards a dead end.

Or at least it may look like a dead end to us.

When a relationship ends.

When a job or a career ends.

When things don’t work out as we planned.

When a church dwindles down to a handful of members.

When a nation divides, or forms of government change.

It can feel like the end of the world.

But God is always making things new.

God is a God of premeditated resurrection.

And sometimes one thing has to end in order for a new thing to come into being.

Jesus, by waiting a few days to let Lazarus die and Mary and Martha grieve – gave them time to imagine their lives differently, before Jesus resurrected a new life for Lazarus, Mary and Martha.  Nothing can be the same after you go through something like that.

And we need that time.

We need that time to accept and grieve what we have lost and to become ready for what is coming.

We can’t rush through the process.

Church,  I admit that I am impatient!

I want to leap straight from what’s no longer working to resurrection day!

I want to skip the work of grief and acceptance and just go from one good thing to the next good thing and the next good thing and the next good thing.

But that’s not how life works.

That’s not how *we* work.

We get attached to things while they’re good.

We think, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and sometimes we willfully ignore that it’s been broke for a while.

Just like the church got attached to the mid-twentieth-century way of doing things because it worked really well for a long time.

So we pretended that it was still working well, long after that way of doing church had stopped working.  Long after it was no longer 1958 outside, we kept pretending that it was 1958 inside the church and wondered why people from 1990, and 2005, and 2016, weren’t coming in.

For many churches, COVID-19 was the dead end of the mid-century road.

And we prayed!  God, can’t you see that your church is dying?  Do something Jesus!  Save us from ourselves!

And Jesus did.  Jesus waited for Lazarus to die.

So that we would come to this point, where we have grieved and struggled and come to accept that what was, can no longer be.

So that we would be willing to accept our resurrection into affordable housing and ministry with people who never would have been welcome in this church in 1958.

It’s hard letting go of something that seemed so good at the time… at least for some of us.

And it’s still hard.

I still find myself saying to God, like Mary and Martha,  “Lord, if only you had shown up sooner!”

Lord, if only we could have done this 10 years ago, or 20 years ago we would have a lot more hands on deck!

Lord if only our friends could have lived to see this day…

Lord, if only we could skip the messy parts of life and move from strength to strength, instead of having to learn everything the hard way!

But life doesn’t seem to work that way.

*We* don’t seem to work that way.

So when it feels like the end of the world, remember that our God is a God of premeditated resurrection.

Our individual lives and our corporate life go through seasons of falling apart and coming back together.

But God has not yet let everything fall apart and stay fallen apart.

God will bring order to this chaos.

Peace to this conflict.

Life out of this season of death.

God is a God of premeditated resurrection.

John 9:1-13; 30-41  NRSVUE

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

 

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

 

30 The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

 

35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

 

You may have noticed that the reading jumps from verse 13 to verse 30 – you’re welcome!

This is a long story so I’m going to dig right in.

Starting in verse 1,  Jesus and a collection of disciples are somewhere near Jerusalem, maybe East of the city.  In chapter 8 Jesus was at the Mount of Olives, which is east of the city so they seem to be traveling towards Jerusalem.

As they’re walking, they see a blind man. 

And the disciples do something kinda rude.

Rather than talking *to* the man, like a normal person, the disciples start talking *about* the man who is blind – using him as a prop for a theological discussion about the cause of disability.

“Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.”

To us, with our access to medical science, this seems like a dumb question.  Blindness is not caused by sin, it’s caused by diseases and genetic disorders.

But science hadn’t been invented yet, and people like to know why.

When faced with a serious diagnosis, “why” is often the first question we ask.  

Why did this happen?

Why did this happen to me?

So the disciples, while definitely being rude, were asking the same question we all ask when facing a life-altering diagnosis.

“Why did this happen?

The unspoken question behind the way being,

“How do I prevent this bad thing from happening to me?”

In a prescientific world, the answer to most why questions was God.

If something bad happened – you must have made God mad.

If something good happened – you must have pleased God.

This world view was not unique to the Hebrew people – it was pretty much how everyone thought before science.

The Romans were mad at the Jews because they didn’t worship the Roman gods because the Romans were afraid that a lack of worship would make the gods angry.  If the gods became angry, then bad things would happen.

So the disciples are not being exceptionally stupid when they ask who sinned to make the man blind.  They’re actually asking a very reasonable theological question for the time period.

A question we still ask, even though we, more or less, have a scientific understanding of the world.

I mean,  when something bad happens we still ask:

Why did this happen?

Why did this happen to me?

And…

“How do I prevent this bad thing from happening to me?”

We just ask our doctor, or some other expert, instead of a priest.

But there’s still a whisper of the old question of whose sin caused this bad thing to happen within our modern why.

We’ve mostly gotten better about blaming people for getting sick, but our first impulse on hearing that someone is sick is still to give advice —  Have you tried this?  Have you done that?  Did you call your doctor?

But the less we understand the bad things that happen to people the more likely we are to go looking for some kind of sin.  Science has taught us that addiction is a disease, but because we don’t fully understand how to prevent addiction or fully understand how to successfully treat addiction, our why questions have a tendency to drift towards blame.  We ask the same question:

“Was it this person’s parents who sinned or was it this person who sinned that led to this addiction?”

But we ask it in the form of were this person’s parents bad and that led to addiction or did the person make bad choices.

And when people are deep within the disease of addiction and not really capable of utilizing help – we often blame them for the sin of “choosing” their addiction.

We seem to entirely forget that addiction is a disease and revert to the concept of moral failure aka sin.  Because if we can blame someone then we are in control.

The same can be said for many other social ills that we don’t fully understand.

People with mental health diagnosis do not choose to have a mental illness, and yet they are often shamed for not magically figuring out how to get better from illnesses that we don’t have good treatments for.

People who have experienced trauma are expected to just “get over it,” as if they are choosing to live with post traumatic stress!  Often because we would rather blame the victims than acknowledge the systemic sins of a culture that allows abusers to get away with it.

People who are poor are blamed for their own poverty – as if most poor people throughout this country and throughout the world don’t work 3 times as hard to get a fraction of what the billionaire class makes off of their labor and the price gouging of the basic necessities of life.

And still people ask,

Was it their parents who sinned against Mamon and made them poor?

Or is it their own fault that they are poor?  I mean, they could give up avocado toast and lattes.

We ask these questions, not because we are fundamentally bad people, but because we are afraid.

We are afraid of bad things happening to us.

And we think that If there is a reason why bad things happen…

Then maybe there is something we can do to prevent that bad thing from happening to us.

We have this backwards hope that if we can just do everything right nothing bad will happen.

If I eat healthy, exercise, avoid addictive substances, get an education, work hard, save money, invest smartly, go to therapy, take vitamins, limit screen time, micro-dose, focus on macros, meditate, be responsible, give up coffee and avocado toast, have the right friends, network….

…and the list goes on and on and on of things to do or not do.

Until we are back to the old superstition of who made the gods angry by failing to sacrifice…what?

Every last bit of joy and basic humanity?

In order to avoid sinning, so that we can avoid bad things happening to us?

Tell us who sinned, Jesus, so that we can protect ourselves by avoiding that sin.

Look at Jesus’ answer in verse 3.

Who sinned?

This is not a trick question.

I do want you to answer, out loud.

Yeah.  Nobody sinned.

Nobody sinned!

God had a bigger plan and this man’s healing is part of that plan.

Now I don’t think that is true of all bad things.

I don’t think that God is causing bad things to happen on a regular basis just to demonstrate God’s power.  

I’ve studied the theological question of, why do bad things happen, quite a lot, and honestly, there are a lot of reasons why bad things happen and sometimes there’s no reason at all.  

Stuff happens.

-Sometimes we do bad things.

-Sometimes somebody else does bad things and their sins cause other people suffering.

-Sometimes bad actions snowball into worse things.

-Sometimes things we don’t enjoy aren’t necessarily bad, just natural functions of life.

-Sometimes life and death and everything in between are a mystery.

God knows.

And I’m willing to trust that God is good.

Even when I don’t understand.

So Jesus healed the man and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is in SE Jerusalem – a busy place that put the man into the path of the Pharisees.

In verses 15 – 29, the Pharisees interrogate the formerly blind man, because they suspect that it’s Jesus and they don’t like Jesus – because Jesus is interrupting their whole protection racket of avoiding all sin in order to prevent bad things from happening.  

But when we pick up the story again in verse 30,  the formerly blind man isn’t having it – because he can see the evidence of God’s power and compassion with his own eyes!

So the Pharisees drive the healed man out of the city because he refuses to not believe his eyes.

In verse 35, Jesus introduces himself to the healed man and explains to him that some people can’t see the truth and some people don’t want to see the truth.

Bible editors often title this section, “Spiritual Blindness,” just in case we might be trying to take it too literally.

In verses 40-41 there are some Pharisees being snarky –  “surely we are not blind!”

But Jesus – Jesus spoke up when people who should know better were being mean.

Jesus called people out for their sins.

And in this story, it’s not the Blind man or his parents who sinned,

It’s the Pharisees who sinned. 

Their sin is still a popular sin today.

The sin of increasing the suffering of marginalized by blaming the marginalized for their own suffering.

The sin of twisting and weaponizing the good advice of scripture in order to shift the blame from the real causes of suffering to those who are hurting.

We all long to be safe.

We all want to have enough.

We all enjoy having a little more than enough, to make life more fun.

This is why we want to know who sinned – to try to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

But don’t be deceived.

Life isn’t safe.

There is no perfect combination of choices that will lead to an ideal life.

Suffering happens.

Whether we deserve it or not.

Good things happen too.

Whether we deserve it or not.

Jesus didn’t lead with blame, Jesus led with grace.

So let’s live with compassion.

Compassion for yourself and compassion for others.

The Kingdom of God is like Star Trek…or rather, Star Trek is like the Kingdom of God.

I just spent a glorious 7 days with 3000 hard core Star Trek fans from all over the world on Star Trek the Cruise.  This was our third year on the cruise and we’re already booked for next year, because Star Trek is the closest thing to the kingdom of God on earth, besides our Methodist Camps!

I say that because, like our Camps,  Star Trek doesn’t just tolerate infinite diversity in infinite combinations – Star Trek celebrates diversity.  And not just the diversity of intergalactic aliens, but the diversity of life:

Beings of all shapes, sizes, ability levels, mental health levels, identities, genders, and orientations.  Beings of all cultures, multiple cultures, and a plurality of religions, belief systems, and un-religious folks.  The Star Trek universe is a utopian answer to the question:  “What if we could all be accepted, valued, and appreciated for who we are, and supported in becoming our best selves?”

And the Star Trek the Cruise reflects that utopian vision.

There are people on the cruise of all shapes, sizes, ability levels, mental health states, and neuro-diversities – like folks on the autism spectrum.  There are people of all the identities, orientations, genders, religions, and cultures.  And we all get along.

Not by assimilating, but by respecting and valuing one another’s differences.  

Not by saying, I’m right and you’re wrong, but by finding that third way where we can be together without giving up what makes us distinctively ourselves.

And that’s what Jesus was talking about in today’s reading.  A world where a Jew and a Samaritan can find common ground “in spirit and in truth.”  A world where we work to better ourselves and the lives of everyone, rather than working to accumulate material things.

In verse 5, Jesus is resting by Jacob’s well in the heat of the day while the disciples are picking up some take out so they can take a little break from the crowds.

At the time that the gospel of John was written in ancient Syria, just mentioning Jacob, Joseph and Samaria delivered a lot of background information that most of us today don’t pick up on, so here’s the background.

Jacob, son of Issac, son of Abraham, was renamed Israel, which means, “one who wrestles with God,” and is considered the Official Jewish ancestor and founder of Israel.  Joseph, son of Jacob, is the Joseph of technicolor dream coat fame, so Samaria is basically northern Israel. 

But, before there was an Israel… 

Before there was a Temple… 

Abraham, Issac and Jacob built altars and pillars on hills as places of sacrifice and worship.  That’s how ancient Hebrews worshiped before they went to Egypt, and before the Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon.

 When Israel split into 2 kingdoms,  Israel and Judea – the Temple was in Judea and not accessible to Israel, so the people of Israel slash Samaria went back to worshiping and sacrificing on the hills where Abraham, Issac and Jacob worshiped.

The Judeans, which is where we get the modern term, Jews, worshiped at the Temple and looked down their noses at the Samaritans for not being “proper Jews.”  

To put this into a present day analogy – the Samaritans had old fashioned, low tech, worship styles, and the Judeans had a fancy building with lights and smoke machines.

It was the first century version of the worship wars. 

And the Temple in Jerusalem was the fancy mega church of its time, who labeled the old style worship as “not a real church.”

So a Samaritan woman comes to the well at noon… 

…this also requires some backstory – because normally women came to the well in the morning to get their water for the day, greet their neighbors and share the local news.  Noon was the hottest part of the day, so nobody wanted to be out doing heavy chores like fetching water.  So the fact that this woman came to the well at noon, means that she was trying to avoid people.

That’s a lot of backstory for 3 verses!

We’ve got two different kinds of Jews separated by worship style and a woman separated from her community.

So when Jesus asks her for a drink, she’s totally surprised because people from the Mega-Temple don’t even acknowledge the existence of the little old fashioned Israelites/Samaritains.

But here’s Jesus, asking her for a drink of water and having a conversation with her.  Of course, Jesus had to make it weird, talking about living water gushing up to eternal life, but Jesus knew that this woman’s soul was thirsty.

Jesus knew that she was out drawing water in the heat of the day because she was being shamed by her community for having had a string of bad relationships.  She had 5 previous relationships with men who failed to be good husbands, and the current man wasn’t husband material either.  

Being a Samaritan and a woman with a reputation usually meant that people from the Mega-Temple *and* people from the old fashioned church wanted nothing to do with you, but Jesus doesn’t leave, so she asks him her big theological question.  This is in verses 19 and 20:

“Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 

And verses 21-24 is where Jesus goes Star Trek on her, like the Samaritans are some lost-in-space human colony whom he is trying to convince to join the United Federation of Planets.

Jesus tells her that it’s not about where you worship.

It’s not about how you worship.

It’s about being centered in Spirit and truth – so that we worship God not in designated holy places, but that we ourselves practice holiness wherever we are.

But even in the Federation… even among the disciples, people cling to old prejudices.

The disciples grew up in the Mega-Temple side of Judaism, and this woman out in the middle of the day was a pretty suspicious character, but they knew by now not to try to tell Jesus to stop being weird  – because that never works!

So they tried to distract Jesus with lunch.

But the woman at the well, had run to the city to tell everyone about Jesus, so Jesus knew that the most important thing in that moment was not that his shawarma was getting cold, but that people who had been separated from God and the larger Jewish community by differences in culture and customs, and by shaming,  were discovering that they were able to be a part of God’s Beloved Community by moving past the details that separate us by embracing that values that unite us.

Values like compassion and forgiveness.

Values like respect for the diversity of God’s creation.

Values like caring for the most vulnerable among us.

The Kingdom of God is like a woman who leaves her jar by the well and runs to tell all her neighbors, who don’t even like her, that God is doing something good here among us.

The Kingdom of God is like an episode of Star Fleet Academy, where a young man from the warrior race of Klingons, has a calling to become a doctor instead of a warrior.  So he leaves his family and his home and joins Starfleet Academy and discovers that there is honor in battling to save lives.

The kingdom of God is you and I, just showing up each day in spirit and in truth to worship God by following our calling to do all the Good we can.