The Gospel of John for Tumultuous Times # 9

John 11:45-57  The Turning of the Tide

Once the tide has turned there is no way anyone can stop it. Life can predictably be moving along as usual until one day you realize that ‘as usual’ isn’t there anymore and it is never coming back.  We have changed our post-pandemic language from a desire to return to normal to a wondering about the new normal and what it will be.  I think that climate change and our necessary adaptations have also passed the point of no return.  We will become carbon neutral.  I am not sure how many will be sacrificed in the process for the good of the people. 

The story of Lazarus, his death and Jesus’ raising of him (John11:1-44) is a turning point in the story of John’s gospel.  It is the response to that event (whatever it was) by the chief priests and Pharisees that we read this week.  Their response showed them trying desperately to contain and control a movement that had become out of control.  They knew that uncontrolled, that movement would bring down on them the wrath of the Romans (Rome had destroyed Jerusalem by the time the gospel was written).  They knew that killing Jesus was the only way to silence him.  They knew that they would have to kill Lazarus too. (John 12:9-11) I think that Caiaphas also knew that nothing would work.  The ‘believers’ had become too numerous, too vocal, too fearless.  Even death didn’t stop them. 

Sometimes in the midst of radical change, it is hard to see which movements will be lasting, which leaders deserve your following, which experts are sharing the facts accurately, which groups will have lasting influence.  I don’t imagine that very many people living around the Mediterranean in the first century would have guessed that the movement to join was that odd group called Christians, that Paul was the leader whose words would become scripture, that Jesus’ teachings would dominate the world in the next 2 000 years.  We can lend our voices to the ones who say that we can’t possibly get rid of fossil fuels or that the country can’t afford a system of guaranteed income, or that a wealth tax is impossible or we can speak out for an economic and tax system the distributes wealth fairly and an energy and food system that is sustainable and renewable.  Although it may seem that the former voices are still strongest, I think, I hope, I pray that the tide has turned.