Introduction
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Introduction As a society we disagree. With so many people, so many backgrounds, perspectives, religions, this disagreement is inevitable. Now, resolving factual disputes, in theory, should be relatively easy: find a group of experts to collect the data and ask them to lay out the conclusions. This approach works fabulously when the issue at stake is the atomic weight of helium. We hear the expert opinion and we have no reason to question it. It’s settled. But what if those FACTS have implications? As humans we are programmed, maybe even hard-wired, to dismiss FACTS that don’t align with our worldview. We have this built in tendency to interpret, favor, selectively recall certain information that confirms our prior beliefs or values. This tendency is strongest when we are dealing with highly emotionally charged issues or deeply entrenched beliefs. Social scientists call this MOTIVATED REASONING. We are all motivated to look at data a certain way based on our preconceptions. Take a hot topic issue. Are we all being objective with the data? What does the data say about climate change, or gun control or vaccination or the safety of nuclear energy or genetically modified foods? I’m sure you have an opinion on that. We are all biased. We are all victims of our own MOTIVATED REASONING. According to studies done on this subject, this MOTIVATED REASONING has nothing to do with the level of education a person has, the family they grew up in, the type of culture in which a person lives. None of us are immune to this. Now today we get to John chapter 11. This is the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. This is one of the only examples we have in the Bible of Jesus intentionally making a miracle more dramatic. What Jesus is doing is graciously creating a situation in which even those who are heavily biased by motivated reasoning will have to confess the truth. He’s trying to establish the FACTS of who he is so dramatically, so indisputably, so incontestably, so undeniably, so indubitably that his opponents will have no choice. Some will believe. But we will also see some, astoundingly, harden themselves further in unbelief. Now before we get too judgmental, let me assure you, all of us in the room are approaching the text this morning with MOTIVATED REASONING. Jesus will tell us things we don’t want to hear and we are hard-wired to go to great lengths to explain those things away, to find alternate explanations, to rationalize, to justify and to excuse ourselves from the implications. So as we begin, would you just ask the Lord to remove that from you right now. “Lord, would you allow the truth to penetrate my heart regardless of the implications, and protect me from my motivated reasoning.” Overview We are in John chapter 11 and we are at a bit of a turning point in the book so we would do well to take a moment to get our bearings. Chapter 11 and the story of the raising of Lazarus occurs sometime between September and April. We know that because of two time markers we have been given in John 10 and 12. This is a calendar of the Jewish feast and how the Jewish calendar overlays on top of our Gregorian calendar. If you remember in John chapter 8-9, it was the feast of tabernacles. That’s here in September/October. In John 10 we are told it is the feast of dedication (Hannakah) which is here in December, and in John 12 we are told it’s Passover. And this is Jesus’ last Passover. So today we enter John chapter 11, which means we are somewhere in between those two which means we are approaching the final months of Jesus’ ministry. Think about where we are in the book. We are just a little over half way. That tells you something about the emphasis doesn’t it? The gospels are essentially four biographies of the Life of Jesus of Nazareth but they are oddly heavily lopsided in their content. If you were to count the number of chapters in Mt-Jn you’d have 89 chapters. 85 of those chapters focus on the last 3 1/2 years of Jesus ministry. Of those 85 chapters, 27 of them deal with the last 8 days of his life. Why? Because you give space for that which you want to emphasize. The focus of Jesus’ life is his death. Because it is through his death that we achieve atonement, redemption, forgiveness of sins, resurrection and life. That becomes the entire focus of the epistles that follow. So we are roughly halfway through the book of John and John will spend as much time on these last 8 days of Jesus’ life as he does on the previous 33 years of Jesus’ life. Now there are events which really set the stage for these last eight days, and John 11 is one of the most significant. Now to understand it, let’s pick it up where we left off last week. Remember from John chapter 10, Jesus preaches the sermon on the good shepherd. The Jews say, tell us plainly who you are and Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews pick up stones to stone him. I want to focus for just a moment on the geography and strategy behind that move for just a moment. Let’s ask the question, why does Jesus make this move to the area across the Jordan? Answer: this is almost certainly a political move on the part of Jesus. The emperor in Rome at this time is Tiberius. And the way Roman emperors ruled their empire is to appoint prefects over the various districts of the Roman empire. So the area we call Israel was broken up into these various regions. Here’s a map that demonstrates that. In John 10 Jesus is in the city of Jerusalem celebrating the feast of dedication at the temple. Jerusalem was part of the region of Judea and this whole area was under the governing jurisdiction of Pontius Pilate who of course features heavily in the chapters to come. After the Jews pick up stones, Jesus flees and heads East to Perea. This area along with Judea were under the Jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. To go from Jerusalem to Perea is not very far, maybe something like 15-20 miles. Why would Jesus do this? You have to understand Pilate’s situation. Pilate at this time, was a bit of a crippled ruler. Early on in his reign he was very powerful. He ruled with significant authority. He had a protector in Rome named Seganus who funded and protected him. But a couple things happened that changed that. First, Seganus, his protector, was executed for sedition. And then Pilate did a few things that upset the Jews and Rome sided with the Jews. So Pilate got in trouble and he no longer had a defender. Pilate was in the dog house with Rome and the Jews knew it. He couldn’t muscle his way around among the Jews. The Jews had leverage on him and could get him to do their bidding. And the overwhelming evidence of this in the NT is the crucifixion. Just a cursory reading of the text shows that Pilate doesn’t want to crucify this guy but the Jews force his hand. So Jesus flees from the area of Judea where Pilate is ruling because the Jews have all sorts of power there. He crosses over the Jordan river and ministers in Perea where Herod Antipas is ruling. Now let’s talk about Herod Antipas. This is a different Herod by the way, than Herod you read about in the nativity story. Herod Antipas and Tiberius (who, remember, was the emperor) were childhood friends. He’s got all sorts of protection from Rome. In addition to that, Herod Antipas is ruling a largely gentile area. The Jews don’t factor into the politics of this area. The Jews have no power over Herod Antipas. So Jesus flees to this area to escape the Jews and particularly to escape the political power the Jewish leaders enjoy in this area over Pontius Pilate. So he’s going to be in Perea for 2-3 months. Now only Luke records this part of Jesus’ ministry. And there’s one very significant interchange that Jesus has that is going to be very helpful both in illustrating this political dynamic but also in setting us up for John chapter 11 and the raising of Lazarus. Now you have Pharisees coming to Jesus and warning him that Herod wants to kill him. Now right there, just that, in and of itself, ought to be a red flag. Didn’t the Pharisees, just a chapter earlier, want him dead? Something doesn’t seem right. Something’s afoot. I’m pretty sure the Pharisee isn’t motivated by his affectionate desire for the welfare of Jesus. And almost certainly this is a ploy. Herod doesn’t care about Jesus. Herod Antipas probably barely knows who Jesus is. He hasn’t stirred up any trouble in his domain. So when the Jews say, “Herod wants to kill you,” Jesus knows it’s a trap. The Pharisees are trying to push him out of the territory of Herod Antipas and move him into the territory of Pilate where they have control. That’s what’s going on. Now Jesus knows that and so he responds.