5 January 2012

Psalm 2, 110; Jonah 2:1-10; Eph. 6:10-20; John 11:17-27,38-44

I love this prayer from Jonah.  For some reason the Episcopal lectionary leaves out verses 1, that this prayer was from the belly of the fish (I have my suspicions about why they leave that out but I don’t know for certain) but that is the most incredible thing about the prayer.  He prayed in faith that he would be delivered before he was delivered.  Jonah knew that he would be delivered because he knew that the reason he was there was his own disobedience to the Lord’s command.  He knew that God had given him a job to do and believed that he had already been saved from the storm at sea and now, three days in the belly of the fish.  That he was still alive surely led him to believe that God was going to deliver him and he would have no choice but to complete the mission, even though he didn’t do it with a smile.  The lectionary-makers also left out verse 10, that at the words, salvation belongs to the Lord, the fish vomited Jonah out onto dry land.  Strange that the two verses that refer to unnatural phenomenon are omitted in the season we are looking at the signs Jesus performed that were miraculous.

The sixth sign Jesus performed that John recorded was the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  Here we see the sisters of the dead man, Mary and Martha and they both believe that Jesus could have done something if he had come when they called him, before Lazarus died and certainly before he had been in the tomb four days.  They make extraordinary professions of faith in Jesus and yet when push comes to shove, take away the stone, faith fails.  Martha quickly responds, Lord he’s been dead four days, as the King James Version would say, “He stinketh.”  Jewish belief could allow for a three day resurrection, they believed the spirit of a person hung around three days to see if they revived but then gave up and decomposition set in.  Four days means there is no hope.  Some have speculated that Jesus named Lazarus in this command that the other dead in the tomb and vicinity not emerge as well.  Surely now belief for the disciples and others is complete, there is surely nothing that would cause them to doubt any longer.  Well…

It is important for us to remember Paul’s admonition here, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  In our walk here we often forget these words and we spend our time fighting and fussing about personalities rather than focusing on the real, spiritual battle.  What we are doing here on earth has eternal significance.  Opposition to Jesus is evil acting through the agency of people, including even, at times, us when we fail to put on the armor and fail to cooperate with God’s plan for our lives.  We can get sidetracked and battle among ourselves over unimportant things rather than keeping the main thing the main thing.  We can become like Jonah, but we can also be delivered like Jonah from our predicament back to service.

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Tune