If Only...

Series: Vantage Point
Sermon: If Only...
George J. Saylor
March 16, 2008

We’ve been having some fun with vantage points the past two weeks. Now the real test begins. Let’s see what your vantage point really is- what do you see?



A bunny, or a duck, or both?

Our vantage point determines how we see something, or someone. Sometimes what we first see, or believe, changes. Sometimes we get to a place we can see a person or situation from several vantages points. In pictures liek these we often see one thing right away. But after time or closer inspection, we see something else, we see something more.

Our vantage point on Jesus can often go through the same transformations. We see him one way at one stage, we encounter him in other way at other stage. It’s like looking at those pictures. The picture doesn’t change, but how we see it can. SO with Jesus, he is unchanging the bible teaches us, the same yesterday today and tomorrow. But through our life, as our faith grows, as our experiences shape and shift us, so the way we encounter the unchanging Jesus. In our youth we are captivated by Jesus mission as we seek mission, purpose, and passion. At another stage we seek faithfulness and a closer walk with Jesus, so his friendship with us, and his Lordship over all, rises to the utmost importance. We get sick, and Jesus’ healing touch becomes our greatest comfort. With every step and stage or transition or trial in our lives, our vantage point on Jesus grows and gains clarity.

I thought I knew Robin, and then we got engaged. I thought I knew my fiancée, and then she became my wife. I thought I knew my wife, and then she became the mother of my children. At each stage I knew Robin, but at each stage there’s still so much more to learn. Nearly eleven years into marriage now and my vantage point is still growing. I’m still enamored with her, learning to love her, learning who she is.

One vantage point is very clear, and was our starting point- Jesus is a historical figure who changed the world. But what is more important for us now is examining what we personally make of this historical figure- a great teacher, a moral leader, a deeply spiritual man, or maybe something more.

What we are being completely up front about is our vantage point on Jesus and where we inform our vantage point on Jesus. We look to the bible, and it teaches us that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the promised one sent from God. More than that, we saw last week that Jesus really believed he was God. He got into a discussion with some of the other church types of his day. They said he was demon possessed or mad. But he really seemed coherent in his thinking and teaching. So they said maybe he’s just a liar. But Jesus said, actually, I’m God. More specifically, he used the very name of God revealed to the nation of Israel- I am who I am. Christians have boiled that down to an apologetic that says when you look at the claims of Jesus, and examine them on there own terms, Jesus comes across as a lunatic that thought he was God but really wasn’t. A liar that knew he wasn’t God but still claimed it. Or that Jesus said he was God, and really was God, thus making him the true Lord.

Now the question I want to ask is, if there was one vantage point that would remove all questions on who Jesus really was, what would it be, and can we get there? Is there a vantage point that could prove to us that Jesus really is who he said he was- the Christ, the Son of god, the great I am? Well there is. There is a vantage point, I believe, that answers all the questions about Jesus. But we don’t want to go there.

You don’t want to see Jesus from this vantage point because it costs too much. You don’t want to see Jesus from this vantage point because there’s no coming back. You don’t want to see Jesus from this vantage point because once you do, you’ll never be the same again. You don’t want to see Jesus from this vantage point because after you do you can’t live your comfortable life any more. You won’t be able to say Jesus was just a great teacher. You won’t be able to look at life the way you used too. You won’t look at people the way you used too. You won’t be able to look at your work and your studies and your hopes and your dreams the way you used to. Because once you see Jesus from this vantage point, nothing, nothing could ever be the same again. No friends, you don’t want to see Jesus from this vantage point because it’s gonna cost you too much.

But maybe we can see this vantage point through the eyes of someone who has gone there.

The gospel of John, chapter 11, tells one story- the story of a man named Lazarus, and the vantage point of the grave, looking from the inside out. A vantage point, that if we are willing to embrace it, if we have the faith to take it as truth, can give a vantage point on Jesus like nothing else. Lazarus was sick. Actually, he was in palliative care. He was in his last moments. He was so bad that the family sent for Jesus. When Jesus got the message he simply said, this sickness won’t end in death. He didn’t say that death wouldn’t be a part of the story, just that it wouldn’t end in death. He told them that what was about to unfold would bring glory to God, and to him. Then he laid low for two days.

But Jesus loved Lazarus, and he loved his two sisters, Mary and Martha. So he decided that it was time to go and see them. Now the disciples protested, because they knew Jesus was heading right into enemy territory where his life was literally truly in jeopardy. But Jesus said that Lazarus was dead- and he was going to wake him up. In fact, the only reason Jesus waited around a few days was so that Lazarus would be good and dead. Remember the movie the Princess Bride- there’s dead, then there’s dead dead? That’s what Jesus was waiting for. Lazarus was dead, but he wanted to wait long enough that he was dead dead. Dead, buried, and done. There was an old superstition in ancient times that believed that after three days a person’s soul completely left the body. After three days there was no coming back. Maybe that’s why Jesus waited four days.

As Jesus arrived in Bethany word was sent to the sisters that he was on the way. Martha ran out to meet him, She called out to him,

“Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would have lived.”

Now that is faith. That is faith to believe that Jesus could have come to a man on the verge of death and brought him back from the edge. She saw it happen before. She’d seen him heal the sick. She’d seen him give a lame man his legs. She’d seen him give sight to the blind. She’d seen him cast out demons. She’d seen him feed the multitudes. She knows he’s the Lord. She believed Jesus could do it again. She believed Jesus has the power. But of course, Jesus didn’t show up. Jesus wasn’t there, and Lazarus died.

We don’t talk about it much in the church, but a lot of have been there. A lot of us have been in that place, in that situation, in those circumstances where we believe that if only Jesus had shown up, if only God would have answered our prayers, then things would have turned out differently. If only God would have heard that prayer for so and so who had cancer. But it seems he didn’t, and the cancer spread, and your friend died. If only God would answer your prayer for that special guy, and in the mean time every one of your friends has met Mr. Right and fell in love and got hitched. If only God would have answered your prayers for your spouse, but he keeps drinking and doesn’t get any help. If only God would answer your prayers for you kids, but they keep going down a road of self destruction. If only God would take away the eating disorder, or the addiction, or the temptation, or the road block, or whatever.

John Whittier wrote,

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’

In each of our lives we have some “It might have been.” In 1875, while experimenting with the idea of transmitting speech by electrical means, Alexander Graham Bell discovered the basic principle that made the telephone possible. The next year, on March 7, 1876, Elisha Gray of Oberlin, Ohio, applied for a patent for a telephone – two hours after Bell patented his invention! If only...

“If only” is a hard place to live. It’s a hard place to have hope. We have lots of “if only’s” in our lives. If only my boss wasn’t against me. If only I had been given the opportunity. If only I could get another shot. If only I’d been given this. If only I’d been given that. If only my wife would…If only my husband could … If only God would…you fill in your blank.

There are all sorts of “if only’s,” but they all lead to the same place. That place is the past, and you can’t change the past. All “if only’s” only take us back to a place where we are powerless to do anything, or allow God to do anything. All of the "if only’s" don’t amount to a hill of beans because we can’t go anywhere when we are stuck in “if only” ville. It’s a dead end.

We all want to go there sometimes. We are all tempted to go back to that same place, that cross road, that moment of decision, or indecision, that moment we got the news, that moment things didn’t go our way, the way we wanted. And then just rehearse the "if only’s." We can’t conceive of a different future. We are afraid to move on.

We need to change our “if only’s” to “what if.” Saying if only you’d been here Jesus, things would have turned out better takes a lot of faith. But saying what if you have something even better in store takes more.
What if God has something better in store?
What if God can do something even more than we can ask or imagine?
What if God can meet us right here, right now?
What if God has a greater good planned?
What if God has a perfect plan that we’re a part of?
What if God can use this for His glory and our good?
What if I can grow in faith, what if I can grow in love, what if I can become stronger, more mature, more patient, more humble, more compassionate, more aware, more Christ like?

Martha has faith. If only you would have been here my brother would have lived. But even now, I know that God will give you what ever you ask.
Jesus says your brother will rise.
I know he will, she says, at the last day.
I am the resurrection and the life, Jesus says. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. It says that Martha believed.

Word is sent to her sister Mary, she comes out to meet Jesus now, and she is in the same place as well. IF only you would have been here Jesus. Jesus meets here where she’s at. Jesus even weeps with her. Jesus feels her pain! But Jesus doesn’t stay in the if only place, but moves on to the what if.

38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39"Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

40Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Jesus doesn’t say if only I would have come earlier, he asks, what if you decided to believe? What if you take me to the place where you laid his body? What if you take the chance to move the stone?

Martha says but Jesus, it’s been four days, by now there is a bad odor. I still love how the old time KJV puts this verse,

”Lord, by this time he stinketh!”

I know you don’t believe me, but honestly, I don’t stink. I usually smell like roses! Ask my wife. I am a remarkable unstinky guy- it’s genetic. I can’t take any credit for it, I was just made unstinky. But I do work out. I came home after a cross country ski the other day, and I was overdressed. I worked up a major sweat. My kids ran up to me, jumped on me, we started wrestling, And then she said it. My daughter Eden just looked at me, and you could tell this was a profound revelation for her, a brand new experience- she said dad, you stink!

Sometimes I stink. Sometimes you stink. Sometimes life stinks. Sometimes our marriage stinks. Sometimes our job stinks. Sometimes our parenting stinks, our kids stink, our finances stink, our situations and circumstance stink. Some of us are there right now. We stinketh. Our life stinketh. Our vantage point really is from the inside of a grave looking out. We are afraid to role away the stone because we know, we know deep down we stink. We want to keep it covered, or just cover it up. We cover up the stench with perfume and nice clothes, with oust and odor eaters and febreeze! We stink and we are stuck in this if only kind of place in life.

But Jesus comes to us and says what if you move the stone, what if you let me in? What if I call you out. And Jesus wants us to role away the stone, to let him in, to hear him call us out.

Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life- but the only was we are going to experience his resurrection and life is if we hear him call us out of those if only places, those stinky places of our lives.

The only cure for coming out of the if only’s in our life is to step into the adventure of asking what if. What if Jesus really is the resurrection and the life? What if Jesus really meant it when he said whoever wants to find his life will lose it for my sake, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it? What if Jesus really did come that we might have life, and have it to the full? What if we keep all the words that Jesus commanded, will we really live forever?

What if we risk the faith to believe that Jesus might have something better in store for his glory, and our lives? What if we invite him to come to the stinkiest parts of our lives? What if we roll away the stone? What if we hear Jesus calling us out? What if he really is the resurrection and the life? What if we embrace that vantage point, experience that resurrection, begin living that life today?