The Most Noble of Quests

Scripture: John 12.9-16; Philippians 2.5-11


Fezzik the giant and Inigo the Spaniard have rescued the Man in Black because they need his help. Their only problem is the man they have rescued is dead, or so they think. They need to resurrect him. So they carry the dead man to a guy named Miracle Max. If anyone can help them, Miracle Max can. They tell Max that the man is dead and is there anyway to bring him back to life? Max tells them the Man in Black is not dead, he’s only “mostly dead.” And there is hope for revival if the man has a cause or quest noble enough to come back to life for. What is it, Max shouts to the dead man, that is so worth coming back for?

And through the muffled expiration of his breath the dead man miraculously manages to say, “Truuue Luuuuuvvvve.”


Miracle Max is initially unconvinced. But after some coaxing Max comes around and gives them a miracle pill to bring the Man in Black back to life. The Man in Black comes back because True Love is the most noble of quests.

That’s a fantasy story – if you liked The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia then you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, then listen to the geek speak for a few moments. Fantasy literature, from King Arthur to King Aragorn is about pursuit of a quest. It’s about dedicating your life to fight for good against evil. That’s why it has always appealed to me I guess.

We don’t live in fantasy literature. It’s not always so easy to tell the good guys from the bad. The world is constantly changing around us. Reality is complex and complicated. Our noble quest may not be a physical journey as much as it is a journey of our minds in how we view our lives and our world. It’s been suggested that by the time we are adults our minds have a default setting, like a computer’s, whereby we process stimuli and information by these standard settings – humor, anger, melancholy, joy, etc. Our minds are shaped and conditioned to our particular defaults by our experiences.

For example, A Jewish man who was the only member of his family to survive the Nazi death camps explained that before the camp, he had been a happy person with a positive view of life. Afterward, though, his outlook was never the same. His mind now defaulted to sadness, pessimism and a sense that life had no meaning. The death camp had reset his mind.

This can happen in a more positive direction as well. I have performed two weddings in the last month and I am doing counseling with a third young couple. They don’t know pessimism. They don’t know problems. They are in love! Their mind default is probably each other right now. And that is all good. Love is a noble quest.
St. Paul tells in Philippians chapter two that the author of Love, God himself, has showed us the Way of Love. His Son, Jesus, came on the first Love Quest. What’s more, Paul tells us, we can be like Jesus by setting our minds to be like Christ’s mind. What is that like? What is Jesus’ mind default?

“He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. . .he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

Jesus mind was on serving and obeying his Father, no matter what the cost, even if that cost was death!

What we have to be convinced of in our minds, is that, though we may not be asked to die a martyr’s death for God, we are asked to live a servant’s life for God.

Is your life noble in its quest? June Carter Cash, wife of Johnny Cash used to tell people when they asked her how she was doing, “I’m just trying to matter.” How are you trying to matter in your life today? In business and in the church leaders sometimes talk about BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Organizations that thrive make it a regular practice to set, along with their smaller immediate goals, bigger more ambitious goals to stretch and grow toward. BHAG’s have a way of keeping us focused and energized and on the growing edge. What’s the big idea in your life these days?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of your own efforts, so that no one may boast. For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Ephesians 2.8-10)

We often think about the purpose and meaning of our lives in the context of our eventual funeral. What will my family and friends say about me when I’m gone? Who will stand up and say a few words on my behalf? Who will tell a funny story, share a touching moment, tell how I inspired them to live a better life? Who will make the potato salad? All these important questions come to mind.

“They say such nice things about people at their funerals,” Garrison Keillor once declared, “that it makes me sad to realize that I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.”

As far I know, our man Lazarus was the only person in history who actually attended his own funeral. Lazarus’ sisters and friends are all there at their home in Bethany. And many people were there with them at the wake. Jesus and his disciples arrive and Jesus’ invites Lazarus to join them. “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus came out.

I remember last year when our brother Cloyd had laser surgery on his eyes. I remember his joy in worship that first Sunday back with his “new eyes.” “It’s a brand new world!” Cloyd exclaimed to our delight. If Cloyd felt that way after eye surgery, what was Lazarus feeling after resurrection?

I wonder what Lazarus thought. I wonder was he said in private conversations with his sisters and his friends. That would’ve made a whole book right there! How did Lazarus’ priorities change in his second life? What was Lazarus’ big hairy audacious goal? What was his noble quest?

It’s kind of an interesting sidelight to note that Lazarus life was soon in danger once again. He was a dead man walking. Lazarus was a walking, talking testimony to the truth and power of Jesus of Nazareth. They said of him and Jesus, we can’t touch them yet, “the whole world is following after him.” To the politically and religiously powerful Lazarus was really trouble. They wanted him dead (again), this man that wouldn’t stay dead.
They would kill him and Jesus too.

We don’t know how long Lazarus lived. We don’t know what his “second life” was like. We don’t know what he thought or what he changed about himself. But we do know this – his was not the last resurrection. Through faith in Jesus all share in resurrection. Our lives become resurrection stories. So we can know this: we can know what happens in our “second lives.” That’s what it means to be a Christian. It means to become a new creation, with a new life and a new mission. It’s to have the mind of Christ to serve God with all we have and all we are. When the world sees resurrected people, they will follow.

The next time you go to a funeral, you should ask yourself: Why, today, is this not funeral? For what reason am I still on this earth, a walking, talking testimony of resurrection through faith in Jesus Christ? What noble quest has the Father prepared in advance for me to do?

For God’s sake, let us make our lives worth something, let us aim high with the confidence that one day we will reach our destination.

The Word Became Flesh

Scripture: Hebrews 5.5-10; John 12.20-33


My son told me he had a stomach ache the other morning. It was right before he was supposed get on the bus for school. I suggested he should have told me this before he ate that Krispy Kreme donut. I told him that I was sorry he felt badly but he was going to school and that was that. He protested, “But I’m not faking!” And I said okay.

Really though, I thought he was faking. I thought the stomach ache was all in his head. I wouldn’t put it past him though, to really will himself to have a stomach ache because his mind so desperately wanted it to be so, to skip school.

This is an example of the classic mind-body, psychosomatic relationship. After all, what is the mind but a part of the body. What is the body but a servant of the mind? This is an important truth in our spiritual growth and service as children of God.

The writer of Hebrews gives insight into the person of Jesus, and particularly, into the humanity of Jesus.

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. . .Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. . .” Hebrews 5.7-8

As we mentioned in our discussion last month of the Trinity, the doctrine of the humanity of Jesus as well as his divinity, is crucial to our understanding of God and ourselves. In other words, this isn’t just a matter of theological nicety, but has major implications for us in our living.

There was theologian named Marcion who lived in the second century who said that the body was totally evil and corrupt. That in fact, Jesus never really had a body, that was only an illusion and the crucifixion and resurrection were illusions too. Now why would Marcion say such a thing? Because like many, he could not conceive of a God who would choose to limit himself so radically by actually coming in the form of a human being - a human body. Marcion wanted a more spiritual view of Jesus and God.

We have Marcions today. We have people who want to be more spiritual than God. Here is a key point. Scripture, and especially the New Testament often refers to “the flesh” as something synonymous with “sinful”. In St. Paul’s writings to the churches, the flesh is in opposition to the Spirit and never the twain shall meet (see Galatians 5). But why is this so? Because human nature has been corrupted in both spirit and flesh by sin through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. But it was not always so. And it will not always be so.

What we now see as almost the dichotomy of spirit and flesh will one day be realized as a harmony. Jesus is the best example of that harmony, the Son of Man and the firstborn of all Creation. Jesus, as the Second Adam, shows us that the body, the flesh, can be good, in fact, was intended to be for all the sons of Adam.

The Jesuit Hasidic tradition teaches that everyone should have two pockets in their coats with two slips of paper. One slip says: “I am only dust and ashes.” The other “For me the whole universe was created.”

Jesus came in the flesh to serve as both Sacrifice and High Priest of the Sacrifice. He was the Lamb to be slaughtered and he was the High Priest who officiated. What does a Priest do?

“Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf. . .” Priests care for the things of God for us humans. But note there is a second part – He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.

I am a priest to you in this sense as well. People come to me from time to time and say, “Oh, you’re a preacher but you’re such a regular guy!”

Ah shucks, I’m just humble ole me. I’m not sure what else I could be but a regular guy. A young couple in my first parish once told me that they really enjoyed my preaching because it wasn’t over their heads, it was presented in a way they could understand. It wasn’t too deep. I assured them that was the only way I knew how to preach. There wasn’t any depth I was hiding from them.

Kidding aside, Jesus shows us that it is okay to be tempted, to cry, to suffer. All these things are human. Jesus shows us that it is spiritual to be human. We don’t have to leave our bodies to be spiritual and please God.

I don’t just have a body, I am a body!

One of the times that I am reminded of the spiritual nature and mystery of the body is at funeral services. I look at the body, sometimes, the body of a person that I have loved dearly, and I continue to be humbled and awed by the mystery of this. Can anyone really believe that these bodies are accidents produced by random and mindless process to no point and no future? And if anyone believes this, how can they not be terrified and go whimper in a dark corner?

I am reminded of the spirituality of my body in marriage. I am reminded how I have been physically and spiritually connected to my wife. What I do with my body has spiritual consequences, blessing or curse.

That is why pornography is a sin. It is a corruption of the body. It is the false severing of body and spirit to satisfy a physical lust. Paul asks the question, “How can you go sleep with a prostitute and not think that won’t effect your spirit?” He also says, “Don’t you know you’re taking Jesus with you to that hooker’s bed?”

I am reminded that my body is connected spiritually to like-minded bodies of believers through the Church, In fact our name is “the Body of Christ.” We are the physical presence of the Spirit of Christ in the world today. We speak the Word of God to each other. You help me preach. You help me by the physical and verbal affirmations you give.

Sometimes you smile when I say something remotely funny. Sometimes you nod your head in agreement, or even say “Amen.” That’s pretty lively for us here. I preached in an African-American church one time and they did a great job of letting me know they were with me in the preaching moment. When I was doing well I would hear, “Well . . .preach it. . .come on!” And when it wasn’t going so well I heard some woman say, “Help him Jesus!”

In Romans 12, Paul says to the church,

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Our bodies are the sacrifice that we bring to the house of God. This is what it means to spiritually worship. It’s not to leave our bodies in some mystical reverie, it’s to be fully present, mind and body, and give ourselves freely and passionately to God.

Rick Warren as a great caution for us though:

“The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar, so you may have to resurrender your life fifty times a day. You must make it a daily habit.”

We call this growth. Theologians call this process of surrendering to God’s work in you sanctification. Be assured if you will allow him, God will continue to shake you up, lead you forward, challenge you, frustrate you and stretch you. He will love you to your becoming fully human.


When the going got really hard for Jesus, the scripture says his soul was troubled, Jesus said “what now, should I say, Father exempt me from this body so I don’t have to feel this pain, excuse me from this trial? No, it is for this reason I have come to this hour.” (John 12.27)

Jesus shows us that to be human is to suffer, and be tempted, and yet to ultimately conquer sin and death, the Enemy’s weapons against humanity. Jesus shows us that eternal life begins and lives in the body.