Was Jesus "Plan B?"

This sermon is from our "Why, Jesus" Lenten sermon series. Members submitted questions, which the Pastors attempt to answer as part of a sermon. Here is my best attempt at the wonderful question "Was Jesus God's 'Plan B'?"

Have you ever had a day where you had to go with “Plan B?” A day that your original, well thought out plans just didn’t quite turn out the way you hoped. You had the best of intentions—Plan A: Monday, you’d start that new diet. But, then someone brought in pizza for lunch. Did I say Monday? I mean Tuesday, of next week. Plan B. You filled out those college applications and found the school of your dreams. Oh, your SAT score needed to be what? And it cost how much a year? Plan B.

Generally, we don’t like “Plan B.” It’s a sign of failure, an admission that our original plans didn’t work. Sometimes “Plan B” works out quite well, but there is often that nagging feeling in the back of your mind that this wasn’t how things were supposed to be. So, I have been intrigued by a question one of you submitted to us for our “Why Jesus” sermon series. “God, if we hadn’t sinned, what was your plan?” Or, as the person asked as they handed me their card “Was Jesus ‘Plan B’?” Was Jesus’ God’s “second choice” for humanity. I waited to consider this question until this week, when we read the story of Lazarus. This account is an incredible foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Christ that follows not long after these events. But what about Jesus? Jesus was born to die. But, without our sin, we wouldn’t need “saving” so, does that mean we wouldn’t have Jesus? Does this mean Jesus came out of an imperfect.

You, dear member, present a very difficult question. We can’t turn to a particular passage of scripture and read “Jesus, God’s Plan A, or Plan B for the world.” But scripture, including today’s Gospel tells us about God, and through scripture His plans for humanity are revealed to us. In Genesis, God is in complete and full relationship with Adam and Eve. This is how God intended humanity to be. He wanted to be deeply connected to us. We also know that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were present from the beginning of time, so Jesus isn’t something that God “thought up” after sin entered the world.

But, our sin is what separates us from being in full relationship with God. While sin separated Adam and Eve from God after they ate the fruit, God longed to be in relationship with His people. We see this throughout the Old Testament. This longing to be in relationship with us continues right through today’s Gospel reading. Jesus longs to restore humanity. Jesus weeps as He sees the pain of Lazarus’ family, as He personally experiences the pain caused by death and His separation from Lazarus. He has the power to restore what was broken, to obliterate sin and death, and reconnect humanity fully to Him—to God. Through Christ, the fracture that began in the Garden of Eden is restored.

Christ cries “Lazarus, come out!” and says “unbind Him, let him go!” These words are Christ calling Lazarus out of the tomb, out of the grave that separates humanity from God. Christ calls us to be unbound from sin and death, to be restored to God and to one another. Lazarus, though he died, is raised up again, as we all are. Lazarus is reunited with his family, and with his Lord, as we all are. God’s “Plan A” was that we were always in full relationship with Him, that we wouldn’t separate ourselves from Him or from each other. Through Christ, we are united in Him.

But, was JESUS “Plan B”? Would we have not had Him without sin? Friends, it is when we are forgiven, when we are no longer claimed by the power of sin that we finally HAVE Jesus fully! Adam and Eve were fully with our God: Father Son, and Holy Spirit. So, sin is what separated us from this full and beautiful relationship with our Lord. SIN is our “Plan B” not Jesus. Sin is the darkness that keeps us from being in full relationship. Humans, living in our sin, are, like Lazarus, bound and placed in a tomb.

It is Christ, who was always present, is always present, and will always will be present, Christ overcomes all that separates us from Him, even the power of death itself. Jesus is not a consolation prize to a contest we lost, nor secondary spoils in a battle we lost. Rather, Christ is the means by which God returns us to Plan A, humanity living in paradise with Him. It is this power and love that takes us, in our “Plan B” world, and restores us to the fullness and richness of life that was God’s intent from the beginning of time. Know that whatever binds you today, whatever separates you from God, whatever “Plan B” choices you feel you had to make in your lives, YOU are never God’s “Plan B.” You are God’s first, God’s full, and God’s beloved child, whom is united with Him, yesterday, today, and forever.

Blackout

In August 2003, the Great Lakes states and upper east coast experienced the biggest blackout in North America’s history, leaving about 55 million people without power for upwards of 2 ½ days. In addition to being without electricity, communities experienced interruptions with subway transportation, water distribution and telecommunications. Wall Street, The United Nations, and over a dozen airports were shutdown. Over 800 elevators in Manhattan alone were stalled, with countless people stuck inside. So, what do people do when the lights go out and you’re left in darkness? (lightly) During the 2003 blackout, families with young children reported a significant uptick in the number of living room forts built using blankets and furniture. And, area hospitals reported a huge increase in births exactly 9 months after the blackout. But regardless of how you spend your time in the darkness, everyone, from those stuck in subway cars to children making furniture forts all have a common goal—seeking the light. You want the lights back on, you want to exit your unexpected trip to 1880 and return to a life filled with modern conveniences!

During blackouts, everyone is searching for light, but what about other times, when light is available to us, and yet we choose darkness? Or darkness is chosen for us? As we continue with our Lenten Sermon series, “Why, Jesus” one of you asked us this question: “If light is good, why does mankind choose darkness?” Our Gospel reading, the conclusion of John 3, sheds some “light’ on the “darkness” of humanity. It reads, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” Sure, light/power/electricity, keeps transportation systems going. It ensures water, and fuel sources are distributed. But light can be uncomfortable because it exposes the darkness. We find a false sense of security in the dark—we think no one, not our friends, family, coworkers, even God Himself, will see the “real us.” No one will see the parts about ourselves that we don’t want…that we CAN’T have exposed. Sin causes you to start spinning your wheels…you HAVE to keep up this façade.

So, we start stuffing our anger, our addictions, the hurt we do to ourselves and to others, we stuff it deep down, into those dark places that we hope light won’t shine upon it, exposing who we “really are.” But, as the Gospel says, the more evil we do, the more sin that comes into our lives, the more the pain festers inside us, the bigger the dark place gets, consuming our whole being. Soon we can’t keep our secrets in little dark pockets anymore, we find ourselves so enveloped in what we are trying to hide, that the darkness takes over. We commit ourselves to a voluntary personal blackout. Sure, our communication systems with others may fail, our energy supplies may be stagnant, we might get stuck in life’s elevator, but we can’t let light in. So, you ask, why does mankind choose darkness? Because light reveals to us, to God, to the world, the sin, the pain, the hopelessness we’ve been trying to hide

But, our Gospel tells us that “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” Some quick context on the words “light” and “truth” used in this passage. Our reading, John 3, teaches us a bit about God’s plan for the world through Jesus, The Light of the World. In Greek, the original language of our New Testament, the same word can be used for “light, truth, Word, and, in the biblical context, Jesus.” (It’s “logos” for those interested) So, Christ is Light. Christ is truth, Christ is the living Word of God. When we chose darkness, when we choose to engage in a personal blackout to hide the pain, we are choosing the opposite of Christ. We have sinned and condemned ourselves to darkness by separating ourselves from God’s light, God’s Truth, (pause) from God Himself. That’s what sin is—it’s any way in which we separate ourselves from God, the light. Jesus, the Light of the world, the truth, the Word, comes into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it. Jesus, our light and truth, has come to expose the world for what it is, to be a light shining in the darkness. Christ has come to shed light on the darkness of sin, our sin. The Light of the World comes to US, in our dark places when we can’t bear the darkness. He dwells in the darkness with us, yet, immediately brings light to lost souls. This should be reassuring! Light is good! Christ is good! Yet we STILL choose darkness! Because, brothers and sisters in Christ, in light, in truth, that first burst of light following our personal blackouts can be painful. Our pupils, dilated in an attempt to see in the darkness, are at first blinded by the brightness. Our skin, not accustomed to the sun’s rays, burns. Our bodies can become dehydrated by the heat produced from the light. The light exposes what was in the darkness, and those hidden things can hurt us, our family, our friends. Exposure to light brings questions like “What do you mean, you haven’t told me?” “What do you mean you’ve hidden this from me?” The reality of betrayal and the consequences of our sin are exposed by light.

But do not fear, for Christ, our light, our truth, our living Word of God, has not come to condemn the world, but to save it. Even in the most painful of experiences, we have the assurance that light isn’t going to harm us, living in continued darkness will. Eventually, our pupils begin to adjust, our burnt skin heals, our dehydrated bodies are nourished by living waters. And all of this is possible, because Christ our Light, came to us in the midst of our painful darkness, no matter how painful it may first seem, to bring life, truth and forgiveness, to God’s precious children.