The SkyePod - Spectacle vs Subtlety

0:00Hello everyone, welcome to the SkyPod. I'm Skyjitani. This episode, of course, is being brought to you by Holypost Media, delighted that you're here, but in a weird way, I am not. Because I'm on vacation right now. I am traveling somewhere delightful and beautiful and historical with my wife and some friends. And while I'm away, we decided that we needed to fill this slot with something good and interesting and that you would find, you know, not in any way a deficiency of the SkyPod quality you've been expecting. So what we're doing on this episode is we're going to play a talk that I gave a few months back at Chicago Fellowship. You might remember an episode on the SkyPod recently where I gave a talk about resuscitation versus resurrection, all about the Lazarus story and how it relates to the resurrection of Jesus. Well, there was another message that went along with that one also based on the Lazarus story and it was about the difference between the spectacular and the subtle. If you remember, the story of Lazarus was a pretty spectacular miracle that Jesus did in front of a whole bunch of people and that's very different than Jesus' own resurrection, which was a very private event that was only seen by a few people at the time. So this message

1:02you're about to hear is from Chicago Fellowship Talk, it goes deeper into that stuff. I think you'll find it challenging, interesting, and maybe we'll talk about it on a future airmail episode where you send in questions that you might have about this episode. I look forward to being back in the host chair soon with more SkyPod episodes and until then, enjoy. How many of you, this is probably the better question, how many of you have not seen the musical Hamilton? I'm more than expected. Yeah, guys, with the program, it's been like a what a decade or more of that thing. So now you need to see it. All right, for those of you who have seen it, you're not going to be surprised by this story. On July 11th, 1804, the city and vice president of the United States, Andrew Burr or Aaron Burr, sorry, and the former secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, faced off in a duel with pistols on the banks of the Hudson River in New Jersey. Burr and

2:08Hamilton had a bitter political rivalry that went on for many, many, many years. They wrote letters back and forth to each other. To the point where Burr finally felt like he was so insulted by Hamilton that his honor had been questioned and to restore honor, he challenged him to a duel. So they met early in the morning on July 11th, 1804. There were eyewitnesses who were there and there are mixed reports of what actually happened, but the best we've been able to put together says that Hamilton actually fired first, but he fired his pistol intentionally up in the air above Aaron Burr's head, which was a common thing in duels. It was a way of saying I had the courage to show up. I'm not actually interested in killing anybody, so I'm just going to fire my pistol up in the air. That's usually enough to kind of restore honor as they did in the 18th century, 19th century at this point. Aaron Burr, however, then fired, but rather than firing into the air, he shot Hamilton in the stomach. And of course, he died the next day. Now, think about how crazy this is. A sitting

3:12vice president of the United States shoots and kills another man. That didn't happen again until 2006 when Dick Cheney accidentally shot his hunting partner in the face. Thankfully, did not kill him. Slightly different context. But here's the thing. Duels are so fascinating. We don't hear about them much in the modern world, but they were very commonplace not that long ago. Duels are fascinating in their brutal because they're more than just one person facing off against another. There's a whole backstory to every duel. There's a lot more going on. There's a long history of conflict that's brought two people to this final sort of cataclysmic confrontation. And every duel is ultimately the climax of a much larger story. And the best climax is the most interesting duels are the ones where the underdog wins. I'll give you another historic example of this. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president in the United States, he fought actually many duels, which was still common by the 1830s. While he was president,

4:18one day he's walking through the Capitol building and he was confronted by a man named Richard Lawrence. Lawrence pulled out a pistol just a few feet in front of the president and everyone stopped. There were a bunch of people around and witnesses say that Jackson, who was 67 years old at the time, stood up straight when the gun was pulled on him. Like, take your best shot. Lawrence pulled the trigger. The gun misfired. He pulls out a second pistol. Again, the president doesn't move at all. Lawrence pulls the trigger. The second pistol misfires. At that point, witnesses say that Jackson lifted up his walking stick, strode forwards, are beating the pulp out of the sky over the head with his walking stick, kicked him to the ground and then just walked out of the Capitol. Now, there's an underdog dueling story, two pistols versus an old man with a walking stick. And the old man with the walking, it's almost like a scene with Yoda or something.

5:20That's crazy. I'm beginning with these stories because duels are actually pretty common in the Bible as well. There's a bunch of dual stories, obviously not with pistols, but they follow the same kind of pattern. A larger story climaxes in the confrontation of usually two individuals. And there's a whole lot more going on behind the actual conflict. So perhaps the most famous duel in the Bible, David and Goliath. David representing the armies of Israel, Goliath representing the Philistine armies, a clear imbalance of power because Goliath is a giant. He's huge. He's this feared warrior. David's a little shepherd boy. If you remember from the story, David doesn't even wear armor because it was too big for him. He doesn't have a sword. He just has a sling. And there's an interesting detail that a lot of Old Testament scholars have pointed out that Goliath's armor is described as having scales like a snake that's bronze. Now, anyone who reads the Bible is going to go snake, enemy, pagan, to that go back to Eden. This is more than just David and Goliath.

6:27The man of God versus the powers of evil. So these duel stories bring to mind all kinds of interesting dynamics within Scripture. So here's what I want to do. We're going to look at a duel story from the New Testament, both today and again next week. And we're going to look at different aspects of this duel and draw out some lessons for us. So the duel I want to look at is from John's Gospel, chapter 11. And we're going to be in there for a while. So open up your Bible, your pad, your phone wherever it is you read your scripture. John chapter 11, this is the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. And I think one of the better ways of interpreting this story is actually as a duel because it fits the pattern of duels in other parts of the Bible. We'll get into this in a minute. Let's begin with the story. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm going to start at the beginning and eventually over the next two weeks we are going to cover the whole thing and all the details. John chapter 11 verse 1. Now a man named Lazarus was sick.

7:31He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lays sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. When he heard this, Jesus said, the sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. And then he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea. But rabbi, they said, a short while ago, the Jews there tried to stone you and yet you are going back. Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble for they see by this world's light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble for they have no light. After he had said this, he went on to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm going there to wake him up. His disciples replied, Lord, if he sleeps, you'll get

8:35better. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I'm glad I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him. Then Thomas, also known as Dittimus, said to the rest of their disciples, let's also go that we may die with him. Okay, let's pause there for a minute. One of the traits you see in biblical duels is they're very public. David and Goliath fight in front of all the armies of the Philistines and the Israelites. Another amazing duel in the bible is the duel between Elijah and the prophets of Bale. In second Kings 8, I think is the chapter. And they're, again, very public. And in a lot of these duels, the person who represents God or God himself, in the case of the battle between Bale and the Lord, there's always an attempt to

9:38maximize the degree of difficulty for God. So again, David, shepherd boy, small scrawny, no real weapons, no real armor, anyone observing this thing would be like, oh, the kid's going to get crushed, right? This giant warrior. Same thing with Elijah and the prophets of Bale. If you remember that story, they decided that they're going to set up two altars, one to Bale and one to Yahweh, the God of Israel. And they're going to sacrifice a bull on each of them. And then the prophets of Bale are going to cry out and pray to Bale and he's supposed to send fire from the heavens to consume the sacrifice. And then Elijah's supposed to do that with the Lord. And we're going to see which one is the real God. And you remember what Elijah does before its his turn? What does he do? He pours 12 huge jars of water over the altar and the sacrifice. So the point where even the trench around the altar is completely filled with water. So it's like if fire is going to consume this, it's going to be difficult. In this story, you see Jesus setting up a duel

10:42and he's increasing the degree of difficulty for himself. He finds out Lazarus is sick and then it says he stayed put for a couple of days. And as we'll read later on in the story, by the time he actually shows up, Lazarus has been dead for four days. Like he's not just a kind of dead. He's really dead. And the duel that's going on in this story, I would argue, is a duel between Jesus and death where there's a battle whose power is greater. And Jesus is deliberately increasing the degree of difficulty for himself. He didn't just show up the moment after Lazarus died or when he was sick or even a day after he died, but like really, really dead. And of course, he then performs this miracle in light of everybody. It's a highly publicized thing. So you go on in the story, verse 18 says, now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem and many Jews had come to Mary and Martha to comfort them in the loss of their brother. So this is not some backwater town where

11:45there's very few people. It's not up in Galilee where Jesus was from, that everyone's, oh, Galilee, it's like the sticks. Nobody can know. This is like the suburbs of Jerusalem, the capital. It's a very populated area and there's tons of people there. Jump ahead, verse 33, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved and troubled and inspired. There are lots of people around. Verse 40, Jesus said, did I not tell you if you believe you would see the glory of God, he's doing this display in front of everybody. Verse 41, so they took away the stone, then Jesus looked up and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you said me. Everything that Jesus is doing here is deliberately meant to be public. He prays allowed not so God can hear him, but so the people can hear him.

12:47It's all designed to be put on display. So when you consider the spectacular nature of this miracle, the fact that Jesus deliberately sets up the duel to be as difficult as possible for himself, when he does this in a very public place, when he announces it all and displays his power and his prayer for maximum efficiency for people to see it, I would argue that this entire scene is designed by Jesus to be a spectacle. For something to be a spectacle, I'd say it has have two qualities. One, it has to have spectators. And two, it has to be an extreme display of power. That's how these duels always go. The one with the Elijah and the prophets of Bale was a spectacle for sure. David and Goliath, a spectacle. There were lots of people to observe it and there was a clear display of God's superiority and his power. Now here's the core question that I'm I've wrestled with for a long time with this story. When you read it in the context of John's gospel

13:52and you read it in the broader context of all the gospels, what's really weird is this is not how Jesus usually operates. He doesn't typically put on spectacles. In fact, most of the miracles he performs, he does privately. And interestingly, this is not the first time Jesus has raised someone from the dead. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, we have the story of Giorus's daughter, the synagogue leader, who was sick. And while he's still on his way to heal her, word comes to Jesus that she had died. He goes anyway. And if you remember that story, you can write this down and read about it later. It's in Mark 5, Matthew 9, Luke 8. When he arrives at Giorus's house, there's a huge crowd of people there as well, mourners who are grieving that this daughter has passed away. Jesus kicks him all out. The only people he allows into the room are Peter, James, John, and the girl's mother and father.

14:56That's it. And then he raises her from the dead. And right after she awakens, he gives two orders to them. First, get her something to eat. I just love that detail. Apparently death just takes it out of you. You need something. Give her something to eat. And then the other thing he says, and this is a quote, he gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this. Why? And this is not the only time there's a lot of different miracles that Jesus performs where his instructions are like, hey, don't talk about this, especially the crazier ones like raising someone from the dead. But then you get to the story of Lazarus and it's the complete inverse. He deliberately waits to make sure there's tons of people there. He increases the degree of difficulty by delaying his arrival. He announces what he's doing out loud. He wants everyone to see this. And here's the other one that really bothers me in a weird way.

15:59When you look at the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead, huge crowds of people could probably not... All right, that is where the free version of this episode of the SkyPod runs out. You've probably only heard about half of the episode or half of the conversation. And if you want to hear all of it, you need to become a Holypost Plus subscriber. Becoming a Holypost Plus subscriber also gets you access to every full episode of the SkyPod along with everything else we produce at Holypost Media, including my daily devotional with God daily. So head over to Holypost.com slash plus to subscribe and learn all about the great features we have at Holypost Plus.