Symposium--He loved me enough to be late

By Ellis Washington

Socrates (470-399 B.C.) was a famous Greek philosopher from Athens, who taught Plato, and Plato taught Aristotle, and Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. Socrates used a simple but cleverly profound method of teaching by asking penetrating, revelatory, and psychologically probing questions. The Greeks called this form Dialectic – starting from a thesis or question, then discussing ideas and moving back and forth between points of view to determine how well ideas stand up to critical review, with the ultimate principle of the dialogue being Veritas – Truth.


Vincent Van Gogh: The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt) (1890) – And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! / And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes... ~ Gospel of John 11:43-44(a)

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."

~ Plato (after Socrates)

"Have you ever had a crisis and He didn't answer? – The payment was due by the 5th and you weren't worried on the 1st, but now its midnight on the 4th. What do you do when its' an emergency and He does not [answer]?"

~ Bishop T.D. Jakes, 1997 Sermon – He loved me enough to be late

Characters:

Socrates

Bishop T.D. Jakes

Sadducee {mute part}

Socrates: What is Worship? What is Patience? Do you have enough Patience to Worship God passionately, faithfully during times of Universal Tyranny and Dystopia? – Do you have enough Love to wait for His Answer?

We are gathered here today at my Symposium at Heritage Christian Center in Denver, the capital of Colorado, with Bishop T.D. Jakes whose sermon – He loved me enough to be late, is taken from the Gospel of St. John 11:1-6. Let us hear the Word of the Lord:

11:1 Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

2 (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)

3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

6 When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

Bishop T.D. Jakes: Jesus preached the Gospel everywhere, and everywhere He went he affected that place – Just by the foolishness of preaching, entire cities were turned upside down. If He came into the city, He would wreck the entire city. Whole social systems were disrupted by His preaching. He was awesome. If He started preaching in the desert, people would flee the cities and meet Him in the desert just to hear Him preach.

If He got in a house and started preaching, He would fill the house until people were standing in the windows, and in the doors, and in the closet. And one house was so congested that four men carried a sick man of palsy up a wall and across the roof, and cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down into the presence of the Lord.

Without a TV ministry, or a radio ministry, or a business card, or a flyer or a mailing list, if Jesus started preaching He had no trouble reaching 5,000 men, not to mention women and children, without a PA system, without a sound system, without a telephone, without any type of electronic devise, Jesus could stand there and preach down there in a dry place and get 5,000 men, not to mention women and children together and they would stay and would be willing to faint rather than to miss something he had said.

Socrates: Have you ever gone through a time in your life that you searched for God and wondered, Lord, where are you? What's going on in my life? What time is it? When are you going to answer me?

Bishop T.D. Jakes: In my text tonight He lays it all on the table and says that there is in fact a problem in the house... And then He dignifies the problem by saying it is not just any house, but it is the same house that Mary lived in. And then it specifies which Mary – so that you wouldn't think that it wasn't just some wild, loose, ravenous, frivolous, unspiritual, disconnected, desolate Mary who had no concern for the Lord. So it gives us her resume and says this is the same Mary [Magdalene] who walked into a room full of men, pushed passed all of the religious potentates, came to the feet of Jesus, anointed His feet, cried before Him, worshipped before Him, drying his feet with her hair – She was a worshipper, but she still had a problem in her house! {Praises to God}

And I'm just happy that they wrote about it because if she had lived today somebody would have told her that if she really believed God and that if she was really a worshipper, and if she really served the Lord, and if she was really everything she was supposed to be – She would never have a problem, she would never have a sickness, she would never have any – I'm just glad the Bible gave the whole testimony! ...

Because whenever there is some kind of issue in the house it will affect the whole atmosphere in the house. There are some problems that can arise in your domain that you cannot hide – that you cannot disinfect – that you cannot cover up – that you cannot fix to a point that there is not a sense of discomfort. Mary had a problem in her house.



... And Lazarus died! See, we always testify about when we prayed and the Lord answered, but I don't need you to tell me what to do when He answers. I can figure out how to react when He answers. What I really need some help with is what do I do when I call Him and He does not... [answer]?! {Praises to God} He does not answer. And I wouldn't mind Him not answering if it was not an emergency...

Have you ever had a crisis and He didn't answer? (Oh, it's nobody here but us – we can talk). The payment was due by the 5th and you weren't worried on the 1st, but now its midnight on the 4th. What do you do when its' an emergency and he does not [answer]? {Bishop channeling the frustrated congregation} – You prayed the right prayers – You went through the Seven Steps [Program] – You said, "Jesus" – You spinned around in the floor – You worshipped and prayed – You sang – You entered into His presence with thanksgiving – You did all the things they told you to do – Learned all the ... And still! ... There are times that you prayed with all your might {deliberately} – And-He-does-not-answer!

He does not make it to the house. He didn't even make the funeral. He didn't even make the grave-side service. By the time Jesus got there Lazarus had been dead four days – And here come Jesus. Now, Mary has a serious attitude! She was ready for Him when he walked through that door. He didn't get no perfume, or no ointment, or no drying of His feet this time. {Laughter}


Radical worship – Mary Magdalene washes Jesus' feet with perfume and her tears

Bishop T.D. Jakes: {channeling Mary and the congregation} Jesus She said, "Lord, if you had of been here my brother [Lazarus] would not have died!"

• Lord, if you had of been here my marriage would have been spared;
  
  
• Lord, if you had of been here, I wouldn't have lost that car;
  
  
• Lord, if you had of been here, I wouldn't have to show ...
  

Lord, why didn't you do what I thought you were going to do, when I thought you were going to do it?! I thought I would have been married by now... {plaintive mood} I had planned, I had prepared, I had... Lord, if you had been here! Have you ever been through something with the Lord where you couldn't figure Him out? {Bishop asks for a show of hands} Lord, what are you doing? – You missed your appointment! I had expected to be farther along than this by now.

And the Bible said, "When He had heard about the one whom He loved, He tarried two days still in the same place." And so when Mary asked Him, "Why didn't you come"? In essence Jesus is saying, I loved you enough to be late. The kind of love that is willing to be criticized to accomplish its purpose. The kind of love that is willing to be controversial to work an expectant end. He said, I loved you too much to do what you asked me to do, when you asked me to do it... Love told Him to wait. That didn't satisfy Mary either – She was wroth! – "If you would have been here!"

Bishop T.D. Jakes: {channeling Martha} And here comes Martha her sister and says the same thing – "If you would have been here my brother would not have died...!" But something kicked in with Martha that didn't kick in with her sister, for she said, "Even now you got the power to raise him up again."

Bishop T.D. Jakes: I don't know who the Lord sent me here to preach to tonight, but I came all the way from the clay hills of West Virginia to tell you God's going to give you an Even Now Miracle! Even now you've got the power! {Praises to God}

Somebody is in a situation that you decided that it's not going to get any better and you thought you were going to have to live with it, but the devil is a liar! ... Even Now – God's got the power! Touch somebody and tell them, Get Ready! Get Ready! Get Ready! Get Ready! Get Ready! Get Ready! Get Ready! Get Ready! Get you faith back out. Get your Joy back out. Get your ... [intelligible] back out... Just because it's too late for you doesn't mean it's too late for Him. He's able! He's able!

Bishop T.D. Jakes: {channeling Jesus speaking to Mary} And so He says something to her that He would say to someone in this room. He said, "Show me where you laid him down." Show me where you gave up? Show me where you stopped believing that I could do the impossible? What happen to you? You used to bathe my feet with your tears! – What happen to you that you...? Show Me! – Show me where you got tired? Who bewitched you that you quit trusting me? Show me where you decided I wasn't going to do it? I can't give you a miracle until you show me the spot where you faith gave up!

Show me where you decided to be mediocre? Show me where you decided to start going to church and going home – and going to church and going home? Show Me! – You used to worship me like no one else. Show me what happened to you? What happened to you... that you became a spectator when you used to be a participator? Show me where you laid him down. No, don't send me, show me! – Take me by the hand and lead me to the spot where you got tired – Where you got so busy with the work of the Lord that you forgot about the Lord of the work? Who hurt you so bad that you forgot how you used to worship Him – Show me where you laid him down? Show me the spot!


And when they rolled the stone away that's when the revelation began... And He is standing there in front of the tomb – No oil, No prayer book, No prayer cloth. He doesn't go in and climb up on the body – Just stands outside of the mess and speaks to the mess. And says, "Father, I know that you hear me, but for the benefit of them that don't believe, I'm going to call Lazarus out loud." When I read that I almost leaped out of my socks, because suddenly I realized that if He wanted to He could have thought Lazarus out of the grave, but because of all the doubters He said I'm going to call him out loud. And He said, "Lazarus, Come forth!"

And somebody said that if He hadn't of called Lazarus by his name, that every dead man in the grave who would have thought it was the Resurrection would have come leaping out of the tomb. {Bishop makes a leaping motions} But I want to go a step further – There were a whole lot of Lazarus's that were dead in the grave, but what God has for you can't nobody else get it! {Praises to God} So the Holy Ghost went into the grave and said – "Not you! Not you! Not you! Not you! Not you! ... Come Here! And Lazarus came leaping! –

Some of the things you thought you were never going to get if you believe God, it's going to start leaping – If God had of done it any sooner, your enemies wouldn't have got to see your miracle, but He waited... He waited until everybody knew you were in trouble and God is setting you up for a miracle... An absolute Miracle!

Socrates: Bishop, before you finish your sermon, tell this Symposium about the Doctrine of the Sadducees. I ask you to do this for the sake of History because my students must understand History before they understand Philosophy, because Philosophy deals with the collected Wisdom of Mankind through the Ages which is very important, but even more revelatory, even more essential for the survival of Civilization is History because History deals with Reality and Veritas (Truth). Therefore Bishop, please tell this Symposium about the Doctrine of the Sadducees, or what I like to call the Doctrine of Professional Liars.

Bishop T.D. Jakes: I was reading that some of the Doctrine of the Sadducees was that they didn't believe that the Spirit left the body until the third day and if Jesus would have got there any sooner, they would have said, "Lazarus wasn't really dead!" – But the Lord will wait until all of your critics – All of your enemies – All of your Doubters – All of your Neighbors – All of your Co-workers know its' impossible and then, Goooddd! – {Praises to God}

This is what I want you to understand, He is setting you up for a miracle. If He would have done it sooner, they'd of thought it was you, but He waited. But sometimes the Lord will wait until everybody around you – Everybody on top of you – Everybody who criticized you – Everybody who put their foot on you – Everybody who decided you'll never get up. But He may not come when you want Him, but He is right on time!

Socrates: English Historian Paul Johnson wrote of my times and my enemies in this manner:

Socrates was not the only person practicing forms of philosophy in Athens. Far from it. There was a tribe of persons who engaged in intellectual instructions, some born in Athens but others itinerant, coming from all over Magna Graecia but tending to settle in Athens because there was more money there and more young men of high or wealthy birth to engage their services. These teachers were called Sophists. They charged high fees and some became rich. They taught a variety of skills but chiefly rhetoric or the art of persuasion, equally valuable in the law court or the council chamber or the Assembly.

Some were more high[er]-minded than others, but as a class, they were far from popular. Toward the end of the [fifth] century, when things went badly for Athens, they were blamed for encouraging reckless young men to go into public life and equipping them with skills that enabled them to attract followers and so get the City into trouble.

Socrates: Although you knew them by other names – Demagogues, Senators, Caesars, or Sophists – These "Bad People" have always existed through the Ages. In Colonial times you called them Loyalists – the duplicitous class of slaveholding Traitors who betrayed their Colonial brothers – Samuel Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George Mason, and raised up arms with the hated English Empire against their own people.

After the Revolutionary War was lost to them, in time the decedents of the Loyalists took over the Democrat Socialist Party and loved the evil institution of Slavery so much that they caused a Tragic Civil War (1861-65) – a war that took 1.5 million American lives – the bloodiest war in American history which had more causalities than all the others American wars combined... and for what – Slavery, Genocide, Vanity, Power?!


From Antiquity there have always been a class of Humanity hellbent on deconstructing society and perverting Veritas (Truth) – The Sophists, the Epicureans, the Hedonists, the Empiricists of Antiquity are collectively called in Modern times by their Humanists and Enlightenment children – Voltaire, Robespierre, Rousseau, the Jacobins, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, the Evolution Atheists, the Communists, the Liberals, Democrats, Democrat Socialists, the National Socialists (Nazis), the Progressives, Muslims, Muslim Sympathizers, Socialist Sympathizers, Establishment Republicans, Progressive Republicans, Socialist Republicans, Holocaust Democrats, etc. etc....

Because I love simplicity, I prefer to call these demagogues by the only name that best defines their evil intent and treachery down through the Ages – Professional Liars. Nevertheless, I truly believe that Veritas, Natural Law, and God will Triumph over Evil at the End of the Ages for as C.S. Lewis rightly declared – All that is not eternal is eternally forgotten.

... He loved me enough to be late.

*N.B.: For further reading regarding the Life and Times of Socrates, see this outstanding opus by one of my most enduring intellectual mentors whom I've read for over 30 years – The outstanding and prolific English Historian – Paul Johnson, Socrates: A Man for Our Times (Viking Press, 2011), pp. 80-81.

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Invitation for manuscripts

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