"When Your Messiah Dies" GF 4/14/2017

 On June 12, 1994, the aged Rabbi Menachem Schneerson expired after months in a comatose condition. Rabbi Schneerson was a kindly little man who loved his fellow Jews and the Jewish religion. In return, he was greatly loved and respected by all Jews. He was something of a paradox. He had received his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne, but some of the beliefs he promoted were based on old superstitions. He had been proclaimed "Grand Rabbi" of the Lubavitch movement of Judaism, but seemed to possess a genuine humility.

Through Rabbi Schneerson's visionary leadership, many of his followers were rescued from the Holocaust. Because of his vision, these ultra- Orthodox Hasidic Jews, who dressed more like they belonged in Eighteenth Century Europe than today, were able to expand and multiply. They even managed to attract young people who had grown up in secular and Reformed Jewish homes.

All of Rabbi Schneerson's followers revered him as a great spiritual leader, but ultimately, some of them came to say of him what he would never say of himself. They claimed that he was the Messiah. They called him the Moshiach, the Righteous One, the prophet, priest and King who would accomplish world redemption, bring the gentiles to the light of Judaism and the God of Moses and deliver all of humankind.

These hopeful followers placed ads in secular newspapers around the world, hailing him as "King Messiah". They placed his face on roadside billboards in Israel. They reveled and danced at the wailing wall in Jerusalem to celebrate his birthday. They shared stories of his mystical understandings, his intellectual prowess, and yes even miracles that he was supposed to have accomplished. They even had a telethon in this county to honor him,

Rabbi Schneerson never made any of those claims about himself. Unfortunately, Rabbi Schneerson never denied those claims, either. Then, at ninety-two years of age, the Grand Rabbi of the Lubavitch sect of the Hasidim, died.

So what do you do, when your Messiah dies? What do you do when your deepest hope evaporates-- when you are confronted with the fact that what you thought of a person was not true? What do you do, what do you think, what are you to believe when you realize that the one in whom you had placed your faith is not able to deliver as you had hoped?

This was not the first time in history that our Jewish sisters and brothers have been disappointed in their Messianic hopes. Throughout the centuries, Israel has longed for God's Messiah to come and deliver her as promised in Scripture. Many persons of great stature have arisen in the Jewish community. Some were political heroes, and others were greatly beloved spiritual leaders. But all of them were less than God's promised Messiah. All of them died. None came back. None of them accomplished world deliverance.

When Rabbi Schneerson died, the hopes of his followers who longed for him to be the Messiah were dashed. That's what happens when your ultimate hope is placed in the wrong person.

In some ways, Rabbi Schneerson was like King Uzziah who lived and died during the lifetime of the Prophet Isaiah. Many had thought that Uzziah was the "promised deliverer". He reformed the faith of Israel and worship practices in the Temple in many ways. He implemented an extensive public works program in Israel. He led the nation real prosperity. Then he died.

What do you do when your Messiah dies? We know what the prophet Isaiah of Jerusalem did. Isaiah 6:1 tells us that he went to the Temple in Jerusalem. There and then, the Almighty One, reached down from the Throne of Heaven and touched this grieving, confused, lost follower with an experience of God's own living presence.

Suddenly he was in the Heavenly Temple—standing at the foot of God’s Throne. When Isaiah saw the Holy One high and lifted up, the prophet discovered what was ultimately important. The Temple was filled with smoke and incense and with the songs of praise of the heavenly train of angels, above, before, and behind. Their chant rent the air. "Holy, holy, holy is the Ruler of Hosts. The whole earth is full of God's glory!"

Isaiah responded by falling to his face repenting. "Woe is me, for I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." Then, in a grand gesture of grace, God sent one of the angels down to touch Isaiah and cleanse him of his sins. Then, God presented this newly forgiven servant with an opportunity to serve. "Whom shall I send?" Asked the Holy One. "And who will go for us?"

"Here am I," responded Isaiah. "Send me." God's call is like that. The Divine Will is always presented to us as opportunity. We may say yes, or no. This right to choose our response, to go or stay, is the same right that we have to live a life of faithfulness and integrity, or a life of sin. Sin isn't always what we do. It can also be what we fail to do.

Faced with the ordinary disappointments of life, you and I always have a choice. How will we respond? We may frown, express our disappointment in many ways. We may grieve or even lose faith. But if we're mature, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get on with the business of living.

As you and I know all too well, even in the lives of the faithful, grave disappointments will sooner or later arise-- the kind that can flatten us. We may lose a mate, a parent, even-- God forbid-- a child. We may have to go through a divorce, a critical illness, the loss of a love, a job, or even our home.

Our Messiah may die. At those times, picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off and starting all over again isn't so easy. Our emotions are numbed. Our minds won't focus. We feel incapable of acting. We look for meaning, or an explanation, or someone to blame. All we are capable of is wanting the pain to end. Even then, we can still choose our response.

At such terrible times, at such Good Friday moments, you and I need to be able to ride out our troubled emotions. We need a complete re-orientation of our souls. We need a complete rehabilitation of our hearts. We need, like Isaiah in the year that King Uzziah died, to experience a compete revivification of our wills. We need an utter renewal of our faith.

At such times you and I can only find our peace in God and in Christ Jesus, the

true Messiah. As we bring our broken hearts and shattered dreams into the presence of God, we will eventually come to find a new hope, a new help, a new holiness. As we encounter the Almighty, we repent and are changed. We are healed.

As Christians, you and I have placed our faith in Jesus, the only risen Messiah. As His followers, we have the gift of the Presence of the Holy Spirit to convict us of our wrong choices and endow us with the strength to survive, to repent, to accept forgiveness, to go on, to come to the Altar of the Almighty and receive new life, new purpose, renewed faith.

As Christians you and I must sooner or later come to know that our only solace, our only wisdom, lies not in spiritual leaders, but in God alone. Sooner or later even the most holy rabbi or pastor or guru will fail us. Ultimately people will fail us. Ultimately all messiahs will die.

What do you do when your Messiah dies? You can rationalize, you can blame, you can grieve, you can lose faith, you can become bitter, you can even kid yourself into continuing to cling to your vain and shattered hopes. But in the end, none of these will work.

When your messiah dies, when the thing or person in whom you have imvested ultimate trust lets you down, you and I can only look to God for solace. As we repent of our misplaced trust, the Almighty One can bring healing and restoration. As the Psalms remind us, Our God is always willing to cleanse and renew a contrite heart and mend a broken spirit.

What do you do when your Messiah dies? You and I only need to be willing to seek a new direction and a new choice. The prophet Isaiah chose to serve the true and living God. You and I can choose to do the same thing. Amen.