“Who was the first ghost to haunt the White House?” I read from a smudged card.  My oldest niece wriggles by her grandma.  “Thomas Jefferson, maybe?” I answer as the only person still caring about the game.  But, we have to care, or we will never get out of the maze.  The corn maze security guard standing at the nearest intersection coughs and nods his head to the left.  Abe Lincoln’s ghost leads us on.

There is a spooky story in scripture about a man named Lazarus.  He and his two sisters, Martha and Mary, are good friends of Jesus.  Lazarus is sick so the women send for Jesus saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (John 11:3).  Then Jesus stalls, and stalls, and stalls. After two days of waiting, Jesus even diminishes Lazarus’ problem by saying, “Lazarus has fallen asleep” (11:11).  Everyone plays along with Jesus and diminishes that Jesus let his friend die.  But then emotions-on-her-sleeve Mary throws herself at Jesus’ feet and says, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Jesus is greatly troubled.  Jesus weeps.  Why does he weep?

“That’s the tallest corn, I’ve ever seen.  I wonder if they irrigate it all year?”  I wonder aloud.  The screaming yellow sun halos the over-all’ed man who answers.  “Actually, that’s not corn.”  “Is it milo?” my thirsty wife says.  “Wow, you know your grains.”  He steps out of the sun and his official green t-shirt and walkie talkie indicates he may know something about about the corn maze.  “When we used corn, kids would steal it and use it in the petting zoo.  Also, it doesn’t grow as tall.  But, the milo still takes a lot of water.”

Lazarus doesn’t stay dead.  Jesus says, “Take away the stone” and out walks Lazarus (11:39).  What was that day like for Lazarus?  Lazarus doesn’t talk at all.  Did he hear Jesus explanation for everything, “That they may believe you sent me” (11:42)?  Jesus is essentially saying, you died and were raised to testify to who I am.

“Wait for the others sweetie,” I say as I pat my dusty niece on the head.  “Rarr!” she growls at me.  I had mixed emotions about the game we were playing.  It was nearly bed time, and we still weren’t out of the corn maze.  The options were to carry the three-year-old the rest of the maze or trick her to keep going.  I had been letting her chase me.  The chase required less strength but more endurance.  She fell a few times over ruts in the corn rows but picked herself up.  Now the sun was making the tops of the milo glow.  I had to act scared and run away or she would soon get bored and realize how tired she was.  I began to squeal and run away when I heard, “I gotta go.”  I could hear the bluegrass band playing at the exit of the maze.  We were about halfway through.

Normally if you save someones life you are congratulated, but the religious leaders had about had it with Jesus.  He raises a man from the grave and they say, “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him…” (11:48).  Belief in him was a problem; having people believe in Jesus would cause problems.  “So from that day on they made plans to put him to death” (11:53).  If you aren’t in the mob, how do you plan to kill someone?  These were supposed to be good “church people,” planning to murder the town hero.

I used all my strength and endurance to make it to the porta-potty, but don’t worry we made it.  And, the three-year-old managed not to fall in.  But, the conversation we had while running was intense.  “Can you hold it?”  Jostle, jostle, jostle.  Turn a corner down a row.  Jostle, jostle, jostle.  “I have to potty.”  Jostle, jostle, jostle.  She wipes her curly red hair from her face as I slowly explain, “There isn’t a potty here.  You would have to go in the corn and go potty.  It’s okay to do that, but you would be outside.”  Jostle, jostle, jostle.  “I’ll hold it.”  I breathe heavy a few times and respond, “Okay… let me know if you need to stop.”  I sprinted to the exit of the maze.  All the mothers smirked and moved out of the way.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).