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S. Lent 5.26 John 11

‘This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God, so that the Son of Man may be glorified through it…’

Jesus said when they told him that his friend Lazarus was sick. But, even though he loved Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, he lolly-gagged a couple more days where he was and let Lazarus die! “What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, oh my soul!” Well; it did not seem wondrous to Martha and Mary! It seemed cavalier and cruel. Not like love at all, as we understand love…

And boy, do they let Jesus know how they feel! ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died…’! And for Martha (and even more for Mary!) friends don’t let friends DIE! especially if they just happen to be God, and can stop it! Which Jesus obviously is and has cured far worse diseases than whatever Lazarus had. So you can see why they are little bit… miffed.

Jesus tells Martha her brother will rise again. She says, “Sure, at the Last Day, but when will that be?” And Jesus says “I AM the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

And Martha says. “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” But, I wonder? Does she believe, really? I’m not sure. She believes Jesus can fix his mistake. She says “Even now, I know God will give whatever you ask him.” But that sounds like she thinks God and Jesus are not One and the Same. And that’s not faith. Not real Xn faith. Not at all!

Lots of people—Arians, Muslims, agnostics, most of Christendom, believe Jesus is a prophet, or a great teacher that God will listen to. But if you don’t believe Jesus is Yahweh, God himself, if you don’t believe that Jesus and the Father are One and that each person: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is by himself God, Yahweh, the LORD—then don’t kid yourself: you don’t believe! Not really…

See, when you talk like Martha does: “Whatever you ask of God he will give you,” like Prof. Joel Okamato at the St. Louis sem does when insists that Jesus is not Yahweh, you’re putting daylight between Jesus and God. Such talk does not come from Xn Faith! In fact, such Arianism is probably the most dangerous state to be in re: Jesus! Because it looks a lot like Xn Faith and has fooled a lot of people for a long time, but, in fact, it is a sickness of spirit, the sickness of despair which is SIN, the sin that is mortal and that leads to eternal death!

This is what the Great Dane, Soren Kierkegaard—the greatest theologian of the 19th century, way better than Walther who never really seems entirely to shake off Calvinist rationalism—says in his best and most readable book “The Sickness Unto Death” which I think we will read together this summer on Wed. evenings.

I took the trouble of re-reading SK this week (yeah, that’s how I prepare for sermons. If I have to read a rather “difficult” book in a couple days just to get a better angle on one, single sentence in the Gospel, that’s what I’ll do. You’re welcome 😉 But that’s the best part of my job, as St. Paul tells Timothy: devote yourself to reading, exhortation, and doctrine—that’s the job, right there! And wow; I’d forgotten how great SK in general and that book in particular are. He might have been the only one in the 19th century who really gets Luther and the scriptures!

SK says that sin is despair. He says most of us don’t see that equation because we think the opposite of sin is virtue. But, no! The opposite of sin is faith! And the precise nature of despair is unbelief, a stubborn rejection and refusal to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are saved by sharing his dying, through the faith that God bestows on all through the Gospel and seals by baptism and the Lord’s supper. Faith is 100% God’s doing, God’s gift—SK sees this as Luther, Paul and Peter see it…

But God won’t drag us kicking and screaming into heaven because then heaven would just be another Soviet-style Gulag. God desires all people to be saved, but he won’t force his love on anyone. All the cell doors in hell are locked from the inside…(!)

There are two kinds of despair for SK: weakness and defiance. Weakness is going “God! My sins are too great! They’re too awful! Even Jesus’ dying can’t forgive them!” But SK sees that’s not so weak, really, at all. That’s arrogance! That’s really saying: “How dare God not love me just as I am! How dare he insist something so radical as dying is necessary to fix me!” That’s defiance disguised—it’s the worst kind of sin, the lie we tell ourselves: that we’re sad when really we’re mad!

Martha is poster child for weak despair in our Gospel today. But seeing there’s nothing God can’t do when he raises Lazarus her brother from the dead, hopefully she has a change of mind, change of heart, and believes in Jesus… 😉

Mary models defiance. “How dare you let my brother die!” And Jesus weeps, the only time reported in the Gospel. But not, I think, because Mary is sad; not because he’s sorry he didn’t come right away and spare her grief. Nah; he weeps because Mary’s is the real sickness unto death—despair!, denial that only by sharing Jesus’ dying can we rise victorious, sin-free!

Caiaphas displays the sin of defiance—“we can’t let Jesus go around raising the dead, because then our place and our nation will be taken from us. Then we won’t be gods!—Jesus will be! And that can’t be!” 🙁

Jesus did Lazarus a great favor—letting him die! Because death destroys the sin in us! Do you believe that? Does part of you long to share the dying of Jesus—the sooner, the better!—so as to share his resurrection?

“Hmm… when you put it like that, pastor, I’m not sure.”

Being sick and tired of our sinful selves is a Good Sickness—leading to Life and faith that dying with Jesus is the only way to live, trust-falling into his arms. Such is the non-rejection of faith. The littlest ones have it the mostest—like Frederick Sheridan at the font today. In baptism you are buried with Christ into his death, because that’s the only Way he can… fix you.

Such is the glory of Jesus and his cross. By dying, he destroys death; and by dying with him in Baptism, through faith in him, the glory of God shines on you, now and forever…

Do you believe this?

Yes and no, right? [‘I feel both sides, baby’…] But when the tiniest part of you does not not believe it, then the sickness unto death gets cured; and Peace, surpassing all understanding, guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.