The Perniciousness of Sin - John 11:45-57

Read John 11:45-57

If you notice carefully, the discussion in the Sanhedrin was not about who Jesus was. The issue at hand was national security. For the Sanhedrin, Jesus was a social and political problem. They know that Jesus was performing many signs (v. 47) and they knew the signs were believable. They even said it in v. 48. But their knowledge gave way to fear: fear that the Romans will respond to this Jesus by wiping Israel off the face of the map. The High Priest Caiaphas proposed a solution: let’s get rid of him. Plus, it worked with a prophecy he gave earlier that year (v. 51). The economics seemed to work out: one man dies, and the Jewish nation is saved. The cost and benefits add up; killing Jesus makes political, social, and economic sense. Never mind, by the way, that this man was not just any ordinary man – he was Jesus the Christ – all that mattered was that at least the Jewish nation is saved. What was even more disturbing was vv. 55-57. The chief priests and the Pharisees were using a time of worship – a time of celebration in the Jewish calendar – as an opportune moment to arrest him! How ironic was it that a time for the Jews to remember how God had saved them from Egypt was used to arrest the same God who would save them from their own sins!

But we should not be too surprised. One of the central beliefs of the Christian faith is that all people are sinful (technical term: total depravity). As you may gather from the reading, even religious leaders were not exempt from sin. How scary is it that they’ve sinned, and they’ve brushed it off. What we don’t realize at times is that sin is so pernicious, so terrifying in its evil. It’s so easy to dumb it down to just personal practices; oh, if I don’t swear, I’m not sinning; oh, if I don’t think bad thoughts, I’m not sinning; oh, if I’m not angry, I’m not sinning. But in doing so, we delude ourselves into thinking that we’re actually very okay when really the truth is the opposite.

Sin encapsulates anything that does not put God in right relationship with humanity. When we think God is much less than God is, we have sinned. When we think we are something we are not created to be, we have sinned. And sin is so sly and slick that we can even do something like worshipping (or, praising God, prayer, etc.) and be sinning at the same time! We just need to open up a book on church history and read about sorry stories of Catholics and Protestants participating in – and even preaching in support of – great evils. I remember one day in class (this was when I was at Wheaton) the students turned on the TV before class started – the United States was beginning to bomb Baghdad, and almost everyone watched eagerly anticipating the first strike. Our professor – God bless his soul – came in, frowned, and turned off the TV. And this was at Wheaton, supposedly the “Harvard of evangelical Christianity!” And yet, Christian students were watching destruction with eager anticipation. St. Paul was not kidding when he wrote Romans 3:10.

In this time of Lent, we pause and meditate on the life of Christ. But we also meditate on what Christ died for on the cross. We meditate on our complicity to personal sins, but also our participation in social sins. We meditate on our personal shortcomings, and our shortcomings as the body of Christ. We meditate on how we have failed to love God wholeheartedly, and our neighbors as ourselves. We meditate on the perniciousness of our sins. But let us not leave it there, because in meditating on how low and totally depraved we are, we must acknowledge our God who stands beside us who waits with extended hands, who waits to pick us up so we can keep walking with God.

Heavenly Father, invade our lives and break us, humble us, so that we can be people you have created us to be: your beloved children. For too long, Lord, we have filled our minds with the delusion that if only we said the right things, performed the right actions, and accompany them with “Thank you Jesus”, we are truly your followers. But God, we forget that sin is so pernicious, that even “thank you Jesus” has been and still can be used to justify acts of pride to acts of grave injustice. Lord, humble us and put us in our rightful place so that we can worship you as Lord of all Creation, instead of worshipping us as the lord of our own creation. Amen.