"THE WORST EPIDEMIC"
First Sunday in Lent
March 5, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Romans 5:12 (ESV)
In the summer of 1976, following a convention of the American Legion held in Philadelphia, over two hundred of the people who attended that convention became seriously ill and thirty-four of them died. For those of us who are old enough to remember it, that incident caused a nationwide panic: "What caused the outbreak of this previously unknown disease?" "Would it reach the point of being an epidemic?" "How could people be safe from this?" Not many years after this outbreak of what became known as Legionnaire's Disease, there was another disease outbreak that caused not only national, but worldwide panic. This was Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, otherwise known as AIDS. Many normal, rational people became so paranoid about contracting this dreaded disease that they allowed fear to rule their entire lives and their every action. In both cases many people were captivated by the fear, real or imagined, that they were living in the midst of an epidemic that could possibly rival the infamous Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages.
There's another epidemic going around that is far more dangerous and far more widespread than Legionnaire's Disease or AIDS, but for some reason people don't want to give it any attention. I'm talking about a disease called sin. The Word of God tells us that sin is worse than any deadly physical disease because it always results in death and because it is not just widespread; it's universal. "Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." On the basis of these words, let's spend the next few minutes keeping our Lenten discipline by examining the disease of sin and its effects, in the hope that, realizing our condition, we will receive anew the cure for sin that God offers us in His Son.
No doubt sin is a terminal illness. Every sinner ends up dead. The Lord addresses the matter very bluntly in Romans, when He says: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Not only is sin the cause of death; it is also the cause of all illness and anything else in life that is unpleasant. And when you really think about it, isn't life as we know it little more than a slow but steady march toward death? We live out our days struggling with the consequences of our sin as we make our way to the ultimate consequence of sin, which is death. It's been that way ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed their Creator. From that moment on, everything was changed. What had been perfect was now sinful. The naked human body became offensive, not because it looked any different than it did before, but because now it was the body of a sinner, and no longer the body of a perfect creature of God. The perfect love and harmony between husband and wife was lost as they were confronted with their guilt and frantically tried to blame somebody else. Nature became man's enemy instead of his friend, as life became an ongoing struggle for survival. These are not things that we can look at from distance, as though they were a part of history that has little or nothing to do with us. These conditions--these consequences of sin--are still with us today, and they will be as long as we live. In fact, to a great extent we are controlled by the consequences of our sin.
Neither can we deny that sin is universal. Everyone is infected. There is no such thing as moral neutrality. Either you are perfect, or you are a sinner. I trust that we know ourselves well enough to realize that every last one of us belongs in the category of sinner. Every one of us is constantly displaying the sinful acts that are, in fact, the symptoms of the disease of sin. We all have to live every day with the hardships and disappointments that result from sin. The ever-present possibility of death looms over each and every one of us, waiting to claim us as it inevitably will sooner or later. There is not a one of us who is exempt from the consequences of sin, because there is not a one of us who has not been touched by and tainted with sin. We are all terminally ill in a spiritual sense, because all of us stand accused. None of us is innocent.
A pretty serious situation, to be sure, but what is the prognosis for the sinner? What are the sinner's chances of battling the sickness of sin? Left to our own strength, our chances are not good at all. Our chances are not good because we who try to fight sin and its effects using our own strength are fighting a losing battle. And in dealing with the disease of sin, we can't really help each other either. Since we're all in the same boat, so to speak, all of our efforts to help each other end up being a classic case of the blind trying to lead the blind. We can come to realize our sad situation, but we are powerless to do anything about it. The outlook is pretty dismal for humans looking for a human solution to the human problem of sin.
But thank God there is a cure for this dreaded disease of sin! The cure lies not in us or in our feeble efforts, but rather in the Son of God, who "has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4)--the "Man of Sorrows [who is] acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). The misery that He endured is not His own; it is ours. He suffered the consequences of our sin--not just the consequences of the less-than-perfect world that we all must live in, but also the ultimate consequence of sin: the judgment of a perfectly just God. That's what the cross of Jesus Christ is all about. When God beheld Jesus hanging on that cross, it was not His "beloved Son with whom [He was] well pleased" (Matthew 3:17) that He saw; He saw sin--yours and mine--and the Father had no mercy on His sin-laden Son. That's how it is possible for Him to be "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). His sacrifice for us is the cure for sin. It is at the cross of Christ that we find forgiveness, healing, and comfort. It is at the cross of Christ that we are made whole.
But the fact that there is a cure isn't enough. If that cure is going to be effective, it has to be available to those who are sick. God the Holy Spirit delivers this cure to you and me through the medicine of Word and Sacrament. The medicine for sin comes to us as we hear and read and study in His Word the gracious promise of full pardon and forgiveness in Christ. The medicine for sin comes to us as we kneel at His altar and there receive His sacred body and blood as the visible and tangible proof of His love and grace--His forgiveness and strength. In the medicine of the means of grace we find our healing and our strength.
So what's the worst epidemic in history? Not the plague. Not polio. Not tuberculosis. Not cancer. Not even Legionnaire's Disease or AIDS. The worst epidemic of all is sin. It is always fatal, costing people not only their lives but their souls as well. It is universal--everyone is touched by it; there is no one who escapes it. But praise God for the cure that He has provided in His Son! Our world doesn't understand this, so it preoccupies itself with superficial problems and superficial solutions. But the real problem that we face is sin and the solution has been provided by God Himself in His Son Jesus Christ. The forgiving grace of Christ is all that we need as we live with all the consequences of sin that we have brought upon ourselves. It is our strength for living and dying in peace and joy, knowing that a glorious, perfect life awaits us.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.