The God of Opportunity
America’s current political and social discourse is afflicted. The symptoms of this disease are easily detected: widespread hateful rhetoric, calculated lies, social media manipulation, the weaponization of the judicial and legislative branches, to name a few, are indicators of our deteriorating condition. This sickness, like so many others, is disruptive and tends to throw all infected by it into chaos. It has wreaked havoc on the sacred and the secular, politically dividing families, congregations, and communities. The wildly different emotions of the latest election outcome—shock, grief, exhilaration, vindication, vengeance, exhaustion—intensify a feverish, ongoing spiral. Left unchecked, the disease continues to spread quickly with no ending in sight.
Political, medical, or military tactics will not remedy an ailment that has conquered the very spirit and hearts of people—an internal condition that animates our toxic discourse. This disease is a spiritual one. A spiritual sickness requires a spiritual solution.
Moments of sickness and disease naturally raise questions about a cure. No reasonable person or society wants to knowingly stay sick. But how does a society cure a pandemic of animosity and divisiveness? Efforts to legislate kindness, consideration, and civility are ill-advised andlikely to fail. Political, medical, or military tactics will not remedy an ailment that has conquered the very spirit and hearts of people—an internal condition that animates our toxic discourse. This disease is a spiritual one. A spiritual sickness requires a spiritual solution. The Bible provides the foundation for spiritual solutions. As clergy and people of faith, it must fall to us to administer the spiritual cure for the current political sickness. Faith provides a fresh perspective on calamity. It strengthens where acute exhaustion has taken hold. It brings joy, hope, and togetherness when other tactics have been futile. With spiritual fortitude, believers can be healing agents in a society that is distressed and fractured. For our current spiritual crisis, scripture reveals the cure, and the prognosis is good news.
This Sickness Is Not Unto Death
Jesus’s encounter with Lazarus is instructive here. Upon learning of Lazarus’s illness, Jesus does not heal Lazarus in an instant (like His healing of the Centurion’s servant). Nor does Jesus immediately attend to Lazarus (like His response to Jairus). Instead, situated many miles away, Jesus waited several days, and then attended to Lazarus only after the illness had reached its carnal conclusion: death. Critical for our consideration is not only that Jesus waited, but the reason He waited.
Upon hearing the news about Lazarus, Jesus declared, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). Jesus clearly had other plans for the crisis. Jesus had a spiritual solution in mind. Although dire and painful for Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, and others around them, Jesus saw an opportunity to cultivate individual and collective faith. Lazarus’s sickness represented God’s opportunity through Jesus Christ to work on burdened hearts and closed minds. With God and for God, sickness is redemptive.
God’s restorative power perfectly frames the present-day believer’s perspective. Perhaps our current sickness is not unto death, but to glorify God through Jesus Christ. The depths of our political strife today cannot diminish God’s ability to use tumultuous moments for spiritual transformation. Nor can God’s plan ever be deterred by waning spiritual practices, including low worship attendance, that contribute to the ugly tenor of our present polarization. God is up to something, something good. This good news offers hope to the hopeless and comfort to the jaded. The world should be able to look to church leaders and believers who operate with steadfast assurance that even in dark days, God’s work will be fruitful. Yes, the times are dark and divisive; yes, this acute illness seems unending; yes, the tension has reached a fever pitch, and some may be tempted to conclude that the sickness is incurable. But this sickness is not unto death. Our contemporary condition provides the opening for a spiritual solution and for the people of God to act for the glory of Christ.
Walk In The Light
An antidote’s success is judged by its effectiveness. The unfolding story of Lazarus prescribes the necessary steps for a spiritual remedy to take root. After Lazarus’s death, Jesus tells His disciples, “Let us [now] go back to Judea” to attend to Lazarus (v.7). Jesus’s intention was to bring His disciples (and us) along to witness His redemptive work. Unsurprisingly, however, the disciples protested. Jesus had just recently escaped from being stoned the last time he was there. The disciples could not fathom why Jesus would put Himself in harm’s way for the sake of checking on Lazarus, who according to them just needed some sleep (v.12).
Jesus does not capitulate. Instead, He says, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” (v.9-10). In short, Jesus explained that He has a set and limited time to carry out God’s work, and His work will not be disrupted by focusing on the nefarious plans of others. Jesus rejected the notion of a Christian ethic that only applies so long as there is no danger or uncertainty ahead. Obstacles should not sway the believer’s focus. Instead, impediments provide a specific opening to walk in the light and uphold the things of God. It is especially during times when spiritual sickness is spreading that believers must embrace prayer, scripture, communal involvement, truth-telling, and demonstrate daily Godly character.
Our current condition is no different. Undesired political leadership and the potential consequences of their governance and policies do not suspend the believer’s responsibility to honor God by walking in His light. Kindness and decency in the face of sickness do not suggest weakness. Nor does it require silence. Walking in the light, including speaking God’s truth, validates the value and the quality of our faith. Like Jesus, the church and believers are called to carry out God’s work and must take extreme care not to exacerbate political sickness by stumbling in darkness. The time is set, and the moment is now for people of faith to walk in the light.
Grow In Faith, With an Open Heart
Jesus does not merely challenge the disciples’ commitment. He goes further and said, “For [the disciple’s] sake [He is] glad [He] was not there [before Lazarus died], so that [the disciples] may believe.” (v.15). Although the disciples had demonstrated faith by leaving their homes to follow Jesus, Jesus makes clear that belief is not static, nor a one-time occurrence. The disciples walked with the historical Jesus and witnessed His miracles, and yet they were still growing and being formed. Lazarus’s sickness presented a decisive occasion for the disciples to go deeper in their faith.
In the same way, our present-day sickness offers us an opportunity to grow our faith. As people of faith, each interaction, be it with those of deep political conviction or complete disengagement or disenfranchisement from politics, is another chance to learn from and about God. It requires an open heart, even opened to the possibility that we have believed or shared incorrect positions; been part of the problem and not the solution; or that we can do more to be helpful and not harmful. Openness in faith exposes the soul to God’s presence and guidance as it draws us to His solutions. No longer are we tethered to political pundits, biased news outlets crystallizing our opinions, or the latest developing story confirming our suspicions. Our guide is the indwelling Holy Spirit, who shapes and molds us. It has the power to unite and not divide; to be generous and not greedy; and to be considerate and not impatient; to love and not hate.
Face Your Fears
And now that Jesus had spoken, the disciples had a choice to make: Go with Jesus to address the sickness or continue their anxious protest. Confronted with the opportunity to face their fears, Thomas spoke up, and “said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’” (v.16).
Like the disciples, we also must face our fears. In our case, our worry is not about Jesus being physically accosted; we harbor other fears. Some of our concerns include immigration policy, the economy and high prices, women’s rights and reproductive health, or diversity and inclusion. Now is the time to resolve those fears. Pray, educate yourself, consider others’ thoughts and experiences, speak to subject-matter experts, meditate, and seek to discern Jesus’s outlook and response. Fear is not of God, but it is a chance to get closer to God.
Despite their fears, the disciples followed Jesus. And along with many others, they witnessed Jesus’s healing and resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. The result: Jesus changed hearts, and many believed. In our time, Jesus’s spiritual cure of our political sickness can change hearts and behavior, and grow faith. It starts with Christian leadership. With a spiritual solution, Christian leaders fortify—or regain—their credibility and demonstrate what it means to be a follower of Jesus. No matter the depths of our political chaos or election outcomes, the spiritual antidote remains the same: Walk in the light, grow in faith, and face your fears. It is applicable to all people, at all times, and all around the world. But for the cure to work, the sick must first take the antidote.
Ademuyiwa T. Bamiduro is an ordained Baptist minister and the Senior Pastor of Walker Memorial Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Born in D.C., he earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Detroit Mercy and a law degree from the University of Maryland. Before turning to the ministry, he was a practicing attorney and, for nearly a decade, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office. He is a member of the YDS Dean’s Advisory Council.