Intended Consequences

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 19, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 12:20-36.

             Are you familiar with the Law of Unintended Consequences?  You probably are.  Even if you were not aware that it was called that, you’ve probably seen it in operation.  Basically, the Law of Unintended Consequences says that whenever we make a decision or take an action, that decision or action will have consequences that we never intended.  And the more complex the situation is about which were making that decision or taking that action, the larger the unintended consequences are going to be.

            Now, of course, the Law of Unintended Consequences is a human thing.  For God, there are never any unintended consequences.  When God acts, God knows exactly what all of the consequences will be.  And we can see that in the life and death of Jesus.  

            In our reading for tonight, Jesus talks about his death.  In John’s chronology, this happens right after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  People were waving palm branches in front of Him, proclaiming Jesus to be the king.  You’d think Jesus would be on top of the world.  This is a mountaintop experience that Jesus has just had.

But of course, Jesus can see into the future, and He knows what’s coming up next.  Jesus knows that He’s going to be betrayed.  The religious authorities are going to arrest Him.  He’s going to be beaten and tortured.  He’s going to be sentenced to death.  And that sentence is going to be carried out.

            But listen to what Jesus has to say about that.  “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

            The religious leaders--the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the teachers of the law, all the rest--thought that the entire Christian movement rested on the life of Jesus.  And so, they assumed that once Jesus was out of the way, the movement would collapse.  If they could just get rid of Jesus, their problems would be over.

            But Jesus knew that his death would not be the end of the Christian movement.  It would just be the beginning.  Obviously, part of the reason is that Jesus is who he is--the divine Son of God.  But there were other, practical reasons why this was going to come about, too.

            Jesus knew that as long as he was there, the disciples, and everyone else, would look to him to be the leader.  And that was appropriate, of course.  Jesus was the leader.  But the thing is, as long as Jesus was there, the disciples would never take any initiative on their own.  They would always wait for Jesus to tell them what to do and where to go.  They would stick with Jesus, and follow Jesus.  But everything would depend on Jesus.  It would all revolve around him.  He would be the single seed that he talked about.

            But then, the authorities had Jesus killed.  And instead of the Christian movement dying with him, it was born!  In dying, Jesus produced many seeds!  And he still is, really.  But the disciples took over from Jesus.  They carried his ministry forward.  And because there were more of them, once they went off separately they could cover far more ground than Jesus ever could while he was on earth.  The disciples, and the others who heard about Jesus from them, spread the gospel all over the world.

            And the disciples going off separately was an unintended consequence of what the religious leaders did, too.  We did not read this tonight, but at first, the disciples stayed together.  They stayed around Jerusalem.  But then, the authorities started coming after them, threatening them with persecution and arrest.  And so, the disciples scattered.  They scattered for their own safety, but they took the gospel of Jesus Christ with them wherever they went.  And the gospel spread, and spread, and spread, all over the world.

            The religious authorities thought they could stop Christianity by killing Christ.  Instead, they made it grow.  The religious authorities thought they could stop the disciples from spreading Christianity by forcing them out of Jerusalem.  Instead, their actions made Christianity reach people all over the known world.

            Those were all unintended consequences for the religious authorities.  But they were all intended consequences for God.  And Jesus, by his words, shows that he knew it would happen.  

            But it’s not just that these things happened.  They happened to glorify God.  That’s referenced three times in Jesus’ statement.  He starts out by saying “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  Later he says, “Father, glorify your name.”  And a voice comes from heaven, saying “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

            I want you to think about this.  This struck me as such an awesome thing for God to have done.  You know, we think of the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the rest, as the bad guys in the story of Jesus.  And they are, in a lot of ways.  But they were not trying to be the bad guys.  They thought they were doing what God wanted them to do.  They wanted God’s name to be glorified.

            And, as a result of their actions, it was.  Talk about an unintended consequence!  The actions of the Pharisees and the Sadducees resulted in God’s name being glorified, but in a way that never would have occurred to them.  A way they never would’ve dreamed of.  A way that never would have entered their thoughts in any way, shape or form.  The Pharisees and Sadducees had everything completely wrong, and yet God used what they did to bring about what they actually wanted--God’s name being glorified.  That’s a pretty amazing thing for God to do, don’t you think?

            I sometimes mention Romans Chapter Eight, Verse Twenty-eight, that God can use all things for the good of those who love Him.  But you know, when you think about it, when the Apostle Paul wrote that, he was really kind of underselling it.  It’s not just that God can use all things for the good of those who love Him.  God can use all things to bring about His purposes.  God can use all things to glorify His name.  God can take the actions of people whose goal is to stop Christianity, to shut it down, to do away with it, and use those actions to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and glorify the name of God.  It’s incredible.

            And it should give us a lot of hope.  You know, we look at the world, and we see a lot of things going wrong.  There’s violence.  There are threats of war.  There’s a lack of trust.  There are economic problems.  We’re still dealing with the effects of COVID.  There are feelings of isolation and depression.  There are relationship problems.  There’s loneliness.  We could go on and on about the problems of the world.

            And it seems like there are a lot of people opposed to Christianity right now, too.  We don’t feel that as much here, because of where we live, but we’d be foolish to think we’re immune from it.  Things that have been basic tenets of Christianity for centuries are now called “offensive” and are censored.  Satanic worship was promoted on national television at the Grammy awards.  Christians often censor themselves, and don’t want to talk about our faith, because we don’t want to upset anyone.  And in other countries it’s even worse.  There are places where people are literally killed for the Christian faith.

            When we think about these things, we can get depressed.  We wonder what the future holds.  But we don’t have to be depressed.  As the old hymn says, we may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.  We know that it’s all in God’s hands.  We know that God remains in control.  God always has been in control, and God always will be in control.  And God is going to work all these things to bring about God’s purposes.

Anyone who thinks they can stop Christianity is doomed to failure.  They are as doomed to failure as the Pharisees and the Sadducees were when they killed Jesus.  They may think they’re winning.  Everyone around may think they’re winning, too.  But they’re not.  They are going to see the Law of Unintended Consequences take effect, big time.  Or, another way to put it is that they are going to see the Law of God’s Intended Consequences take effect, big time. 

Christianity cannot be killed, just as Jesus could not be killed.  And anyone who tries is only going to see their actions result in Christianity growing all the more.  And they’re going to see God’s name glorified.  God has glorified His name, and He will glorify it again.

So, no matter what you see around you, do not give up hope.  Do not lose faith.  Know that God is still here.  God sees everything that’s happening.  And God is going to use it all.  God is using it all now, in ways that we do not know and cannot see.  We talk about God being all-powerful, and of course that’s true, but even though we say it I don’t know if we actually realize how true that statement is.  Even when we think of all the amazing things God has done, I don’t think we come anywhere close to realizing the incredible, awesome power God has.  We also don’t come anywhere close to realizing the incredible, awesome love God has for us, that God would use God’s power for our good.

God cannot be stopped.  God cannot even be slowed down.  Everything that’s happening now is being used by God.  The single seed is falling into the ground.  It is going to produce more seeds that we can ever imagine.  God’s name will be glorified.  That may be an unintended consequence of what humans do.  But it’s a consequence that’s fully intended by God.