All Things Work Together for Good…Really?

Text: Rom. 8:28-39, Acts 11:27—12:5, Mark 10:35-45

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good…” It’s an often misquoted and misunderstood passage of Scripture that we have before us here today, when we celebrate the Feast of St. James the Elder, one of Jesus’ Apostles. It’s casually quoted whenever something good happens—someone comes into a windfall of money, or a situation becomes less dire; something obviously and measurably happy happens to someone. That’s when we say, “All things work together for good for those who love God.” It’s one of those verses that only comes out of people’s mouths when there’s something that anyone—believer or unbeliever—would celebrate.
            But try telling that interpretation of this verse to St. James the Elder. James was one of the original twelve Apostles. He was a son of Zebedee and the brother of St. John the Apostle. In the Gospels, James always seems to be on the inside track. Whenever Jesus would retreat with a smaller circle of His disciples, James was always there—Peter, James, and John were the ones who got to see the transfiguration of Jesus, they were at Jesus’ side when He prayed right before His betrayal and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, they spent the most time with Jesus and got to hear and see things that no others did. So if anyone could expect honor among the billions who have followed Jesus since, it would be him. If anyone could quote that verse, “All things work together…” and expect it to mean that things would go well for him, it would be St. James. Indeed, even James saw this as a possibility, at first. He went with his brother John and they said to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

            We fallen mortals—and I would venture to say that we, the children of this crooked generation the most—are simply addicted to worldly honor, praise, comfort, and pleasure. We believe that verses like “All things work together for good…” mean that all the circumstances will align and we’ll get better spots in line at Disneyland, or we’ll get that promotion after all, or we’ll find an even bigger and better house, or that we’ll finally get the world’s respect—if only we could find that magic bullet, that last little thing to work together with the rest of it to make things the way we want them to be.

            But try telling that to St. James. After his request, which wasn’t so much a request as a demand, Jesus tells him, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And James and his brother John thought they could. So Jesus tells the brothers, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And indeed, all things would work together for St. James to drink the same cup that his Lord drank, as we heard from the book of Acts this morning. “About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.” James’ Teacher Jesus died at the hands of Herod and Pilate, executed for the approval of the people, and so James would be executed by Herod too. He would drink the same cup as Jesus.

            If we stay in our fleshly, earth-bound way of thinking, this is very hard for us to process. How is this “all things working together for good”? But this question, this wrestling, is part of the reason why we have days like this in the Church year to remember and give thanks to God for His saints and martyrs. It lifts us up out of our limited human way of thinking and helps us to see things from God’s perspective.

            In our reading about all things working together for good, St. Paul continues: “What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And it is true. After watching his Lord betrayed, put on trial, accused, lied about, beaten, and crucified, St. James also saw his Lord raised from the dead. He heard the promise of his own resurrection waiting for him because Jesus went through all of that for him. And so, as the tradition goes from Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian historian and thinker, we hear about St. James’ trial and execution. He was not afraid of Herod or of death. He was not afraid of the Romans or their swords. He was not afraid to be stripped of his clothes or imprisoned or mocked or beaten. In fact, the tradition goes that St. James went so confidently to his martyrdom, knowing full well that all things would work together for his eternal good with resurrection and life waiting for him, that James’ accuser was brought to repentance. The man who had slandered James in court, who had pushed for his death, was so moved by St. James’ courage and fearlessness that he knew James must know something about what was on the other side of death. He asked for James’ forgiveness and begged to become a Christian, to have faith and confidence in the same Lord and Teacher who gave eternal life and hope to His disciples. This accuser was converted and was even beheaded at the same time as St. James, dying a martyr’s death, sure that even he would be raised by Jesus when His new Lord returned.

            And from this, in spite of Herod’s threats and violence, the Christian faith grew—not because it was popular and comfortable and gave people worldly successes and led to earthly glory—but because people wondered what could be so great about this faith, this Savior, that these men would be willing to die for it. And so all things, even the martyrdom of Jesus’ Apostles, worked together for the good of bringing the Gospel to countless people in the generations since, even to us today.

            Of course, what makes this faith so great, what makes our Lord so great, is resurrection—the antidote to everything that can go wrong. Resurrection is what makes everything work together for eternal good, for there is nothing that resurrection and eternal life cannot fix. That’s the good that all things work together for, for those who love God. That’s the good that Jesus has won for you. That’s where you put your hope, your faith, and where you find your courage in the face of anything the world throws at you. What can separate you from the love of Christ? Nothing. In the name of Jesus, who shares His everlasting life with us. Amen.