The Declaration of Dependence

July 20, 2026

John 11:14-27

Phoenix, AZ

“Wow!” A few weeks ago, I was reading today’s Gospel to a woman whose memory is fading. She interrupted me with that word: “Wow!” I expected it. It’s been like this for the last year or two.

She came to Divine Service every Lord’s Day. Now she’s in a memory care unit. She doesn’t remember who I am or exactly where she is. Reading the Gospels to her, it’s like she’s hearing them for the first time. The Magi give Jesus gold; she responds, “Gold? Wow!” Yeah. Wow is right.

Jesus says the dead will be raised. Wow indeed! “Isn’t that great?” I asked her. “It’s overwhelming.”

She hates her forgetfulness. One time I reminded her that because of Christ’s cross, God chooses to forget our sins. “That’s very gracious,” she replied. Interesting choice of words!

I bring her the means of grace, but she shows me what grace means. Because it’s really easy to lose the “wow factor.” Here I am worried about church finances, or the latest drama with squabbling members, or who is going to take care of my disabled son when we can’t anymore. There’s always another bill to pay, another email to answer, another complaint to address.

I have all these Bible verses memorized. But this woman who forgets, understands better than I do. She rejoices while I doubt.

Is it doubt that drives Doubting Thomas to say what he does in today’s Gospel? “Let us also go, that we may die with [Jesus].” Is it doubt – or despair?

This much is true: Jesus summons us to death. You don’t have to like Bonhoeffer, but you should agree with this: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

T.S. Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi” has the Wise Men asking about why they went to Bethlehem: “Were we led all that way for Birth or Death?”

Called to the cradle, summoned to the Supper, Thomas still speaks to us, “Let us also go, that we may die with [Jesus].”

They go to Bethany, and discover Lazarus in his tomb, four days dead.

The sisters accuse Jesus. Martha says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Later Mary will say the same thing.

You find such accusations throughout the history of God’s people. Just a few verses before the spot where Abram is counted righteous by faith, he too accuses God: “Behold, you have given me no offspring.” Later, his wife Sarah laughs at God’s preposterous promise. None of it seems possible.

The Lord drives us to the point of impossibility. He does this to Moses in the Exodus: The Red Sea in front, the armies of Pharaoh behind. And in this impossible situation, the LORD’s instruction is to do nothing – nothing but stand still. “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD” [Ex 14:13]. The LORD acts when we are brought to the point of utter dependence on Him; when there is no other option.

Peter has to learn this. “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.” It is the Word that sends the fish into the net.

And He teaches this to Martha and Mary—their brother dead; the Lord seemingly absent. The Word summons Lazarus from his tomb.

This month we celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This formational political document invokes “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Political independence for the founders never meant independence from God. And He has put our Synod here for this moment. The Creed we confess is a Declaration of Dependence.

We did not emerge from a primordial stew. “I believe that God has made me and all creatures, that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.” Everything He does for me, “He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.”

I am utterly dependent on Jesus Christ, my Lord, “who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature.”

I cannot even believe! For this I am dependent on the Holy Spirit, who “called me by the Gospel.”

“Christ is risen” is no mere slogan; it is our declaration of dependence. “I am the resurrection and the life…. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” With this question, Jesus summons Martha to dependence.

Her despair, her doubt, the unspoken accusation, “Why didn’t You answer when we called?” – it all now comes to that same critical moment of Moses before the water, Abram with no child, and us in the face of decline and division.

We can and must confess the faith to a dying world. But nothing rests on our own actions or decisions. No election or resolution will make a lick of difference without us making our declaration of dependence – dependence on Jesus who is resurrection and life.

Our problems are minuscule compared to what we find in Holy Writ: a stinking corpse, a barren womb, a pursuing army. In the face of inevitable failure, Jesus still says, “‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ I am the God who breathes on dry bones, who puts money in the mouths of fish. I forgive sins and raise the dead. ‘Do you believe this?’”

“Yes, Lord, but for awhile I forgot. I am worse than the Alzheimer’s patient, who immediately believes upon hearing the Word. I am surrounded by Your Word but forgot its power. Teach me to again say, ‘Wow.’ Make me depend totally on You. For you awaken slumbering souls, forgive the forgetful, and raise the dead.” +INJ+