J. T. (James Timothy) Olsen Memorial Service
September 24, 2017 (died September 16)
Note: J. T. Olsen was a fifth grader when his family first came to our church in St. Louis in 1983. He struggled early on, and throughout his life, with severe mental illness, treatment-resistant depression, and after high school, with drug addiction. Though he made many efforts to get clean, he never fully succeeded. He passed away at the age of 42.
Message: Thank you, David and Paul, for sharing your wonderful, poignant memories of J.T.
I was the Olsen family’s pastor for many years until 2004, and a good friend of mine was their pastor for many years before that in Evansville, Indiana, so we go back a long way. I moved to Kansas almost 14 years ago, so our contact has been minimal in recent years, but I am grateful for the many times of warm fellowship I had with the Olsens during our time together here in St. Louis.
It was my privilege to walk with Bill and Trudy through some difficult crises with J.T., but that was not the focus of our relationship. I was always impressed with how Bill and Trudy never forgot that they had three sons or that they were valued members of a church family. I feel honored that you would include me in this memorial service.
I would say it is dangerous to have three preachers in one service, especially when we don’t know what each other is going to say. I have decided to offer you a proposition, namely that we are all broken people. Some experience physical brokenness—spina bifida, cancer, M.S., H.I.V., heart disease, you name it. Others experience mental or psychological brokenness, perhaps Down’s syndrome, schizophrenia, depression, O.C.D. Still others are socially broken, i.e., they cannot connect appropriately with others because of autism, phobias, extreme introversion, narcissism, etc.
Some may be fortunate enough to escape all these physical, mental or social illness, at least until advanced age catches up with them, but every single one of us is spiritually and morally broken, and, believe it or not, that is the most serious kind of brokenness. Every other kind of illness can be healed—in the next life if not in this one. But spiritual brokenness can last for eternity.
Friends, the Bible is incredibly honest about the moral and spiritual nature of mankind. In the opening chapters of Genesis, Adam and Eve’s first son, Cain, murdered his younger brother Abel. Moses, Israel’s greatest prophet, killed a man and then tried to hide the body. David, Israel’s greatest king, committed adultery and then had the woman’s husband murdered. Peter, the leader of the Twelve Apostles, betrayed his best friend. Paul, the church’s greatest theologian and evangelist, persecuted and slaughtered Christians before he himself was converted. And these are the Bible’s main characters, the best of the best!
When the Scriptures describe those who don’t know God (and don’t care), well, it gets even worse. Listen to the following description of pagan outsiders in Romans 2: “They are filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent new ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also encourage others to join them.”
Now the religious people of the day were strongly inclined to justify themselves by saying, “At least we aren’t as bad as that!” But in the very next chapter the author asks, “What shall we conclude then? Are we really any better than these? Not at all.
There is no one righteous, not even one,
There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
They have together become worthless;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
The poison of vipers is on their lips.
Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways,
And the way of peace they do not know.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Ouch!
Then just a few verses later he offers his conclusion: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There it is: we are all broken people.
Now by focusing on the fact that we are all broken, I’m not trying to minimize J. T.’s struggles—not at all. Illness, pain and suffering are not distributed equally in this world. Some people clearly suffer more than others, and thus their families suffer more. Nor would I ever suggest that all pain and suffering is due to sinful behavior. Some is, of course. If you shoot someone, you’re going to suffer consequences. If you lie or steal, you’re eventually going to get caught.
But not all suffering is directly due to some particular sin the sufferer has committed. Jesus was confronted with a blind man in John 9. The religious muckety-mucks asked Him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind,” and Jesus answered, “Neither.” He didn’t mean that neither the man nor his parents were sinners, but simply that their sin was not the cause of his blindness.
In Luke 13 Jesus addressed the massacre of some Galileans by Pilate and asked, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no!” Then he addressed a natural disaster—a tower in Siloam fell over and killed 18 people. Jesus asked, “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no!” The people of Houston or the Florida Keys or Puerto Rico or Mexico City are not worse sinners than the rest of us. Stuff happens in a fallen world and it isn’t spread out equally.
But here’s what I want you to communicate to you today, friends. In God’s sight we are all “special needs.” We are all terminal. Every one of us has what the Puritans called “a besetting sin,” probably more than one. I’m talking about some struggle, some addiction, some behavior that eats our lunch. Oh, most of us are able to cope outwardly. We put on a happy face. We cover up, and we manage to convince others (maybe even ourselves) that all is well. But deep, deep down we know there is something thoroughly rotten in the state of Denmark.
That rottenness has created a separation between us and God. This gulf between broken, sinful people and a holy God is felt, if not admitted, by almost everyone. In fact, I believe that is why people all over the world, in every culture, are so religious—they are looking for a way to bridge that gulf. One religion tells us that the path is through religious rites and rituals, like meditation, prayer, sacraments, church attendance. Another tells us, no, the way to reach God is through cleaning up your act, practicing the Golden Rule and keeping the Ten Commandments. And still another tells us that we can bridge the gap by doing good deeds, like helping the poor and marginalized.
But the Bible has some bad news for us: there is no way we can bridge the gap between us and God. “All have sinned and the wages of sin is death.” That, friends, is really, really bad news.
But then the Bible offers some incredibly good news—God has already bridged the gap! In fact, the very same verse that tells us, “The wages of sin is death,” goes on to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!” At the Cross Jesus offered Himself as full payment for our sin and brokenness. At the Cross we view a sight never seen before or since in human history. The Judge of the Courtroom, knowing that the defendants before Him are all guilty, refuses to pronounce them guilty but instead steps down from the bench and surrenders Himself to pay the penalty for the defendants’ crimes. Then, because the crimes have been paid for, He offers a verdict of “not guilty” to anyone who puts his trust in Him. And once they are declared “not guilty,” they can never be convicted of those crimes again. It doesn’t get any better than that!
One final thought. You don’t have to be a theologian and understand every detail and nuance of Scripture in order to trust Jesus and become a child of God. A man in Scripture who knew very little of all that spoke these simple words to Jesus, “Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.” Just a few weeks ago J. T. said something like that to his dad. I don’t pretend to know his heart, but I do know God’s heart: He doesn’t want any to perish but for all of us to come to repentance and faith. He wants you to spend eternity with Him.