Can the Saints Help Us?

In this episode of Wake Up, Look Up, Pastor Zach reflects on the recent canonization of Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian teen recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. Using Scripture, he explains why sainthood and praying to saints are unbiblical, reminding us that all believers are called saints and that Jesus alone is our mediator. The episode ultimately points us back to the gospel, where glory and miracles belong only to God.
 
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Creators and Guests

Host

Zach Weihrauch

Follower of Jesus who has graciously given me a wife to love, children to shepherd, and a church to pastor.

What is Wake Up, Look Up?

Check out new episodes of our daily podcast, Wake Up, Look Up, with Zach Weihrauch as he interprets what's happening in our world through the lens of the gospel.

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in this episode, we're asking the question, can the saints help us? This is prompted by an article I read on CNN's website about Carlo Acutis, a 15 year old Italian teen who died tragically in 2006, who was just made a saint by Pope Leo on September 7th. Now, Carlo was known for his humor, his love of technology, and his deep Catholic faith. In fact, he used his social media influence to promote Catholicism to his generation. And for this reason, he was revered, uh, for a long time after his death as a positive influence in his generation for Catholicism. But to be made, uh, a saint, there are a couple criteria, and one of those is you have to have committed to miracles. Now, Carlo has been dead since 2006. So you might wonder, how did this kid who died at 15 commit miracles? Well, two different times, people claim that they prayed to Carlo and as a result, received a miraculous experience. There was a boy in Brazil whose mother prayed to Carlo and the boy was healed of his birth defect. There was a girl in Costa Rica whose family prayed to Carlo and she was healed from a brain trauma. So those are two miracles attributed to Carlo after the fact of his death that now makes him eligible for sainthood. I just want to take a second and say this, but before I do, let me just say, this in no way is an attempt to bring dishonor to Carlo, to his family, or any of that. Carlo's been dead since 2006. Nothing of what I say is attributable to him, but it is attributable to the Roman Catholic Church. Because I have to tell you, I think this is pretty troubling theologically. Let's just start here. The New Testament makes pretty clear that all believers are saints. Uh, when the New Testament uses the word saint, it attributes that word to all Christians. See passages like Ephesians 1:1, where Paul writes to the saints, to the faithful in Christ Jesus. That's how he opens his letter to the entire Ephesian Church. That's because from a biblical perspective, what makes you a saint is not miracles or even a supernatural faith that sets you apart from other Christians. What makes you a saint is that you are blood bought through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So in Revelation 5, when the elders are holding these golden bowls of incense in the throne room of God, which is the prayers of the saints, they are literally holding the prayers of the entire Ephesian Church, of the entire Christians in the New Testament, of all the Christians who have ever lived. The use of the word saint to particular Christians is a Catholic construct, but it is not a biblical one. It's also important to say that to attribute intercession to saints after death, in other words, to pray to Carlo to do what only God can do, is blasphemy. I mean, this is what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 when he says, there is one mediator between God and men, and that mediator is Jesus. That's why, by the way, Christians pray in the name of Jesus. Access to the Father is one for us through Jesus. The Book of Hebrews literally says that we have direct access to the Father. I don't need to pray to Carlo. No disrespect to Carlo, but why would I go to a middleman when I can go to God himself? That's the point of the Book of Hebrews. We don't need a priesthood anymore. We don't need saints. We never have. We have Jesus. And I also say this. A preoccupation with the miraculous, seeking somehow to substantiate that God is. Is in something, because the miraculous happens is exactly what Jesus warns against in Matthew 12 when he says, a wicked generation asks for a sign. First of all, if you want to know if God is present and active in the world, he's answered that concretely and conclusively in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He doesn't owe us any more miracles. And second, anything good that happens, like this Brazilian boy or Costa Rican girl, comes from God himself. But that's not what's happening. The praise is being attributed to Carlo. That's why shrines are being set up in his name. That's why people are going to where he's buried. They are celebrating Carlo as the doer of the miraculous. But that glory doesn't belong to him. That glory belongs to God, who alone can do the miraculous. By the way, if you think I'm just being overly Protestant, consider in Acts 14 that the apostle Paul is doing miracles to substantiate the Gospel. And people begin to worship him, to celebrate him, to, if you will, set up shrines to him. And he rebukes them and says, what are you doing? I'm just a man. It's God alone who is worthy of your worship. I guess what Paul should have said is, well, unless you want to set up a shrine and light some candles and charge people $2 to pray at it, then that would be okay. But that isn't what he says. Listen, the gospel tells us that the epicenter of the Christian faith is not me. It's not you, it's not the Pope, it's not Carlo. It's Jesus Christ. And in fact, Paul warns in the book of Galatians that we should run from any organization, any institution that teaches any other gospel. He says, literally in Galatians 1:6, if anyone preaches a different gospel, let them be, uh, accursed. Again, no disrespect to Carlo. I'm sure he was a wonderful teenage boy. But there is one savior, one mediator, one worker of miracles, and his name is Jesus Christ. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at [e-mail]!