Because there is evil in the
world.
Connecticut governor, Dannel
Malloy, said, “Evil visited Newtown today. . . .” “This is a problem of evil,”
said syndicated columnist, Charles Krauthammer. “It is unimaginable the level
of evil that rolled through this town today . . . These are five year old kids
who are 10 days away from Christmas, believing Santa is coming to their home.
Today, the devil came to this town,” said Bill Hemmer of FOX News. “In law
enforcement you confront evil all the time,” spoken by a retired police officer
on the news. “Unspeakable evil on display,” opined Bill O’Reilly of FOX News.
I’m sitting in my home watching
the news as the reports of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut are
played out in all of its ugly, devastating detail. In a phone conversation with
a friend today discussing this tragedy, he commented that as a nation we refuse
to accept the possibility of the existence of evil in our world. That caught my
attention mostly because that is exactly what happens to us when we fail to
remember that God took decisive action on behalf of the human race in
addressing the presence of evil.
Christmas is a wonderful time
when we sing carols, give gifts, and spend precious moments with family and
friends. But the reason for Christmas? Christmas is God’s answer to the problem
of evil in our world. “For God so loved the world (you and me) that he gave his
one and only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life.” It is because of the rampantness of evil that we look
forward to celebrating Christmas. Why? Because Jesus, the Son of God, willingly
came to die, thus paying the price for evil – what in the human condition is
called sin.
As I watched the news I would
hear different comments about this dastardly act. Expressions such as people
are “trying to come to grips with what happened today.” Or this comment that
really is foolish when you think about it: “We’re all trying to make sense out
of this tragedy.” There is no coming to grips with this evil act. There is no
way to make sense out of a senseless evil such as this. There simply is no
understanding this wickedness.
Good and evil are rather loosely
defined in our world today. Good is a nebulous term in its daily usage, often
carrying a meaning of satisfaction with life, such as, “I’m having a good day.”
Evil, on the other hand, is used only when the most heinous of crimes is
committed, such as a Columbine, Virginia Tech, and now, Newtown.
Someone will say, “But we’ve
always had these problems, you just didn’t hear about them.” Well, that’s
simply not true. Such an evil action would have been the biggest story in all
the newspapers in the country as far back as the 1700s. And with the advent of
the radio and the telephone, such news would have quickly spread across the
nation and the world. On top of that, it would not have been tolerated, because
people were in fear of both the laws of God and the laws of man. At that time
the laws of man reflected the laws of God. In the United States up through the
latter part of last century you simply did not mess with children. And if you
did, punishment was swift and sure.
In the days and weeks ahead
there will emerge from the news a litany of reasons and excuses for this man’s
devilish behavior in wantonly killing so many innocents. Already the groundwork
for this is being set: “He’s autistic. He’s a sociopath. There was no
father-figure in his life. He was on meds. He hated his mother.” All of this
may be true, but what he did was evil nonetheless. Plus there are plenty of
people who can say the same things about themselves, but they’re not out
killing people because of it.
Any who had a perfect childhood,
raise your hand. Okay, there are a few of you, perhaps. But the rest of us can
point to plenty of unpleasant things that happened during childhood. This does
not mean you become warped and demented, acting like a cold, heartless killer.
Here’s my point in saying that
we do not want to admit there is evil in our world. It requires us to look into
our own hearts and take inventory. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is
deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it?”
Bill O’Reilly stated that there
is evil in the world and there’s nothing we can do about it. Well, that just
isn’t so. God did do something about evil. By sending Jesus into the world to
be our Savior, he was sending Jesus into our hearts if we are willing to allow
him in. Evil wants to lure us into worse and worse thoughts and behavior.
Whereas God’s intent is to change us and conform us into the image of his Son,
Jesus.
That’s the hope of Christmas: A
heart and life changed by Jesus. It makes all the difference in the world!
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