The Good News That Things Are The Same

 

So many seem to be saying these days that things just don’t seem the same.  And it is true, in the relative blink of an eye, things are so much different than they were just a year and a half ago.  While we all had our differences in the past, it seemed we were at least on the surface willing to allow those differences to be respected.  The very institutions of our culture seem to be shaken.  This goes beyond political differences, which is better reserved for another forum, but it even seems that our everyday civility is not what it was not too long ago.  I don’t know about you, but every time I am at a red light, it seems the person behind me is ready to blare their horn at me the very instant the light changes to green.  There is an increasing impatience at the grocery store.  No one seems to want to wait.  There are many reasons for this, all of them too lengthy to discuss in the reflection, but all of it seems to have left us with a feeling of being shaken.  The things we relied on, the things we have taken as a norm, all seem turned upside down.  And so we feel, not just a longing for what once was, but an angst about what it yes to come.  Some will even point to the Scripture as affirmation of this impending doom.

So where is the good news in this?  Well, the good news is that we have been at the point already and through the work of our savior, victory was and is ours.  The evil, in the form of discord and suffering has already been defeated.  And while yes, we need to be aware of the evil and do what we can to avoid it and turn from it, there is no reason to think that evil will have the final word. 

For it was sin and death that reared its ugly head two thousand years ago, culminating at Calvary, but Calvary was not the end.  Think for a moment of those who encountered Jesus some two thousand years ago.  Some had put their very lives into his mission.  Many did not.  Many ignored him. Many even opposed him, putting him on the cross.  So for those who believed in him, seeing him arrested, tortured, and crucified must have been life-shaking.  Their worlds were indeed turned upside down.  They must have felt despair.  They must have lost all hope.  Of course though, Calvary was not the end.    Good Friday was not the end of the story. Jesus would defeat sin and death.  He would defeat evil, the very evil that is rearing its ugly head once again, and has done so for many times over the centuries.  In a sense, things are actually very much the same, but Jesus has won for us victory over it all,  No matter what we experience in the here and now is nothing compared to the glory of what is to come.

Peace,

The Servant