Monday, April 15, 2013

Is The World Coming Apart?

I was just channel surfing on my day off and was checking out the sports world on ESPN when a special report came in about a series of explosions at the Boston Marathon.  The first thing I did was to text a close friend to make sure that he and those he knew who were running and attending the marathon were okay.  He called me back quickly and assured me they were fine.  Then I, like many of you, watched the news unfold, the pictures displayed, and pieces of information begin to come out.  2 dead.  An 8 year old boy, probably there to watch a relative run the race, over 100 people injured, and amputations at local hospitals to save lives.  Blood in the streets.

We don't know who did it.  But we do know why.  Law Enforcement will discover a manifesto and will try to shed light on why someone would terrorize a sporting event.  But this will not fully explain the root of the problem.  A manifesto will reveal the leaves of evil but we cannot miss the root.  We live in a fallen, destructive, and sinful world.  Sin came into the world and all of his friends along with him - death, greed, covetousness, murderous thoughts, terrorism, rebellion, hatred.  Is the world so different than it was when one jealous brother put his younger brother to death?  Is the world so different than when wicked people cursed the righteous?  Is the world so different than when a king stole another man's wife and had him killed for his loyalty?  Is the world so different than when nations sacrificed their children at the altar of a false, non-existent god?  Is the world so different than when all the peoples of the earth came together to put God on a tree and have him crucified for their sins?

During days like these we want to believe that the world is coming apart.  There is good reason for it.  When we believe the world is getting worse we can make sense of things.  But we forget that the world has always been a pretty horrible place and we have history to prove it.  We see the news and we don't like what we see.  We desire justice.  We want someone to pay.  We know evil when we see it.  Some evils we pretend do not exist.  We try to lift our human existence up as something to be worshiped.  But than the evil nature of mankind stares us in the face in senseless destruction.

The sovereign God who reigned when his Son paid our ransom on a bloody cross still sits enthroned in the heavens.  In fact, the very one we tried to kill in the most evil act of history is reigning - even today.  We try to tear the world apart and there are times where the battle seems won by evil.  But the war has been sealed in the blood of Jesus.  He has won it.  He is winning it.  He will make all things new.

This old world is coming apart at the seams.  That is why the promise of a new heaven and new earth is such good news.  On a day like this we are reminded why we need a Savior, why the world needs Jesus.  We ought to long for his coming.  He will remove with judgement all that is evil and he will redeem all that is good.  He will remove sin and tears.  He will wipe them away.  But he will also destroy the old order of things.  The former ways will pass away.  We live in the old order. We live in the former ways.  We are living in the ways that Jesus will remove.  There will be a day when the race won't end in terror but in victory.

Pray for those who have been affected by another evil, vicious, selfish act.  Pray for those who have committed such evil.  Long for the day that Jesus will make all things new.