The Innocent die
Gaza, Israel, Russia, Ukraine; war and rumours of war.
Whatever we do men go to war
“To what can I compare this generation?”
“We played the flute, but you did not dance
We played a dirge, but you did not mourn.” (Gospel of Matthew 11:16-17)
What is the remedy to the violence that so decimates individuals,
communities, nation and peoples?
The crime is illustrated by the actions, the crime began in the hearts and minds of the people, of individuals, of sin breaking loose and persuading those who commit to violence to conduct that violence.
The margins between right and wrong, called sin, is gossamer thin; a life lost through premeditated action be it against one individual or many people is still a life taken because of man’s sin.
Man’s desire is for power that the point of a gun will give. Whatever the rational or reasoning this defies God who gave life made us in his image. He who breathed all life into creation. To determine life and death and to take the action that eliminates the very breath of another person is against God’s law. The sting of death prevails. No matter what God has done to bring peace to the world, moreover the shattering of peace has been the pathway for mankind. Modern life taking actions continue to prove the determination for man not to live in harmony; rather to take life with merciless efficiency.
Shame and judgement will prevail, the cost will be paid, many more will lie in death and the agony of the living will never cease.
Do not underestimate the penalty for sin. Judgment waits; when thoughts of one’s own mortality bring attempts to seek reconciliation with God his judgement will bring many to the witness bow and be found guilty.
Do not underestimate sin. It is determined at all costs to savage this world. To set family against family, people against people, nation against nation and mankind against God. The barbs of sin are deeply embedded, and death follows. The wages of sin is death. God in all the power of his love did not sit quietly in the background whilst looking with horror at the holocaust scavenging the earth; God did something that would put himself in the very centre of this destruction; the place where the barbs were at their deepest, where the cry of absolute pain would echo around the world only to fall on deaf ears.
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46)
The echo resounds in Gaza, Israel, Myanmar, Egypt, places of fire, flooding, earthquakes, and famine. God save us was the cry… then there was no one to hear the call because all had perished or were caught up their own pain and hurt unable to take out the barbs of suffering. There was no salvation only revenge from broken and decimated hearts. Sin instinctively picking up the gun to seek atonement. God in his actions, his love and determination to bring His peace as only he can bring, has been scrubbed from the heart and minds of the people.
Love your neighbour as yourself are words that demand a response. Without love there are only barbs of self-reliance and survival.
Jesus felt these barbs, the deepest struck into the very heart of love. God’s love and Jesus’ love. When the call of abandonment came thundering from the cross God turned his back knowing the pain was the healing of the nations. And pain had to be centred into the heart and soul of Jesus, he had to know that love had ceased in his own understanding and in his ability to call on love to save him.
That privilege belongs to all who call on him after his resurrection. His pain and hurt, his abandonment were abolished left behind when he rose from the dead demonstrating to all that death has lost its sting. We have a new relationship with the living God through what Jesus accomplished on the cross; a relationship of born out of pure love, of turning the other cheek, of loving your neighbour, of putting away the gun and opening the heart to each and every individual.
Disobedience lies with sin. Recognising this and placing it before the risen Lord paves the way for a new understanding, a new understanding that is not old. Love is not old; love is an the everlasting covenant created by God as a counter balance against sin. Jesus epitomises Love, he is Love. Living in love is life’s greatest challenge when sin pits itself against the God of Love as demonstrated by Jesus the great architect of life in all its abundance. Jesus overcame on our behalf.
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