Times are hard. As I write our pandemic has been rudely shoved to the back burner of our collective consciousness. Covid’s destructive side-kick, economic meltdown, is now flying below our radar. Instead our attention, and our fears have zeroed in on what is politely called civil unrest and more accurately called violent mobs. We are learning the nuanced differences between tear gas and pepper spray while spontaneous uprisings come equipped with a running tab down at the Bricks ‘R’ Us store.
One man, called to protect and to serve, is caught on camera killing another man while, in the name of his victim, thousands across the nation are caught on camera carting off televisions, Rolexes and high end cheesecakes. It has not been an auspicious few months. What surprises me, however, is that this surprises me. Are these strange days? Or are they simply the old normal?
Our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created. One of their children murdered another of their children. From there it’s been a story of murder, theft, rape, war, starvation, sickness, death. After God washed the world clean, save for Noah and his family, God established civil government, giving it the power of the sword to punish evildoers. From that time forward civil governments, more often than not, have used that sword to punish those they were supposed to protect. Noah, the good one, the one who found favor in God’s eyes, drank himself into a stupor and his son took advantage.
Eventually the people of God were enslaved by a tyrant who hated them simply because they were Hebrews. Babies were murdered. Sickness and economic calamity swept through the land. And God carried His people on eagles’ wings to a land flowing with milk and honey. Before, however, He let them into this virtual paradise He reminded them, His people, His beloved, His own special nation, “When you go in, don’t steal from each other. Don’t murder each other. Don’t betray your husband or wife.” God’s people needed that instruction, and, just like today, they didn’t much heed it.
Why then are we surprised? Protesters march in the streets chanting, “No justice, no peace” and then are shocked when they receive justice and not peace. Derek Chauvin is guilty of a capital crime. The three officers with him are guilty of a capital crime. The rioters who shot and killed the retired police officer in St. Louis are guilty of a capital crime. The brick throwers and the looters are guilty of a capital crime. George Floyd was guilty of a capital crime. You are guilty of a capital crime. And so am I. Every mothers’ son of us stands guilty before the living God of that crime that earns not a life sentence, not a death sentence, but a life death sentence, a death that lasts forever in hell.
That we are under His judgment, however, doesn’t change that George Floyd didn’t deserve, on the earthly plane, to die. That every storeowner and every victim of mob violence are under His judgment doesn’t justify those sins committed against them on the earthly plane. What it does is take away our shock. What it ought to do is drive us to gratitude. We all, every mothers’ son, should praise God He hasn’t taken our lives. And we all, every son of the Father, should praise Him that He sent His Son, an innocent man killed through the cruelty of the state. We, the guilty, live, as His children, forever. I’m grateful for 2020, but I will be more grateful when it is over. Not because 2021 will be better. But because eternity will be closer. Maranatha Lord Jesus.