The shooting in Connecticut today was a tragedy on a scale few of us can even imagine. The loss of so many people in one instant, most of them young children, shocks and saddens us all. In situations like these it can be difficult for us as Christians to know what to say. How do we confront evil on this kind of scale, and how do we begin to comfort those who were affected by the attack? What comfort can we offer to those who suffer in this world?
On the one hand, this task is difficult because the typical answers have become cliche, and we know by now that they simply do not work. We could tell those who suffer that it is all part of God's plan; we can quote the scripture which says that God "works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose." But these answers do not comfort, and they do not suffice. It is not enough to tell a person surrounded by evil and pain that everything that has happened to them is secretly good, or part of some secret plan that will turn out good in the end. The worst thing we can do is to tell a person who is drowning in tragedy that their situation is not tragic.
And yet, on the other hand, we must be ready and willing to comfort those around us. After all Christ came to bring good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, and comfort to all who mourn (Isaiah 61:1-2). As the body of Christ we are called to do just that until he returns. So what comfort do we offer people in the midst of tragedy? How do we take on this task?
The season of Advent focuses on the coming of Christ, both in the past and in the future. By recalling the struggles of Israel in preparing for Christ, we find solidarity with a people suffering and watching for a savior. In looking forward to the second coming, we are reminded to keep the return of Christ in mind. We are reminded that the Christian life makes no sense without a constant hope in the second coming. It is through these two elements that we find our true comfort, and the only true comfort we can offer the people of the world. Nowhere is this comfort made more palpable than in Isaiah 40, a famous passage of Advent:
"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her that
her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord 's hand double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1, 2 ESV)
Isaiah begins the chapter by proclaim a message of comfort for the people of Israel. What is that message of comfort? Not that her sufferings were part of a plan, not that the greater good was served (although both of these statements were true); no, the message of comfort Isaiah brings is that the suffering of God's people, which was real and tragic, is now at an end. Her sins are forgiven, and she will suffer no more. Why is her suffering over? Where does this comfort come from? It comes from a mighty event that is about to happen:
"A voice cries:
'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord ;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'" (Isaiah 40:3-5 ESV)
Isaiah tells the people of God to prepare, because the event that will bring them comfort is about to happen: God is coming back to his people! Be prepared, he tells them, because God is returning to set things right! Everything will be changed, the whole world turned upside down, mountains leveled and valleys filled, because God the great judge is come to restore all things. Amen, come Lord!
Of course, every Christian knows this message. We all know that Christ is coming back. But what does this have to do with the here and now? How can I help a person who is suffering today? Here is the important point Isaiah is teaching us: Christian hope is fundamentally eschatological (in the end times). Our hope comes in the future. Our hope is not in secret plans or mysteries; our hope is not that the bad things we experience are secretly good--that's Gnosticism (an early heresy). What happened today in Connecticut was a tragedy, plain and simple. There is nothing else to it. It was a tragedy to us and to God. He did not send the shooter into that school; there is no secret twist ending or unlikely chain events that leads to something good. Today is an evil day, and no one is grieved by it more than God himself.
Isaiah reminds us that true Christian hope is a hope of redemption. He does not comfort Israel by saying that their sufferings were really joys; he tells them that their sufferings will be ended by God himself. He does not say that there are no valleys, but that God will come back and fill the valleys in. Redemption means that God takes the bad and redeems it into good. He takes events that are truly evil and makes goodness out of them. Today's shooting was, and will always be, a horrible thing; but God, in his greatness and love, will be able to miraculously make good out of evil. And the ultimate redemption comes at the end of time, when Christ returns and makes all things new.
So how do we turn this theological point into a message of hope for the suffering? For that we turn back to Isaiah, who continues:
"A voice says, 'Cry!'
And I said, 'What shall I cry?'
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8 ESV)
People come and go, and our deeds disappear over time, but the word our God will stand forever. What does this mean? It means that only God has the final word in the universe. The young man who walked into that school with a gun does not have the final word on the lives of those children and their teachers. Men can do many evil things; we can rob, we can abuse, and we can take life, but we never have the final word. We may have our possessions, our safety, or our loved ones taken out of our hands, but they can never be taken out of the hands of God. The message of hope we offer--when the time comes for messages of hope--is that God is still God, he is still in heaven, and he is still a god of justice, mercy, and love.
The message of Advent is that we ought to make the second coming of Christ a constant reality in our lives. On the one hand this means being constantly driven to be prepared for his coming, to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. On the other hand, it means living in the hope and comfort that comes from knowing that God is returning, and that he will make all things new. And it means bringing that message of comfort to all those who suffer in this world, because only the good news of Jesus Christ brings true comfort. We tell them of the joyous day when another voice will cry, saying:
"Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:3, 4 ESV)
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Come soon!
On the one hand, this task is difficult because the typical answers have become cliche, and we know by now that they simply do not work. We could tell those who suffer that it is all part of God's plan; we can quote the scripture which says that God "works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose." But these answers do not comfort, and they do not suffice. It is not enough to tell a person surrounded by evil and pain that everything that has happened to them is secretly good, or part of some secret plan that will turn out good in the end. The worst thing we can do is to tell a person who is drowning in tragedy that their situation is not tragic.
And yet, on the other hand, we must be ready and willing to comfort those around us. After all Christ came to bring good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, and comfort to all who mourn (Isaiah 61:1-2). As the body of Christ we are called to do just that until he returns. So what comfort do we offer people in the midst of tragedy? How do we take on this task?
The season of Advent focuses on the coming of Christ, both in the past and in the future. By recalling the struggles of Israel in preparing for Christ, we find solidarity with a people suffering and watching for a savior. In looking forward to the second coming, we are reminded to keep the return of Christ in mind. We are reminded that the Christian life makes no sense without a constant hope in the second coming. It is through these two elements that we find our true comfort, and the only true comfort we can offer the people of the world. Nowhere is this comfort made more palpable than in Isaiah 40, a famous passage of Advent:
"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her that
her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord 's hand double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1, 2 ESV)
Isaiah begins the chapter by proclaim a message of comfort for the people of Israel. What is that message of comfort? Not that her sufferings were part of a plan, not that the greater good was served (although both of these statements were true); no, the message of comfort Isaiah brings is that the suffering of God's people, which was real and tragic, is now at an end. Her sins are forgiven, and she will suffer no more. Why is her suffering over? Where does this comfort come from? It comes from a mighty event that is about to happen:
"A voice cries:'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord ;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'" (Isaiah 40:3-5 ESV)
Isaiah tells the people of God to prepare, because the event that will bring them comfort is about to happen: God is coming back to his people! Be prepared, he tells them, because God is returning to set things right! Everything will be changed, the whole world turned upside down, mountains leveled and valleys filled, because God the great judge is come to restore all things. Amen, come Lord!
Of course, every Christian knows this message. We all know that Christ is coming back. But what does this have to do with the here and now? How can I help a person who is suffering today? Here is the important point Isaiah is teaching us: Christian hope is fundamentally eschatological (in the end times). Our hope comes in the future. Our hope is not in secret plans or mysteries; our hope is not that the bad things we experience are secretly good--that's Gnosticism (an early heresy). What happened today in Connecticut was a tragedy, plain and simple. There is nothing else to it. It was a tragedy to us and to God. He did not send the shooter into that school; there is no secret twist ending or unlikely chain events that leads to something good. Today is an evil day, and no one is grieved by it more than God himself.
Isaiah reminds us that true Christian hope is a hope of redemption. He does not comfort Israel by saying that their sufferings were really joys; he tells them that their sufferings will be ended by God himself. He does not say that there are no valleys, but that God will come back and fill the valleys in. Redemption means that God takes the bad and redeems it into good. He takes events that are truly evil and makes goodness out of them. Today's shooting was, and will always be, a horrible thing; but God, in his greatness and love, will be able to miraculously make good out of evil. And the ultimate redemption comes at the end of time, when Christ returns and makes all things new.
So how do we turn this theological point into a message of hope for the suffering? For that we turn back to Isaiah, who continues:
"A voice says, 'Cry!'
And I said, 'What shall I cry?'
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8 ESV)
People come and go, and our deeds disappear over time, but the word our God will stand forever. What does this mean? It means that only God has the final word in the universe. The young man who walked into that school with a gun does not have the final word on the lives of those children and their teachers. Men can do many evil things; we can rob, we can abuse, and we can take life, but we never have the final word. We may have our possessions, our safety, or our loved ones taken out of our hands, but they can never be taken out of the hands of God. The message of hope we offer--when the time comes for messages of hope--is that God is still God, he is still in heaven, and he is still a god of justice, mercy, and love.
The message of Advent is that we ought to make the second coming of Christ a constant reality in our lives. On the one hand this means being constantly driven to be prepared for his coming, to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. On the other hand, it means living in the hope and comfort that comes from knowing that God is returning, and that he will make all things new. And it means bringing that message of comfort to all those who suffer in this world, because only the good news of Jesus Christ brings true comfort. We tell them of the joyous day when another voice will cry, saying:
"Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:3, 4 ESV)
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Come soon!
Comments
Post a Comment