A World Gone Crazy
The world’s gone crazy. Really, this is my recurring thought over the past couple of weeks. We as Christians should naturally (or, more properly, supernaturally as the Spirit moves within us) understand we live in a fallen world where a lot of life will not make sense. We understand the father of lies weaves chaos into his warped plans while giving them a whitewash of logic that disintegrates in the light of God’s word. But this is only clear to God’s children or those honestly looking for truth.
What do we see in scripture? Common people along with even the tax collectors who come to see God’s way as right in Luke 7:29. Peter confessing Jesus as the Christ in Mark 8:29. Thomas, in John 20:28, after so much doubt, placing his fingers in Jesus’ wounds and declaring, “My Lord and my God!” More compelling, however, are those who have experienced the indiscriminate chaos of Satan’s ways more closely and come to Jesus. The man born blind in John 9, who, through his argumentation with the most educated of society, moves from belief to worship. The bleeding woman who touches the hem of Jesus’ garment and is healed is drawn into a deeper faith as she meets Jesus in Luke 8:43-48. And we cannot forget those Jesus came to rescue from their own personal hells of demon possession, such as the one from whom the legions are driven from and into the herd of pigs (Luke 8:26-39).
But those truly seeking seem like such a small minority. My wife and I were talking the other night about how out of place we feel most of the time. I found myself thinking of Madeleine L’Engle. In her book, A Wrinkle in Time, Meg needs to travel through time and space to save her father. She is led by cherubic creatures who make the mistake of almost taking Meg to a two-dimensional world. It almost kills her as her breath is squeezed out of her and her heart and brain fail to function properly. In a spiritual sense, I think this is a good metaphor for all of us in Christ. Never mind that God has set eternity into the hearts of all – we simply don’t fit in this world anymore because we are not of it (John 17:16). To be totally clear, it is not because the world is too big or great to comprehend. Rather, it’s because it’s too small for us. We are infused with the eternal, which is not a “something” but rather a someone, Jesus Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and in whom we have been given fullness (Colossians 2:9-10). He is infinitely larger and greater than the world we live in; we simply can’t fit anymore.
As the world groans as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22), some things become crystal clear to us as we see the principalities and powers rage (futilely) against the Lord’s anointed. We then are the children Jesus praises the Father for in Matthew 11:25 after excoriating those in power, stating that to us are revealed God’s ways.
And so, when we see a former president set up a social network called “Truth,” using it as a forum to spout off the most outrageous lies, we recognize it as blasphemous; only Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (I don’t intend to tie Trump specifically to the beast in Revelation 13:5 – I think many throughout history have played that part… but if the shoe fits…).
When we hear of wars and rumors of war as Jesus warned us we would in Matthew 24:6-8 and then see the megalomaniac of Moscow overrun a sovereign Ukraine, kidnapping the children and farming them out to willing Russian accomplices while purposefully bombing innocent cities… or when Hamas breaches the border of Israel, indiscriminately killing women, children, and the elderly, and then retreats to hide behind their own children, knowing all along they are signing the death warrant of thousands of their own people – of their own future… it is appalling but not surprising.
When we see the ego of the few shut down an entire country through their desire for the praise of men (or maybe just one) and their own self-aggrandizement….
Well… we understand all of these as the death throes of a power that is willing to take anything and everything down with it. But we are commissioned to do more than just understand. Jesus didn’t just understand. He moved….
“The people living in darkness have seen a great light!” (Matthew 4:16). This is Jesus as he moves among the people preaching repentance and salvation. He moved…. Stick with me….
Isaiah 59 is fascinating as it holds out the truth that sin and its consequences are real (explaining just about all of what we see in so much of today’s world), repentance is necessary, and God is the one who saves – He moves…. But the 17th verse of Isaiah 59 kicks me square into Ephesians 6 and my responsibility as I myself am charged to put on the whole armor of God. In the jolt that comes from the living and active word of God, we are commissioned and animated as vigorous participants who, in the power of God, blast the whitewash right off Satan’s lies. Isaiah, in powerfully speaking the word of God, is that kind of participant. All the prophets were. They called the world out for what it was. That is part of the calling. We must not hesitate, worrying if we will offend (we will, even as we strive to be as gentle as doves, speaking the truth in love – Matthew 10:16, Ephesians 4:15) or that some or most may not listen (they won’t – Matthew 7:14). Many will because many know something is not right, resonating deep in their hearts. Again, part of the calling – because that only takes folks so far and it’s not far enough into the direction God moves. The other part is to do that other thing God does – call people to salvation – be Christ’s ambassadors – to shine like stars in this crooked and depraved generation, to let people see the light of the world Jesus is, in contrast to the great darkness the world is steeped in. And God saves, one soul at a time, from a world gone crazy.
