Take a good look around the United States of America today. This is where the rhetoric of hate, the attitude of anger, and the spirit of unforgiveness leads.
The current fiction project I’m writing I’ve tentatively titled - Rome Will Fall. The plot follows twin sisters - one, a key figure in the political process, the other, a homemaker. By the title, you might surmise a little apocalyptic action if not at least some doom and gloom. You would be correct! The course of the novel follows each sister and how the fall of the United States of America impacts their lives, and how each one navigates the struggle to find hope in the midst of strangling darkness.
Why Rome? For my history buff readers, you’ll remember that even though the outside barbarians attacked and ultimately caused the destruction of Roman Empire, the civilization began crumbling well before the external forces drove them to their demise. Rome began decaying from the inside out. The rhetoric of hate, the attitude of anger, and the spirit of unforgiveness - these three fundamental factors. Did that spur Rome to their ultimate decline? Will this be the end of America? If they are, we are well on our way aren’t we?
So what do we do? What is the answer? Isn’t Jesus always the answer?
Several times over the years on a difficult exam, I would have a student put Jesus is always the answer and dare me to count their precociousness wrong. Well, isn’t Jesus always the answer? But what does that mean exactly?
Is Jesus Always the Answer?
As I have been methodically advancing my case for faith, I’ve prayerfully held in my mind’s eye the students I've known who could not or would not go beyond the academic debate surrounding religion. Each of these questions: Does God Exist? Why Does Believing God Exists Matter? To Believe or Not to Believe? Is God Trustworthy? All bring each individual face to face with this man called Jesus.
Around the year 2000, maybe the scientific community thought no one would notice with the Y2K scare, the majority of our curriculum trickling into the classroom started using CE and BCE. For a while, teachers were confused and had to use context clues to decode. We finally registered AD (Anno Domini - the year of our Lord ) and BC (before Christ) had been replaced with CE (the Common Era) and BCE (Before the Common Era). The beginnings of politically correct terminology! At first the change frustrated even the students; however, they soon became accustomed to the new nomenclature.
Even as current culture tries its own hand at inclusivity, nothing will negate the birth of Jesus Christ literally split time. When Jesus came on the scene, life on this planet demarcated history as before and after. As blurred as we try to make that line, Jesus Christ, the carpenter of Nazareth, looms a figure of such importance that whether Christian, questioning, agnostic, or just plain apathetic, each individual must reconcile his or her own faith journey and whether or not Jesus is the answer.
Our current generation, myself included, wants everything instant. Instant meals. Instant media. Instant medicine. Instant money. Instant_____. God does not work on instant. He works on infinite. Praise Him for Infinite Patience. His wrath would have been justified to destroy the earth many times over for man’s disobedient and sinful nature - Our constant unwillingness to see His goodness in all His creation around us - Our tedious questioning.
When I’m examining hard questions, I always look for the biblical thread beginning in the Old Testament and binding the faithful goodness of His heart through into the New. There are so many verses that explain how He wants every man, woman, and child ever conceived to come to know Him, really know Him, but here are two - one Old one New:
Tell them, As I live- this is the declaration of the Lord God- I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die house of Israel? Ezekiel 33:11 (CSB)
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (CSB)
Man’s nature did not surprise God. Man’s disobedience did not surprise God. Remember the graphic of God’s perfectly reconciled Tree of Life and Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Our disobedience crushes us under the weight of the Tree of Knowledge we were never meant to manage - forever disconnected from the Tree of Life - God’s Holy Life Force.
So how do we reconcile? How does He bring us back to Himself?
For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (CSB)
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17 (CSB)
Jesus came as flesh into His creation - a willing participant - to experience life and take on all the ramifications of being human. Even though this event occurred approximately 2020ish years ago, absolutely no emotion, angst, struggle, trauma, agony, or other synonyms I can tack on, Jesus grappled and triumphed over all! Then He willingly nailed my burden to a cross so I don’t have to carry that stupid Tree of Knowledge that’s crushing me. I can be reconciled to my Holy Father. What a miraculous and wonderful gift of love!!!
But there’s a reason grandma used to say, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” That stupid Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has huge branches and a thick canopy filled with thousands of leaves of doubt - each one an accusation hurled at a loving Christ - alleging, blaming, charging, complaining, implicating, denouncing, betraying, slandering, hating, being angry, and unforgiving. Because that’s what sin does…
Jesus says, “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (CSB).
Say Yes - because Jesus is always the answer!
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