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THE REALITY OF JESUS' "LOVE AND HIS POWER TO OVERCOME 'EVIL'."
September 2005
We continue to explore the meaning of Jesus' "Love and his Power to overcome 'Evil'." (John 8:39-47)
What is evil? What is good?
We read in the newspapers, watch the news on television, and hear reports on our radios about Iraq, Daffur, Osama bin Laden terrorist groups, displaced people in camps in Northern Uganda, the Rwanda genocide, just to mention a few. These sound like clouds of horrors far away. But modem technology brings these issues right into our living rooms everyday. These are more than just news, they are realities of 'evils' in control of real people electronically transmitted live into our television screens.
Five years ago after the conviction of two boys for the murder of a small toddler, the judge said, 'It was an act of unparalleled evil and barbarity.' What is meant by 'evil'? What is meant by 'good'? Why in this particular case, did two ordinary boys commit such a crime?
My brothers and sisters in the Lord, many other questions spring to mind, particularly questions relating to 'good' and 'evil' within you and me. Most religions and moral codes state that there is such a thing as absolute 'good' and absolute 'evil', and that we need to distinguish between the two. What our children see and watch on the television screens everyday affects their minds. 'Good' moral codes are now somehow twisted by modem philosophy and called 'wicked'. And 'wicked'-'evil' is now called 'good'.
I am aware that most people take the view that in every human being there is an inclination to the good and an inclination to the evil. Both are there, and either can become dominant. Our Lord Jesus Christ tried to explain and help his contemporary Jews to acknowledge the evil-sin He came to overcome and destroy. Did they acknowledge the evil-sin within them? Jesus exposed the evil (John 8:44). The point of a moral life is to make a choice and choose the good. The two boys referred to earlier chose the evil. Why? Why do some people choose the evil?
A famous politician once said that all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Jesus wanted his contemporary Jews to know that choosing good is the way of God the Father.
But choosing evil is the way of destruction - the work of our sinful human nature. Jesus challenged the Pharisees, and he does so today, and reminds us that our generation must recognise 'evil' in our hearts, homes, community, schools, society as a whole and deal with it. Jesus showed us the way to overcome evil (John 8:31).
How can we lean and know how to overcome evil? We have in record the horrors of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocides in Eastern Africa, the current IDP camps in Northern Uganda, the Daffur genocide, the healings wounds of Apartheid, just to mention a few. We see too often today in areas of conflict and violence in the world of Iraq, and on a smaller scale, we see it around us in our homes, community, school and elsewhere when things happen that are wrong and no one does anything about it.
We must stand up and call 'evil' evil, not good, and 'Good' good, not evil.
A German Priest, Martin Niemoller wrote: "In Germany, the Nazis came for the Communists and I didn't speak because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I didn't speak because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I was a Protestant so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me..... By that time there was no-one to speak for anyone."
Jesus came and spoke for the rest of humanity and showed that 'evil' is 'evil'. But humanity can overcome evil with good. His teaching remains true today, "So if the Son sets you free (from 'evil'). you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)
We all need to recognise that everyone is capable of both good and evil, that we must control and contain the potential for evil. What is right and wrong must be made very clear, both within our families, community, schools and in society as a whole. We must never let evil enter our lives - either at home, at school, in the streets, at work place or play. Whatever the circumstances, we must never let it happen anywhere. All good people - and that means all of us - must stand up and be counted . We must not turn away and let evil triumph. We must ensure that we speak, not of the triumph of evil, but the triumph of good,
Modicum
Quote
We are placed where we are by God for the sake of the world, not of our own brand of church.
Paul Bayes, 2004
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