How long, O Lord?
How long will we hear about mass shootings?
How long will we see people running in fear out of buildings?
How long will we see police and first responders running into those same buildings?
How long will we stand by in bewilderment, wondering why this keeps happening?
How long, O Lord?
If you have ever said or thought those words, you are in good company. They have been said for thousands of years.
One of the Psalmists says those same words in Psalm 13.
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exulted over me?”
You can also hear them in the song, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” by U2.
“How long, how long must we sing this song? How long? How long?”
How long?
I don’t know how long.
As we enter Holy Week, we do not hear about how long everything will last. Rather we are given hope that it will not last forever.
As we enter Holy Week, I invite you to look at the cross and the death of Jesus, not as something that God did, but rather, what we did to Jesus and to see the hope that it offers.
It is all too common that when we think about Jesus dying on the cross, we believe we should be the ones there instead. We have sinned and God is angry and wants to punish us. But the sin is so great that we can’t take the punishment and satisfy the so-called wrath of God. So, Jesus comes to the rescue and takes our place.
This line of thinking actually continues the violence that we see in the world. Because if God uses violence to save the world, then we are justified to continually use violence to do the same. If God’s answer to sin is violence, then that needs to be our answer also.
What if we looked at the cross and saw not what God did to Jesus, but what we did to God? God came to show us a new way of life and we said that we know better. We said the world doesn’t respond to love and kindness and justice and mercy. The world responds to fear and aggression and power and strength.
What if we looked to the cross and saw that despite us doing our worst, God did not retaliate and “give the people what was coming to them or what they deserve?” What if we looked at the cross and saw that what God defeated was the use of violence rather than using violence.
What if we looked to the cross and saw that God took all of that on and defeated it once and for all, took on all the things that lead to death and came out the other side to a new life?
What if we looked to the cross and saw an invitation to reject those ways of sin that lead to death and to live this new life with and in Christ?
The answer to all of those “What if…” questions won’t give us a time frame of when it will stop. That will only be answered when Christ comes again. Scripture is pretty clear that no one knows when that will be.
What we do know is that we are invited into a life that works against violence and hate and as we live this new life, there might actually be less violence and hate in the world.
The cross of Christ gives us the hope that our work won’t be in vain.
The cross of Christ gives us hope that in the end, violence and hate and all those things that separate us from God and from one another (sin) will not last, because they have ultimately been defeated.
I don’t know how long. But my hope, and God’s promise, is that it won’t be forever.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tim