Good Morning Friends,
President Harry Truman had a plaque on his desk to remind Monday morning quarterbacks of the reality of the power of the commander in chief. The plaque read; “The Buck Stops Here.” Well, God declares the same thing in Isaiah 45:7. What God is saying is that God made it all… the light and the dark and the calamity and chaos of what we call life. God is sovereign and we are not. But God is also perfect, and we are not. And this sets the stage for today’s question and the mystery of why God gave us a choice in the first place and why God retains the authority to choose as well. And so, we ask even at the risk of failing in the answer: Why Is There Evil?
Scripture: Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes, to open doors before him— and the gates shall not be closed: I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.
Isaiah 45:1-7 (NRSV)
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b (NRSV)
Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.
Matthew 22:15-21 (NRSV)
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed.
2 Thessalonians 2:7 (NRSV)
Message: I have questioned others as to where evil began, and why it exists at all, and some say it was brought to us by the devil in the Garden leveraging a lie. Some say it was Adam’s sin in the Garden falling for the lie. But the Bible, I think claims that evil existed long before then. But where it came from and why God allows evil, and suffering is a great mystery. Many books have been written on the subject. And I suppose we could sidestep the issue and say that God works all things together for good. And ultimately that is so for those who love God and are chosen for a heavenly purpose. But in the interim, between now and the new creation, we must deal with suffering and evil for it does exist and it is a battle.
And in this battle against the dark side, one must be prepared. We need to put on the full armor of God but also think strategically. Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, and author of The Art of War. He wrote in his book “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” So, there are two enemies we must fight…the evil in others and the evil in ourselves. And while we do not wish to make the devil in us be our focus. We must eventually take the time to address evil tactics because forewarned is forearmed. Unfortunately, I must save that for another day except to say that we are to beware of deceivers and those who persecute Christians. We are to beware of traps and snares and those who encourage betrayal and misquote the Bible for personal gain. We are to beware of those who hinder God’s work. We are to beware of those full of lies even though they appear as angels of light. You see intelligence gave us the ability to understand things. Reason gave us the ability to process that understanding toward behavior. And choice gave us the freedom to determine that behavior. Intelligence, reason, and choice. And there is the problem for whether angels or humans, we have been given the choice either to obey God or not to obey God and eventually we as humans eventually choose poorly. Our poor choices here create the absence of perfection, and this spills over in the lives of others and our culture. Those with discernment know that we have been living in a world where God’s ways have been less influential in shaping individual public opinion than have appeals to emotion, personal reason, and perspectives. So, friends, evil becomes a reality when we choose to disobey and that is true for us individually as well as collectively for it is both a personal and communal reality of existence. Evil became evident in the fall of angels and then next, in the fall of Adam and Eve but that is just the start of the story for it is also in each of our hearts when we disobey. So, for us today, thankfully God still gives us a choice to allow us to be part of what God is doing but with that choice comes the certainty of us falling short. And when we choose unwisely this lack of moral perfection is the essence of evil. Yes…God made us as the crown of creation and because God chose us for this, and we are created in God’s image we too have a choice and that begins the story all over again until God calls a halt to it all and creates a new creation with those willing to follow.
And So, evil can seem ubiquitous. We have evil like Hitler and mass murderers like Ted Bundy and every time we turn on the television, we have breaking news on somebody’s bad behavior on display. From a religious perspective though, evil is intertwined with morality and transgressions against the will of God. But most people think it is anything that is bad, vicious, or cruel. But we are not the ultimate judge. We are not God. There are many different definitions of the ‘nature of evil’ but for most of us it is acts that cause intentional suffering, destruction or damage to a person or group for the benefit of another person or group. We seek to define it in a way to control it or the passions that surface in us when we are exposed. Psychologists have defined evil in four forms as the Dark Tetrad. There is Machiavellianism (manipulative, self-interested, deceptive), Psychopathy (antisocial, remorseless, callousness) and Narcissism (grandiose, proud, lacking empathy). And finally, Sadism (the enjoyment of cruelty). Machiavellianism involves using intelligent strategy and cunning to gain power and get one up on a rival. It is a normal part of political life, of course, and is seen in today’s Gospel reading. Without going into detail about each type of evil psychology calls evil, it may not be the same as evil in the Bible which describes evil as the lack of love. But for the general world I think people are moved to consider a morally troubling argument, that perhaps the Dark Tetrad of behaviors are on occasion, paradoxically, beneficial to humans and societies by encouraging other individuals to be on their guard and think carefully about their trust in things instead of God. So, we must trust God on this subject. Because evil exist, it might just be a way to prepare us for what is to come, must come, and more alert to see a way of cooperation and of love, and especially trust in God. The thing is that Jesus provides the better way and though we may think we know, ultimately God decides what is evil and what is not. And we choose what we feed in our lives. And here we discover that despite the why of the question, we must still wrestle with a wickedness that is not one of flesh and blood but does undoubtedly often stem from our poor choices and the poor choices of others. But as to why evil and suffering exist, it is a bit of a challenge to answer. We are not God. And though we have much to enjoy in life we were made in some ways to suffer and are often not in control of the bad things we do. The simple, but not complete answer is that we were made this way to confront evil in our lives both internal and external. And how we go about this is important. In today’s Gospel passage we have an example of evil, we have political enemies joining forces to bring down Jesus. It was a trap that Jesus did not fall for. It was a lie being perpetrated which is all too often the basis for an act of evil. More specifically Jesus’ political enemies were plotting in their religious hypocrisy pitting one freedom against another to argue their point. They were Machiavellian in character. But do not miss the teaching moment here for it may help us resist the temptation to withdraw from difficult conversations. It offers an alternative to fighting or fleeing in the face of evil. Something in this story reveals a different way, that speaks the truth, with love and disarms animosity and frees us to imagine what being peacemakers might look like in a time that desperately needs peace.
Pray we do not render evil for evil. Pray we hear a cry for a greater awakening in us as believers. Pray we realize that God did not create evil, God did not author evil, God did not make evil. Pray we realize that evil is not a created thing or substance or entity or being but is simply the lack of moral perfection that comes from the reality that all God’s creatures can fall short when it comes to choosing wisely.
Pray therefore that we love those things that draw us closer to God. Pray we rejoice that God has chosen us to experience grace and mercy. Pray we believe that God is sovereign, and we are not even though we have choices. Pray we realize that evil is initiated in our hearts, but the love can be initiated there as well in response to God’s love for us. Pray we know our spiritual enemies and face them in battle victoriously because God has chosen us to be on the winning team. Pray with this insight we resist the temptation to always reason our point for self when we need to make the case for Jesus and the greater good in the face of evil. Pray we trust God. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit we choose to love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 