Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Making Sense in Las Vegas

Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat.  Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child!  Your sins are forgiven.”  But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, “That’s blasphemy!  Does he think he’s God?”  Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts?  Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’?  So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.”  Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”  And the man jumped up and went home!  Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen.  And they praised God for giving humans such authority.  Matthew 9:2-8(NLT)
Some thought the paralyzed man had sinned, perhaps even in his mother’s womb before birth.  Some thought his parents had sinned and God was punishing them by crippling the man for life.  Others didn’t know what to think, so they kept silent and accepted it as a condition they would never understand; they just hoped something like that would never happen to them.  Some thought this, some that; but everybody knew somebody must’ve done something really bad for God to let that happen.  Sometimes you just go too far, and God has had enough.  It’s disturbing to the soul.
And bewilderment over tragedy in Jerusalem isn’t much different than Las Vegas last Sunday night!  We are sorely pressed to make some sense out of the carnage and rage, even to assigning motives God may have had in letting a deranged 64 year old plunge the whole country into mourning. 
How could this happen? 
How do you make sense out of Sunday night’s rampage in Las Vegas?
The bottom line is we cannot make sense of it.  What kind of reason hauls an arsenal onto a hotel 32nd floor and plans to do such a thing?  What kind of reasoning takes a weapon in hand and indiscriminately sprays bullets into a crowd, taking the lives of people he’s never seen before?  There is no sense to this, just as assuredly no one could figure out who sinned – the paralyzed man or his parents – or even what God was up to; you don’t make sense out of the unthinkable.
All we can do is respond with faith, mourning the dead, picking up numb minds and limbs to continue on with working the works of righteousness.  For the living, what else makes sense?  How else do you honor those who perished, and those whose lives will never be the same?  How else can you listen for the voice of God?
On the day Jesus healed the paralyzed man the people gave great praise to God.  And on this day when literally thousands mourn the loss of their loved ones, must we not also do the same?  As with Job, who was challenged by his wife to just curse God and die, must we not answer, the LORD gives; the LORD takes away; blessed be the name of the LORD?[2]

For You Today

When words won’t make sense, praying will:
Lord,
Our hearts are broken for those whose lives have been savagely broken.
Our minds are numb with the madness of violence that permeates all we see.
Our lives move and fester in a culture that glorifies anger and vengeance.
Make our hearts to see your faithful lovingkindness so we may know the comfort of a cleft in thy strong rock throughout this weary land, and that we may lift praise in the midst of all our brokenness.
In the name of Calvary’s Lamb we pray…Amen!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!


[1] Title Image: CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
[2] Job 1:21

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