Luke 23:26-31
As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then
“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”
31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
There is an expression we use - "When the cat is away, the mice will play". Have you ever seen that play out? No doubt you have. Probably the earliest memories we will have of this is in school. The teacher would get called out to the office and tell the class to work on an assignment while she was gone, and the moment she leaves the room we all go crazy. Then a few minutes later, she would come back and say she heard us half way down the hall and proceed to ball us out and punish us with an assignment. It doesn't change much as we get older. When the boss is present, we work a lot harder. When he is absent, our work deteriorates.
The boss of the universe arrived on our planet 2000 years ago, and wasn't recognized. He was like that show Undercover Boss, where He got to see what was really going on in men's hearts without pretense. What did He see? Just in these last few chapters he would see an innocent person being whipped, beaten, spit on, mocked, falsely accused, and led to the cruelest execution imagined to satisfy a crowd and due to peer pressure. He would see soldiers commandeering a man, in the midst of his work day, to carry someone's cross for them just because they had the right to tell anyone to do whatever they wanted them to do, because they were in power. He would see friends betraying friends and places of worship turned into ways to make money.
Jesus tells the women who were grieving for Him that if all this evil is going on while the boss is present, evil will not be restrained when He leaves. They had better run for cover because no one will be safe when that happens. A common view is that people are basically good and when they act evil it is probably due to some flaw in their upbringing or society has failed them. Maybe if they received proper education we could remedy evil. Unfortunately this is not true. Another misconception is that religion is the leading cause of trouble in this world and if we just get rid of religion, the world would be a better place. Pilate felt he could stop a riot by getting rid of Jesus and in the twentieth century, many societies have tried to do the same. From the Russian, Cambodian, and Chinese communists to the French Revolution and Nazis, societies that get rid of God will be just as, if not more evil. Mankind is evil and needs a change at the core and this is what Christ came to bring. By taking all the evil and sin upon Himself at the cross, He gave all mankind an opportunity to be free from our sin nature and be reborn with the life of Christ inside of us. We can accept this free gift of salvation and someday leave this sinful world behind or we can reject it and experience what it is like when God removes His goodness completely from this world. That will be Hell. You see, even though this world is extremely evil, there is so much goodness poured down from God, that we have sunshine, picnics, birthday parties, fireworks - everything that is good in life is from God. That's why we are appalled when people are brutally killed or children abducted that we cry out, "Where is God?" "Is He powerless"? "Doesn't He care?" Don't you see that this would be the norm except for the goodness of God? Do you want to see that day of evil? Do you want your friends to see that day? Spread the good news of salvation. Receive the good news of Christ in you and the forgiveness of sins.
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