| What Do You Do When Your Whole World Is Turned Upside Down? |
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This week?s massacre at Virginia Tech has certainly turned some lives upside down. Imagine being one of the students at the school. Imagine being a parent of a student at the school ? especially the parent of a child thoughtless enough to not call home and check in with Mom! Parents of college students everywhere are probably rethinking what it means to send their offspring into the care of others.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we began to see how the experience of Monday was sinking into the very being of the collegiates of Blackburg. Student blogs have expressed anger, fear, and frustration at many different levels. Some are blaming school administrators and police. Some place blame on the easy availability of handguns. Some blame the law?s restriction of allowing students to arm themselves on campus.
Its certainly easy to understand the different reactions. When was the last time your world was turned upside down? How did you react?
Just a few weeks ago we went through the readings of Palm/Passion Sunday. We heard the familiar story of Jesus? triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and, well, it all goes downhill from there. As the disciples celebrate the Passover with Jesus he tells them that one of them will betray him and that all will desert him. In response to Peter?s contradictory pledge to follow Jesus to the death, he is told that before the cock crows twice he will deny Jesus three times.
Sure enough, as Jesus is arrested in the garden, things unfold just the way he had said. The world was falling apart for the disciples. Wasn?t Jesus the Anointed One? How could the whole thing unravel so quickly? It seemed to be a time to pull apart, to go into hiding, and to lick wounds. By the time Jesus was being nailed to the cross only a small group of women seemed to be present. They remained until Jesus died. They remained until he was taken down. They remained until his body was laid in the tomb so graciously provided by Joseph of Arimathea.
This is where Luke?s account takes an interesting turn... The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. (Luke 23:55-56, TNIV). The women interrupted their preparation of the spices and perfumes (for the body of Jesus) to rest of the Sabbath as instructed by the Law. You could also say that Jesus rested (in the grave) on the Sabbath as well.
As people of faith we have a couple of different responses to those times when our world is turned upside down. We can run and hide. We can desert our Lord. We can give up on all for which we had hoped. Or we can continue to put our faith and confidence in the promises of God even if we cannot immediate fathom what good could possibly come from it.
God?s redemptive power extends far beyond us individually. When Joseph?s jealous brothers sold him into slavery, they certainly weren?t treating him the way God would have us treat our brothers or sisters. Yet, God was able to accomplish something good from it. Through the experience of slavery and unjust imprisonment, Joseph was put in a place where he could by used by God to rescue his entire family from the devastating impact of famine.
Similarly, when a later Pharaoh would order all male Hebrew babies to be killed at birth Jochabed found a way to save her own newborn son by having him rescued by Pharaoh?s daughter! (Exodus 2) While Pharaoh certainly meant his decree for evil, God was able to find a way to groom a leader for the deliverance of Israel. Also, remember that the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, defied Pharaoh?s order even to the point of lying to Pharaoh to save the lives of babies. (Exodus 1) Why? Because they ?feared God.? They put their trust in God before all else ? certainly before Pharaoh.
So, what are we to do when our whole world is turned upside down? We continue to put our trust in God. We move ahead. And we look for the redemption God can bring even in the worst of tragedies. |
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