World-as-it-is to World-as-it-should-be
We cannot escape bad news even if we want to, nowadays. Media channels and social media scream out bad news to us, unless we are on a media fast.
We are just sort of coming out of the pandemic. The World health organisation is still not sure that they can declare the end of the pandemic yet. Türkiye and Syria experienced one of the most devastating earthquakes in human history. Those countries are still reeling under that quake. Israel and Palestine conflicts continue with no end in sight. There is a war raging out there in Ukraine. There is political friction between China-Russia on one end and the western countries on the other. Human rights, especially women rights are trampled upon mercilessly in places like Afghanistan. Close home, many us might have been anxious about the Brahmapuram fire and toxic smoke that was on top of the local news last week. And those of us who are working on corporates are worried about the massive tech pay offs that are going on.
I can go on, but I think you got the point. The world-as-it-is, is not the world-as-it-should-be. We all long for a world that is stress free, we all want to live happily ever after. Instead, what we find is conflicts and suffering and pain. Take wars alone. I came across a very disturbing statistics recently. Chris Hedges in his book “What Every Person should Know About War” presents a chilling statistic that out of the last 3500 years of human history, only 258 years have been without any wars . That is a measly 8% of total human history. In other words, we live in a world where more than 90% of the time, there are active conflicts and wars happening around us.
The sad part is that this problem is not just at the global level. This percolates down to our nation, our state, our city, our homes, between parents and children, between siblings, between spouses, between neighbours, among community members, among religious groups, within churches, among denominations, among political parties, among colleagues in offices, between organisation leaders and employees. The list can go on. Conflicts and friction is everywhere.
So among all this world-as-it-is news, we are right if we feel helpless, we are right if we feel the strong need to act as a hero and do something about it. After all, we like to fix things right, especially men? I like to fix things when things are broken, I like to find solutions when problems arise, I like to be known as the problem solver. But when we look at the world-as-it-is situation, we are left helpless because we find that there is very little we can do to fix things around us. It is forgivable if we reach a conclusion that “Everything is meaningless” as the writer of Ecclesiastes did. (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
The question that I would like us to ask ourselves is this. Are followers of Christ supposed to feel helpless and wallow in self pity or shrug off our inability to correct the situation around us, and live in apathy? I guess the question is rhetorical. We know the answer. The answer is an emphatic No. The Cross and the empty tomb give us hope; hope of a world-as-it-should-be. And our hope is not based only on blind faith, but is backed by God’s promises given in the Bible. Let us look at a few of them to see what the world-as-it-should-be is, and what is our role in making that happen.
First fact that we can take comfort is that when we feel helpless, God is in control. God is always in control. Even when things around seem meaningless, God is in control. Bible tells us in many ways about this. One of the powerful passages that I have seen is in the book of Job. You can read the whole passage of Job 12:7-25 later. Let me just highlight a few key verse from that passage. “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? (Job 12:7-10, NKJV). This is further reiterated in Job 42:2, Psalm 22:28 and several other verses. God is in control, let us have no doubt about that.
Secondly, we need to believe that the God who is control will establish His kingdom (the world-as-it-should-be) all over the earth. Isaiah 2:2-5 provides a comforting study on this. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days, That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. 5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord ( Isaiah 2: 2-5, NKJV).
The prophet is talking about the last days, the second coming of Christ, when His kingdom will be set up in this world. The establishment of the heavenly Jerusalem. The prophet is prophesying that Christ’s church will be established across all nations. And this shall be done voluntarily. “All nations shall flow into it” is the terminology that the prophet uses. This is not by coercion or compulsion, but by free will. They will voluntarily accept the gospel and accept Jesus as the only Prince of Peace. The word, the gospel shall go out from Zion and reach all corners of the world. Then comes the promise of everlasting peace, something that we all are looking forward to. A type of peace where there will be no need for weapons. The nations will convert their weapons into tools for daily work. There will be no war anymore. This is the promise. And just as any other promise in the Bible this too will be fulfilled. We know that the prophesies about Jesus Christ are all fulfilled. This prophesy about establishing His kingdom all over the earth, His judgement of the nations, and His second coming will also be fulfilled, and we will have everlasting peace. Remember, Jesus said, I will build my church. That is a definitive promise. He will keep it. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the only one.
Thirdly, we need to believe in the promise that the God who is in control will remove the darkness from the world-as-it-is. Isaiah 9:2 described this light. The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. Isaiah 9:2 (NKJV). Please note that this promise is in the past tense, unlike the promise of peace (given in Isaiah 2:2-5) which is in the future tense. This is because this light that Isaiah is speaking about has already come, during the first advent. When Jesus declared that, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life (John 8:12, NKJV),” He was merely making it clear that the prophesy has come true. Jesus’ announcement meant that He will lead us to the place beyond the darkness that people were in at that time. This is true today. Jesus, the light of the world has already come down to us, so that we don’t have to grope in darkness. We have access to that light, He will lead us beyond the darkness we see all around us in this time and age. Paul confirms this ; “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6, NKJV).
So, what is our challenge as we continue to be bombarded by the world-as-it-is bad news? If we know that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and He will ultimately establish His kingdom on earth and if we believe that He has already started that journey by being the light of the world, and can show us the way to that everlasting peace; what should we do as His children?
Our call is simple. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)”. Yes, that is right, we are special people, chosen by Him, we have been given the light. We have been called from darkness to light. We need to live lives worthy of that calling. We need to “proclaim praises of Him”. As citizens of the kingdom of light we need to live our lives with hope and faith despite the seemingly unending darkness that we might see all around us today. That is temporal. What is permanent is what Jesus offers.
And Jesus offers solutions to everything that the world-as-it-is is suffering from. Jesus offers the only formula for converting the world-as-it-is to the world-as-it-should-be. Is there famine in the world-as-it-is? Jesus says John 6:35 (NKJV) "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. Are we pained by the people in captivity in the world-as-it-is? Jesus says John 10:9 (NKJV) I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Are we afraid of the wild beasts that might attack us or our flock? Jesus says John 10:11 (NKJV) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. Are we feeling helpless about the pandemic and diseases and death? John 11:25-26 (NKJV) "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." Are we concerned about the wars that are raging or the wars that are eminent? Jesus says John 14:27 (NKJV) Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
So what can we do to bring in the world-as-it-should-be? Let us put to death our self reliance on our own abilities and connections and degrees. Let us put our hope in Him alone, who promised everlasting peace. Let us not be disheartened by the wars and conflicts and persecutions and pandemics and troubles that we see all around us. Let us not be fearful of the future. Let us not be proud of our achievements till date. Let us not put our hopes elsewhere, like in the government, or judiciary or a particular political party or an activist group. Let us put our hope only in God’s true Promised one, Jesus Christ. Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help (Hebrews 4:14-16, Message). Let us accept the grace that has been poured upon us through Jesus Christ. Let us live our lives as Citizens of the Kingdom of Light and the coming Kingdom of Peace. Let us make this our challenge!
And let me leave you with a practical way of doing it. Not my way, but the way Jesus demonstrated. If you study the actions of Jesus, you will realise that one of His last actions before He went to the cross, and one of His first actions after resurrection was to serve others. Before He went to the cross, He washed the feet of His disciples including the one who He knew was going to betray Him. John 13:1 says, after having loved his disciples, He loved them to the end. Or He showed them the true extent of His love. This is how He showed His love. By choosing serve. By choosing to kneel down and wash the feet of His own disciples. And then when finished he said in John 13-13-17, I have done this to set an example for you. Now that your Lord and teacher has done this you should do accordingly. There is only one place in the Bible where Jesus explicitly states that He has done something to set an example for us. This is that place. And then he ends that message in John 13:17 by asserting that “Now that you know these things, you will blessed if you do accordingly. I have searched multiple English translations of the Bible to see if an of them sat it differently. All translations point to the same, with the emphasis being on “do accordingly”. After His resurrection, when the disciples had lost all hope and went back to their previous ways of living, He called them back and He started by serving breakfast. He served breakfast to His disciples. He has given us the message to serve, He has given us the message and He has modelled it for us. Let us obey the message to serve and follow His model of Serving. If you need help in how to serve in today’s context, you can refer to my book Not-So-With-You, that Pastor referred to in my introduction.
Thank you and stay blessed.
