Daily Radio Bible - September 30th, 21

The world is falling down. Those are the headlines. In fact, last year on this very day, the headlines were that 1 million people had succumbed to COVID-19. And now a year later, I'm afraid to even think about what that number might be. When Jesus reads the headlines of his own day, he recounted some tragic events of his own. Jesus says, How about those Galileans that Pilate murdered as they were offering sacrifices in the temple, our countrymen murdered in church, do you think they were the worst sinners around? Is that the way you think this works? That they were murdered because they weren't good enough. Then Jesus grabs another headline. He says, How about those 18 that died when that tower of Siloam fell on them? Just a random tragic accident? Was there tragic death connected to the condition of their soul? Jesus says, No, it didn't happen because they were the worst. It didn't happen because they were bad people. Or how about the millions that have died of COVID-19? Was because God didn't care or that God was somehow displeased with them? Or because they weren't chosen or they were not important enough to God? No. No, the world is broken. Death comes to the pious. And to the publican. Tragedy comes because the world is falling down. It's a broken world with broken people, towers fall on people and people fall in temples, and a million people die of a plague. The world is falling down. That's what the headlines say.

But Jesus isn't content just to read the headlines of the world's tragic news. No, he's here to announce the good news to a falling world. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is rising up. He says it's like a gardener who waits a long time for that fig tree to bear fruit. But he keeps at it. It's like a deer woman who has been bent over for 18 years, unable to stand up straight until God raises her up. It's like a mustard seed that grows up and becomes the largest of all garden plants, so that the birds of the air come and rest in its shade. It's like a little bit of yeast that's worked its way into the dough and permeates the whole loaf. The world is falling down. But Jesus says the kingdom of God is rising up, he's going to bring us the good news.

Because he's going to go down to Jerusalem, where he will be raised up on a cross so that this falling world with its fallen souls will be raised up and made new. Ours is to trust him to repent and turn to him and recognize not only the needs of a broken world, but if our own broken souls for him. We need his good news and the good life he brings. We need him to make all things new. The headlines may say that the world's falling down, but Jesus comes because of him. Things are raising up. He's raising up people to new life. And that's good news with listening to holding on to building your life around, participating with him in his vision for the world, joining with him and extending God's mercy and justice into the darkest corners of this world, shining his light into this broken world, declaring his good news. And that's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family. For my wife, my daughter's my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so

You are loved!