The Evil that Exists Within Us

            It is certainly not possible to deny that there is evil in this world.  I grew up during the Second World War and heard the stories of the Jews and many others killed by the Nazis in Germany and the rejection even by the United States when some of the Jewish residents of Europe tried to come to this country in boats.  We had no idea what was going on in Europe until late in the war when the horror of the concentration camps was uncovered and we knew what had been done by the evil people who were at the head of the German government. 

            It is easy to deceive ourselves that we are better than that.  It is easy to dismiss evil as something terrible like Nazism that thrives for a while and then is defeated, but that is really to miss the point.  Evil is a constant among us.  It isn’t only Boko Haram in Africa or ISIS in the Middle East.  Evil is always present in our everyday lives.  It was evil that caused the crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of the Romans and the Leaders of the Temple because they saw him as a threat to their way of life. 

            We are deep into the Easter season and we are just getting around to choosing a successor to Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus and caused his death.  It is easy to forgive Judas, he thought he was doing the right thing; but like most of our confrontations with evil, that also misses the point.  Jesus’ engagement with evil was a profound statement by God of the ultimate kingship of God over all of creation, despite what we might desire.

             What is certainly notable in Judas’ betrayal is that evil has been a part of the church from its beginning.  Judas was a part of Jesus’ entourage.  He followed him, believed in him and ultimately betrayed him.  It is tempting to dismiss this as just one man among the twelve; but that isn’t true.  Peter denied Jesus three times.  Thomas refused to believe in the Risen Christ because he didn’t have the facts. Paul held the coats of his fellow Pharisees when they stoned the martyr Stephen.  Evil is a part of all of our natures.  It can’t just be dismissed.  We all know about it, we have experienced it and we have seen it work in our lives. 

            I have always been intrigued by Jesus’ forty day sojourn in the desert right after his baptism and his engagement with Satan in that place.  Satan used a wonderful sarcastic phrase:  If you are the Son of God… . The tempter asked him to allay his hunger by turning the stones into bread, and then taking him to a high mountain and showing him all of the cities of the earth and telling Jesus that all of these would be his if only he would pledge allegiance to Satan.  Then, he placed him on the temple mount and told him to throw himself down so that God’s angels would certainly rescue him.  Jesus refused all of these things, knowing that only by living his life and showing the profound Love of God to people in this world by the way that he encountered and alleviated the pain that consumed so many people, would God’s message of hope ever be understood.  That was the mission of Jesus during his life among us.  He taught, healed, preached and helped countless people with their lives.  He showed everyone whom he met how God loved his creation.  And at the end, Jesus knew that only by giving himself to those who opposed him would evil finally be defeated.  That is why the resurrection is such an important moment in the history of the world.

            But defeating evil certainly isn’t a once and for all event.  Evil persists and the church has been created to be an organization that stands as a place where evil can be always contested.  The problem is that the church sometimes joins with evil in creating messes in this world.  I know the struggles that minorities have had in the church: women trying to become ordained; gays and lesbians trying to have equal treatment from their fellow Christians without finding themselves judged and excluded.  That is a paradox that the church has been contending with throughout its history. 

            Jesus told us to be inclusive: to love one another as He loved us.  That sounds simple, but it isn’t.  It is incredibly difficult.  We are all natural judges and we look at those who are different from us with a skeptical eye. We judge those who are of a different economic class than ours; or a different race, or those of a different belief system.  It was amazing how two classes of judges came together in Garland, Texas to create chaos: the Muslim haters who sponsored a caricature of Mohammed contest and two men who were bent on violence who showed up with weapons.  No wonder there is violence in this world.  We never seem to really learn.

            But we come together as a community to share our lives, to take care of one another and to provide for those around us as much help as we can.  Ours is a magnificent mission, one that offers to all of us who find evil in our midst a way around it: to love God and each other with all of our hearts.