It’s tempting to try some sort of analysis of what’s been happening in our world these last couple of weeks. On the other side of the globe a black man is brutally killed by a policeman. Here in Australia thousands of people defy Covid-19 restrictions and social distancing to participate in protest gatherings – in solidarity with similar protests in the US. It’s not rocket science to work out that there are deeper issues here than just the death of George Floyd.
Many have offered comment on that sad story so I’ll exercise some restraint and limit myself to two scenes on television this past week that painted a huge contrast for me. The first scene was of the rioting and the looting in American cities as protest marches got out of hand. I watched it and thought, “The world is going mad!” The low point for me was watching a protest march where someone poured petrol over a policeman on a motor-bike and set it alight. Utter madness! The second scenario was one that didn’t get much coverage. In one US location police gathered to confront marching protesters. But as the protesters drew closer the police knelt together on the pavement for some moments of prayer. Before long protesters were joining the praying police in one great prayer meeting for America.
Two kinds of people: Riotous looters creating mayhem – and in contrast, praying intercessors for the nation. That contrast reminded me of a contrast Jesus made between two fellows who were both builders. Both men got caught up in the storms and turmoils of life… both were battered by surrounding events. But one survived; the other didn’t. Jesus put it in terms of one man having built on solid rock while the other had built his house on shifting sand. Wise builders and foolish builders! Riotous looters and compassionate intercessors. And Jesus said that the difference is the foundation that we build on.
I should point out that the foundation that Jesus was really talking about was Himself and His teachings. He is the Rock on which we ought to build if we want the building of our lives to survive the horrendous events that sometimes lash our lives. The good news of the Christian faith is that when Jesus comes into our lives He makes that huge difference that He pictured between those two builders.
There is a moving story of the artist Leo Steinberg and a gypsy girl that highlights the difference Jesus makes. Struck with the gypsy girl’s beauty, Steinberg took her to his studio and frequently had her sit for him. At that time he was at work on his masterpiece “Christ on the Cross.” The girl used to watch him work on this painting. One day she said to him, “He must have been a very wicked man to be nailed to a cross like that.” “No,” said the painter. “On the contrary, he was a very good man. The best man that ever lived. He died for others.” The little girl looked up at him and asked, “Did he die for you?” Steinberg was not a Christian, but the gypsy girl’s question touched his heart and awakened his conscience, and he became a believer in him whose dying passion he had so well portrayed.
Years afterward a young count chanced to go into the gallery at Dresden where Steinberg’s painting of “Christ on the Cross” was on exhibition. This painting spoke so powerfully to him that it changed the whole tenor of his life. He was Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, founder of the Moravian Brethren – a mission church that did much to spread the good news of Christ’s atoning death throughout the world.
John Westendorp