Violence

Another senseless massacre. Nineteen primary school children, two teachers and an eighteen-year-old gunman all dead. There has been a great outcry of emotion right across the USA, including from President Biden – “when are things going to change?!”

Yet despite the emotion and the rhetoric, we all know it’s almost certain nothing will change. How can this be in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’?

Gun control, at least measures like background checks, are favoured by a large majority and cross section of the US population. A system of political imbalance combined with powerful lobby groups and a culture that embraces the right to bear arms has stymied any change.

And so, at the end of the day, power and money wins over the lives of innocent people.

This is not isolated behaviour. Nearly two thousand years ago when Jesus Christ was on the earth, he went around healing the sick, feeding the hungry and teaching people that they ought to love each other. For doing this he was put to death by the authorities. Why?

“The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body. ‘What do we do now?’ they asked. ‘This man keeps on doing things, creating God-signs. If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have.’” (John 11:47-48, The Message Bible)

There is a fundamental problem here – and it lies within us. Weapons have been created to give people the power to take and keep things that belong to others. One doesn’t have to look very hard to find examples of this both throughout history and in present day – just turn on the news!

The sad thing is, despite the fact we think we are so progressive, we are in fact out of control. Only God can fix the mess we find ourselves in. The good news is He will soon be sending His son Jesus – who God raised from the dead – to bring peace.

“The Lord will settle international disputes; all the nations will convert their weapons of war into implements of peace. Then at the last all wars will stop and all military training will end.” (Isaiah 2:4, TLB)

Find out more about this wonderful time in your Bible.