Friday: Evil a Parasite upon the Good
WEEK 26
FRIDAY
EVIL A PARASITE UPON THE GOOD
Hebrews 12:1-2
We continue to look at the points at which the preaching of Jesus created a revolution—turned the world upside down.
6. The cross was the revelation of the heart of God. That was new and almost unthinkable to that ancient world. Cicero said, “The very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body but from his mind and his eyes and his ears.”* Even to think about the cross would defile the proud Roman. But Jesus accepted the cross as his very own and through it showed the love of God. The cross was hate, and through it Jesus showed love. The cross was sin, and through it Jesus accomplished the healing of sin. The cross was humanity at its worst, and through it Jesus showed God at his redemptive best. To atone for sin through the action of sin is new. To show the best through the worst, that was new and revolutionary. The thought and outlook of antiquity were reversed.
7. Goodness and love are stronger than evil and hate. Evil and hate seem strong, and they are, in the beginning. But they have nothing behind them, nothing except the force of the evildoer and the hater. The universe doesn’t back them, sustain them, further them. They are alone in a world of moral qualities. Therefore all evil and hate are doomed to self-destruction. For they have within them the seeds of their own destruction. A target practice by the military has an interesting method of disposal of shots that miss the target. If they don’t hit the target, they explode of their own accord. That is what evil and hate do. Give them enough rope, and they will hang themselves. No situation can stay together with evil and hate at its center. There is no cement in sin. You have to throw enough good around evil, enough love around hate, to keep them going. All evil is a parasite upon good; all hate is a parasite upon love. Make evil pure evil, and it will destroy itself. Make hate pure hate, and it will destroy itself. Therefore goodness and love will wear down all evil and hate.
O Lord, I thank you that when I am in you; then the universe approves of me and backs me and furthers me. I have cosmic backing for my way of life. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: No parasites tolerated in me today, everything contributive, positive.
*Cicero, as quoted in Phil Moore, Straight to the Heart of Galatians to Colossians (Oxford, UK: Monarch Books, 2014), 233 (a footnote cites Cicero’s legal defense of Gaius Rabirius in 63 BCE as the source for the quotation).