Good News and Bad News

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11 ESV). There have been so many stories about good news/bad news situations. I almost hesitate to tell you one more; but, I found this one recently and it gave me a little chuckle. It seems a farmer went into his banker and announced that he had bad news and good news. "First, the bad news... Well," said the farmer, "I can't make my mortgage payments. And that crop loan I've taken out for the past 10 years -- I can't pay that off, either. Not only that, I won't be able to pay you the couple of hundred thousand I still have outstanding on my tractors and other equipment. So I'm going to have to give up the farm and turn it all over to you for whatever you can salvage out of it.” Silence prevailed for a minute and then the banker said, "What's the good news?" "The good news is that I'm going to keep on banking with you," said the farmer. There is a very real sense in which we have been given a good news/bad news understanding in our reading today. Paul is very clear that we were lost. It was during this time, when we didn’t even know we needed to be saved that Christ died for us. A recent novel by Madeleine L'Engle is entitled A Severed Wasp. The title, which comes from one of George Orwell's essays, offers a graphic image of human lostness. Orwell describes a wasp that "was sucking jam on my plate and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him." The wasp and people without Christ have much in common. Severed from their souls, but greedy and unaware, people continue to consume life's sweetness. Only when it's time to fly away will they gasp their dreadful condition. There simply is no hope without Christ; and, there is nothing but hope with Christ. Today we spend so much time trying to convince people that God is good. Perhaps we ought to spend a little more time helping people understand how bad we are and then the goodness of God becomes very apparent!