Readings for today: Ezekiel 25-28
Several years ago, I was hanging out with a group of middle school boys. It was our first small group of the year. The lesson happened to be on Genesis 1:27 where God describes how He made human beings in His image. Male and female. Black and white. Rich and poor. All bearing the signature stamp of their Creator. We talked through the implications of this passage for each of them as they started school. Within the first few days their peer groups had already formed. The pecking order quickly established. They knew who was popular and who was not. They knew who the jocks were and the nerds. They knew the kids who struggled and those who seemed to always succeed. Then we flipped over to Galatians 3:26-28 where the Apostle Paul challenges us to move beyond our social categories and divisions and embrace one another in Christ. After the conversation, we discussed how we could put this principle into practice. Each boy was challenged to think of a student they knew that they struggled to love. It could be someone they knew was lonely. Someone they knew had few friends. Perhaps even someone they made fun of or even bullied on occasion. The accountability point for that particular week was to approach that student and find a way to love them concretely in the name of Jesus. Sit with them at lunch. Hang out with them at recess. Invite them over to hang.
As Christians, we do not celebrate the struggles of others. We do not rejoice at their fall. We do not take secret pleasure in their pain. Ezekiel makes it clear that people who do such things will be judged. Either as individuals or as nations. The nations surrounding Israel watched them struggle and eventually fall into ruin. They rejoiced when it happened. Threw parties. Danced in the streets. They even took the opportunity to pile on for their own revenge. Ammon. Moab. Seir. Edom. Philistia. Tyre. All of them are guilty. All of them are judged. Perhaps Tyre most harshly. God even compares her king to Satan. "You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground...” (Ezekiel 28:12-17) No one escapes God’s righteous judgment. No one gets a pass. Not Satan. Not the kings of this world. Not pastors like me. Not middle school boys like the ones in my small group that year.
The reality is when we rejoice in wrongdoing, celebrate the fall of others, or take pleasure in another person’s pain and heartbreak; we are operating under the influence of the evil one. He loves watching God’s people tear each other apart. He loves creating divisions and factions. He loves to isolate and attack and devour and destroy. As Christians, we must resist this temptation. We must resist the temptation to label others as our enemies. We must resist the temptation to make fun of others at their expense. We must resist the temptation to wound and hurt and pile on when someone’s down. Instead, we must lift them up. We must encourage. We must stand at their side. Show compassion. Grieve with them and for them. Our hearts must break with their hearts. This is what it means to be Christ to others. To show Christ to others. To love Christ as He has loved us.
Readings for tomorrow: Ezekiel 29-32