Stephen
Terry, Director
Rewards
of Faithfulness
Commentary
for the March 25, 2023, Sabbath School Lesson
"Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in
the house of the Lord for ever." Psalm 23:6, KJV
We do not have to go far to see that this
world is a charnal house. The bones of billions of dead have been interred into
the earth over millennia. Even now, hundreds of thousands perish in ongoing
wars and conflicts. Criminals in a fit of rage think nothing of ripping the life
from others with gunpowder propelled lead slugs or with a sharpened, edged
blade of steel. We are a ruthless species, seizing land saturated with the
blood of its previous owners. Then when the land has been taken, we waste
little time in raping it of its resources and leaving it infertile and
poisoned. And what did we make from those resources? The almost indestructible,
inorganic waste from those products floats like dystopian islands in our seas.
Though biodegradable options are often available, we choose those that are not
because we can wring out a few more pennies of profit with each sale.
This is the world of our day. While there
were certainly tendencies toward all of this two thousand years ago when Jesus
walked the shores of Galilee, it has been honed to a much greater, industrial
efficiency. Our evergrowing population has made such efficiency vital. Once a
man could have a few chickens in his yard to sustain himself and his family.
Now hundreds of thousands of chickens are slaughtered mechanically to feed
millions. It is the same for cows, goats, and pigs. While as Seventh-day
Adventists, we are not given to eating pigs, the thriving industry in pork
products hardly seems to notice our abstention. Although the slaughtering of
both humans and animals has been going on almost from the beginning of time
according to biblical accounts and according to global archaelogical evidence
which bases its chronology on the types of weapons we have used to lay waste to
our enemies--weapons of stone, followed by those of bronze, then iron, and the
steel of the industrial age. Now we live in the nuclear age where death can
drop from the skies, killing millions before the average person would even be
aware that another war had stretched its macabre shadow over the planet.
Jesus knew things would get very bad. He
said it would get so bad that love would die in many hearts. Nonetheless, he
stated that the ones who could keep on loving, despite the evil, would be
saved.[i] But what are
they saved for? Is it to be given wealth in this life, wealth that will only be
ripped from them by those who have the power to take what others posses and
fill their vaults with wealth that has no purpose beyond the mere possessng of
it? We are not only a blood thirsty species, we are a greedy one as well. There
are exceptions like Jonas Salk, who refused the opportunity to get wealthy by
patenting his polio vaccine or the Volvo company who made the patent for the
three-point seatbelt open so other automobile manufacturers could install if
for free. The generosity demonstrated by these acts reveals that some continue,
despite abounding evil and greed, to love.
However, these are the exception and not the
rule. Instead, pharmaceutical companies most often go the other way. Insulin, a
life-giving intervention for diabetics recently spiked to enormous cost that
required threat of governmental intervention to roll back the hefty price that
was costing lives when some could not affford the extortion. It is a similar
case with the development of new classes of biologics. These can cost $3,000 to
$5,000 or more per month. Some manufacturers offer reduced or even no co-pays
for the poor. However, these programs are usually not available to those on
Medicare. Medicare with its annual stop limit of $5,500 and its prescription
coverage gap means these biologic miracle drugs are not available to many. To
illustrate, a retired couple on Medicare with a combined income of forty
thousand dollars a year and both needing biolgical prescriptions would have to
pay well over a quarter of their income for those medications. This does not
factor in the cost for their Medicare which adds over four thousand a year to
their medical costs. Housing in many places in the United States runs $1300 per
month or more which adds almost $16,000 annually to their living costs. This
does not include costs for untilities, food, clothing, or transportation. It is
apparent that some things normal for many households need to be given up to pay
for medical costs to feed the profits of the greedy pharmaceutical industry. I
chose the $40,000 annual income for this couple, because that income makes them
ineligible for Medicaid which is intended to provide relief from medical costs
for the poor. Despite rapidly increasing inflation, especially with medical
costs, the income standards for the poor are unrealistic and are not updated
frequently enough.
While violence and greed are making the
lives of many a living hell, Jesus offered hope, and for many that hope is
sustaining them through the misery we inflict on one another. It may not make
the evil less pervasive, but a person without hope has nothing to lose and adds
to the pool of suffering, for that person no longer cares about the suffering
of others or what happens to themselves, reasoning that everything is going to
pieces anyway so let anarchy reign. But those who have hope have incentive to
build rather than tear down. Jesus knew that if we hate our enemies that we
would perpetuate a cycle that would destroy everything. As Ghandi said, "An eye
for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." That is why Jesus told
us to love our enemies, sharing that even God does that.[ii] He
encouraged us to be like God in this respect.
But realistically, perhaps speaking with
his experience with the antediluvian world, he knew that many, even among his
followers would succumb to what this world offers as success in life. He
questioned whether when he returned any would still be true to carrying the
image of God's love in their lives.[iii] I can
imagine the sadness in his voice when he said this, because he said this in the
context that even despite repeated assurances by God that justice will out,
people turn from that promise and choose to give themselves over to the agony
of life in its current iteration.
We too often overlook the signs of God's
promise. Every blooming flower is like a travel poster to remind us of the
meadows of heaven. Every bite of a juicy fruit in late summer is a reminder of
the fruiting trees of that better place that will not only feed us but bring
healing, too. When we look into the eyes of our pets who see in us something
more wonderful than we see in ourselves, we are reminded that we once had a far
different relationship with animals than we do now. We saw them as companions,
not food. But we abused that relationship, passing on the suffering and pain we
cause each other to the lesser souls of the animal kingdom and for reasons similar
to those behind why we abuse one another. I would have a very hard time working
in an animal shelter where my heart would be broken again and again to see the
horrors some inflict on the poor creatures that causes them to need such
shelters.
All of Creation knows that things were
once better and will be again. It waits subject to the same torment as the rest
of the world.[iv]
It waits for Jesus' return and the revelation of those saved who will once
again have loving dominion over Creation, not the murderous subjection we force
upon it now. The present relationship between predator and prey will no longer
be the case. The lamb will be safe with the wolf, and the lion will eat straw.[v]
I recently saw a TikTok video where a
grizzly was killing a bison. The horror went on for a long time and over a
great distance with the bear gradually ripping flesh piece by piece from the
hapless bison who could not escape the huge silvertip. It was heartrending, and
no doubt traumatic for those witnessing and filming it. But this was in a
national park where it is forbidden to interfere in the natural relationships
between predators and prey. The rangers ask who decides who is to live, the
bison who in large herds may overgraze the vegetation or the grizzly who may
die without enough food to enable it to survive the winter? I am thankful that
one day the faithful will no longer be faced with those kinds of decisions.
Peace will replace strife and love will be the foundation of that place which
so many reject today. But there are those who are still "longing for a better
country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:16) I pray you and I will be
among them.