Back in the Dark Ages, singer Anne Murray sang a great song called, “A Little Good News.” She sang,
I rolled out this morning, kids had the morning news show on. Bryant Gumbel was talking about the fighting in Lebanon. Some senator was squawking about the bad economy, it’s gonna get worse, you see, we need a change in policy. There’s a local paper rolled up in a rubber band, one more sad story’s one more than I can stand. Just once, I’d like to see the headline say, Not much to print today, can’t find nothing bad to say, because nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town, nobody OD’d, nobody burned a single building down, nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain. We sure could use a little good news today.
I know how she felt. I sure could use a little good news today myself. Recent headlines told me about how a part of Australia about the size of South Carolina has burned up in the wildfires, and over 1 billion animals have been killed; how earthquakes once more wreaked havoc in Puerto Rico; how crazy winter weather in the US caused deadly automobile accidents and flooding. I have listened to the anchorman talk about the impeachment trial of the president; the ongoing opioid epidemic and how it has led to a shortage of foster families in West Virginia; and a gun-rights rally in Virginia that had state reps afraid to go in to work. Add to all those things the fact that children are dying in Africa of hunger; that the American immigration system is broken and immigrant parents have been separated from their children; that people I know are dealing with dementia; and that people are grieving the loss of loved ones. Oh, yes, I could use a little good news today.
But our time isn’t really so different when it comes to bad news. There was plenty of bad news in Jesus’ day, too. After all, his people were living under the Roman occupation, and didn’t even have their freedom. They were constantly seeing taxes rise, causing the poor to become poorer. The religious establishment seemed unable – or perhaps unwilling – to confront the government over its abusive practices. People had little or no hope of things ever changing. There was the ongoing feud between the Jews and the Samaritans. And everywhere there were the sick and the homeless, begging for mercy on the city streets and country roads.
In the midst of all this bad news, Jesus received bad news of a more personal nature. His cousin had been arrested and put into prison. It was a political move on the part of King Herod Antipas. He was afraid of John’s growing popularity, and not only that, John had had the audacity to publicly condemn Herod for having an affair with his brother’s wife, Herodias, and then marrying her himself after getting rid of his own wife.
Jesus had lots of good reasons to think that now was not the time to begin his public ministry. On a personal level, he was dealing with John’s arrest, feeling grief and sadness and anger over what had happened to John. And perhaps his friends and family even warned him that he could end up in prison himself if he provoked Herod in any way. On a strategic level, John’s message of repentance had not been well received by the religious leaders, and chances were good that if Jesus preached the same message the leaders would not appreciate it. And yet, in the face of bad news, Jesus set out for Galilee with his simple message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Jesus left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum, a city beside the Sea of Galilee. It happened that Herod ruled this area, so Jesus was not trying to escape any danger Herod might have posed; in fact, Capernaum was less than nine miles from Herod’s capital city of Tiberius. Why Galilee? It was the most northern part of Palestine, a small area and densely populated because it was such a fertile region. Around the Sea of Galilee there were many fishermen. Galilee was known as “Galilee of the Gentiles” because it was surrounded on three sides by non-Jewish neighbors. The great trade routes passed through Galilee, so many people from many different places would have come through the region. The people of that area tended to be open to new ideas and new influences. So, it was a place where a new teacher with a new message might have a chance of being heard.
The message of Jesus was simple: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” To repent was to turn around, to change directions; it meant to turn away from sin and turn towards God. And that repentance was necessary because the reign of God was about to begin. When Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven being near, he wasn’t talking about what people had to do to get into heaven; he was talking about what people had to do to live out heaven’s ideals on earth. It was about God’s rule coming on earth as it is in heaven. It was not a call to some future salvation; it was a call to contemporary action.
In the face of all the bad news around him, Jesus began to preach that the kingdom of heaven was near. Mark Adams writes, “Jesus not only proclaims with his words but also embodies with his life and ministry the reality of the kingdom breaking forth in the midst of the bad news of the kingdoms of this world.” In the darkness of life, Jesus came to shine as a light. For those who were living in the shadow of death, Jesus brought life.
How exactly did Jesus live out the good news in a bad news world?
Jesus taught the message God gave him, the good news of the kingdom of God. And Jesus brought healing and wholeness to those who were broken and sick. And we are to do the same things. Just as Jesus called those first disciples, so he calls us. And if we choose to follow him, then we do the things that Jesus did. We don’t ignore or dismiss the reality of the bad news around us, but we choose to turn our backs on the power of that bad news to control us. We choose to trust in the power of God through Jesus Christ to bring healing and wholeness, to bring redemption and salvation to broken lives in our broken world. Mark Adams says, “We as Christians are called to proclaim and live out the good news amid the bad news. Precisely in the face of the growing fear, division, and death, we are called to put flesh on God’s good news of hope, peace, and life. We are called to repent from the simple path of only denouncing or describing the bad news, and to be proactive, trusting and living out the good news of God that the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Being a follower of Jesus means turning the other cheek, even when we run out of cheeks. It means loving our neighbors as our ourselves and loving our enemies. It means forgiving so many times that we lose count of how many times we have been wronged. It means spending time with the poor and the hopeless, the outcast and the downcast, the sick and the tired and those sick of being tired. Following Jesus means giving of our time, our talents, and our resources, not just when it is convenient, but also when it requires a sacrifice on our part. It means working to bring justice in our community and in our world, economic justice, political justice, because all people are children of God.
So how will we respond to the bad news in our church, in our community, and in our world? Will we allow the complexity of the situation to cause us to become paralyzed? Will we allow our own fears and prejudices guide our choices and our actions? Or will we rely on our faith in Jesus Christ to live faithful lives of good news in a bad news world?
The earliest disciples amazingly left their nets, their boats, and their families to follow Jesus. They heard a call and they chose to obey it. It meant making radical changes to the direction of their lives. They followed Jesus even though they had no idea where Jesus would lead them. They were not given a road map for the journey; they just had to trust in Jesus. It meant being led from what was known and comfortable to what was unknown and could very likely be uncomfortable. And yet, they followed. They helped Jesus by preaching, by feeding the hungry, by caring for the poor, and by healing the sick. They demonstrated the good news by their words and by their actions.
Being a follower of Jesus is not a cheap commitment; the earliest disciples were willing to leave their careers and their families behind. God’s call is not always convenient. And the call of Christ has to be more important to us than our own careers and possessions and even our families. But making that commitment will bring an amazing payoff. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, the call to follow is a call to absolute discipleship, but it is only in surrendering ourselves to Jesus’ command that we ever know our greatest joy.
Are you willing to follow Christ? Can you learn to live out God’s good news in a bad news world? If you can, you will find that your life has meaning and purpose and direction, and that you are making a difference in the lives of those around you and in your world. It is the greatest adventure you could ever imagine.
