Perspectives

Christian optimism

By Shane Legler
Posted 2/2/23

All things considered — we live in a very good place. Yet, it is impossible to shield ourselves from the general angst of our time. The prophets of doom are everywhere. They are even in the …

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Perspectives

Christian optimism

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All things considered — we live in a very good place. Yet, it is impossible to shield ourselves from the general angst of our time. The prophets of doom are everywhere. They are even in the church. These cynics and peddlers of despair tell us the world will be presently destroyed by manmade climate change or swallowed up in a nuclear inferno. 

If that weren’t bad enough, there are wars and rumors of wars. There is the threat of economic depression and global famine. Our borders are overrun, and a bunch of shady old guys seem to have been plotting world domination while vacationing in Switzerland. The whole world is always in our living rooms telling us how awful everything is. Is it any wonder we’re depressed?

Every generation faces hard times. It is impossible to live in this fallen world without facing the adversity that is common to man. Perhaps that is why we are always thinking that our times are always somehow worse than those who’ve gone before us. 

Yet, the Lord tells us, “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10). The truth is that every generation and every person born suffers in their own way.

Recently, I’ve been discussing the reign of Emperor Justinian of Byzantium with some students. Many have called his reign a golden age of Byzantium. He oversaw the building of the greatest cathedral in the world up to that time, rewrote the entire Roman law code, and won three major wars on three fronts, which nearly restored the empire to its old Roman footprint. He did this in the midst of a five-year mini-ice age that led to crop failure and famine all over Europe, the first outbreak of the bubonic plague that killed roughly a third of Europe, a major earthquake, rioting that actually burned a great deal of Constantinople to the ground, and waves of illegal immigrants pouring through the borders.

St. Benedict was a contemporary of Justinian. He was born just four years after the Ostrogoths took over management of the city of Rome. In the chaos of Italy during his time, he didn’t despair. Instead, he founded monasteries that served as schools, orphanages and hospitals to draw the people of his time, barbarian or Roman, to Christ. While Justinian’s general was fighting to get back control of Rome, Benedict was quietly doing the good work his Lord had called him to and preparing the next generation to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to observe all that Christ commanded (Ref: Matthew 28:19-20).

Though very different, both Justinian and Benedict shared a common Christian optimism. The thought of despair in dark times didn’t cross their minds. Despair and hopelessness are not in the Christian lexicon. Such things do not exist for those in Christ Jesus, as we know that our risen Lord lives and reigns at the right hand of the father, and he has given us work to do.

Remember the parable of the talents in Matthew 25? The master entrusted one of his servants with a talent, one with two talents, and one with five talents and went away. When he came back, the latter two had doubled what he gave them, but the first buried his in a hole. In other words, he was not about his master’s business, and the master told him as much when he returned and had him cast from his sight. The point of this parable was that we ought to all be ready to give an account when the Lord Jesus returns.

The believers of Justinian and Benedict’s time lived in the expectation of Christ’s sure return and worked accordingly. They didn’t worry about how horrible everything was or throw up their hands in the face of adversity. They simply proclaimed the hope of Christ crucified and risen, fed the hungry in his name, cared for the sick in his name, taught the ignorant in his name, took in orphans in His name, wrote books in his name, built buildings and cities in his name, repaired ruins in his name, and generally glorified God, each according to the talent they’d been given. 

Our times are different from former times, but they are not somehow uniquely dark or horrible. In fact, this is still a relatively good time and place to live in. Therefore, let God’s people focus on Christ rather than the storm. Let us lift the light of Christ high in this present darkness. Let us proclaim hope to the hopeless, liberty to the captive, joy to the sorrowful, and healing to the broken. Let the Lord find us faithful when he comes, for we have much to look forward to.

 

(Shane Legler is the pastor at Garland Community Church of God.)

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