People are bad. Turn on your television, tune in your radio, scroll through your socials and it won’t take you long to discover people are just … bad. I used to think all the bad people lived in far off foreign lands. I mean, that’s where the gas chambers were built, that’s where mass graves are dug, that’s where woman and children are trafficked, and the drug cartels are headquartered. I used to think all the bad people lived far far away from us, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to continue believing that. Just this last week, 30 miles from where you are seated at this moment, a 14-year-old kid shot and killed 2 of his classmates and 2 of his teachers and injured 9 others. It made the news. It was heartbreaking footage to watch, but let’s be honest it wasn’t shocking. These days that kind of thing happens all the time. So far in 2024 there have been 432 shootings like the one that occurred at Apalachee High School. Bad people aren’t that far away at all. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone living near Auschwitz Germany woke up this morning turned on the news and thought to themselves, “In America there sure are a lot of bad people doing bad things”.
Bad people are living all around us, and no matter how bad they are, somehow it seems each year they manage to get worse. Doesn’t it feel that way to you? I’m curious, raise your hand if you think moral values in the world are in decline; raise your hand if you think people are going from bad to worse. O.K. put your hands down. Now raise your hands if you think moral values are improving; raise your hand if you think people are getting better, morally speaking. According to a recent Gallup poll 83% say they believe morals are in decline. That is a global opinion, by the way; the people of the world believe the people of the world are going from bad to worse.
There are bad people all around us and they seem to be getting worse. So why doesn’t God do something about it? Why doesn’t God come down and get rid of all the bad people? Wouldn’t this world be a better place without all the bad people? I mean aren’t you disgusted by it all; aren’t you fed up; aren’t you sick and tired of living in a world were bad people do bad things? You ever find yourself praying, “Come Lord Jesus, come!”; “Come and do something about all the bad people in the world.”
If such a prayer has ever seeped from your soul, you might be interested to hear what the prophet Isaiah writes in our lesson for today. In Isaiah 35:4 the prophet writes, “4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution.” In the previous chapter, chapter 34, the prophet gives a rather graphic description of what sort of vengeance and divine retribution God is capable of. There the prophet writes, “2 The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. 3 Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.” Well, that’s exactly what we want, right? We want God to come with vengeance and divine retribution; we want God to come and punish all the bad people; we want God to come and pay them back for all the bad they have done.
But exactly who are the bad people we want God to punish and payback? Well obviously, we want God to come with vengeance and divine retribution on those bad people who are responsible for genocide, human trafficking, and drug smuggling. That’s a good start but even if we get rid of all those people there are still more bad people that deserve vengeance and divine retribution. The world is full of murderers, rapists, and frauds. Such people are bad people. Don’t we want God to come to them with vengeance and divine retribution? Of course we do! But why stop there? There are still more bad people in the world. So let us pray, “Come Lord Jesus come, come with vengeance and divine retribution to the cruel, the hurtful, and the unkind?” “Come with vengeance and divine retribution to the vulgar, the profane, and irreverent?” “Come with vengeance and divine retribution to the gossips, the slanders, and backstabbers?” “Come with vengeance and divine retribution to the jealous, the envious, and the greedy?” “Come with vengeance and divine retribution to all the bad people in the world!?!” “Come Lord Jesus, come!” Right?
What’s wrong? Why do you look less disgusted than you did before? What happened to your righteous indignation about the bad people? Why are you no longer shaking your heads in disapproval? What happened to the condescending looks that were on your faces? Why do you seem less willing to pray “Come Lord Jesus come and bring vengeance upon and extract divine retribution from all the bad people!”? Does it have something to do with the realization that if God came to punish all the bad people and pay them back for all the bad things they have done then God would come to punish and payback you?
It's easy to be condescending about all the bad people and quickly condemn them for all the bad things they do until you remember you and I are the bad people. When we remember that, we are suddenly less excited and eager for God to come with vengeance and divine retribution. But regardless of our lack of eagerness and excitement Isaiah prophesied God would come. The prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time when God would come and do something about all the bad people in the world. He saw a time when the eyes of the blind would be opened, the ears of the deaf be unstopped, the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue would shout for joy. When we read the gospels, we see the time the prophet described. Jesus once told the disciples of John the Baptist, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”[1] We, have the benefit of looking back at the time the prophet looked forward to, and when we look back we see more than good deeds done for bad people.
We look back and see Jesus the Son of God come to become also the son of man. But Jesus is not like all the bad people of the world. Jesus is a good man. In fact, Jesus is better than good, He is perfect. Jesus is the only one who can rightly be disgusted, fed up, and sick and tired of all the bad people doing bad things. Jesus is the only one who has the right to be filled with righteous indignation. Jesus is the only one who has the right to shake His head in disapproval. Jesus is the only one who has the right look at all the bad people with disgust. Jesus has the right to bring vengeance upon you and extracted retribution from you. But that is not why Jesus came. Jesus came “to save you.”
Though He is the goodest of the good, He allowed Himself to be punished for the baddest of the bad. This good man allowed Himself to be abandoned by men, condemned by the church, and forsaken by God so that bad man and bad women like you and like me would not have to suffer the vengeance we deserved. This good man then offered His good life as payment for all the bad people in the world. The earth sook and the rocks split, darkness covered the land, and before He breathed His last breath the goodest of the good declared the debt of the baddest of the bad was paid in full. This good man has paid divine retribution for bad men and bad women like you and like me.
Jesus, the Son of God has come not to bring vengeance upon us and extract divine retribution from us, rather He has come to save us, and not just us but also all the people like us. I think that changes the way we look at the bad people around us, does it not? Surely our hearts still break when we hear about all the bad things that are done in far-off foreign lands and in our own backyards. Surely, we are disturbed that the world’s morality somehow seems to repeatedly go from bad to worse. But when we look at all the bad people doing all those bad things how can we be disgusted, fed up, or sick and tired of them? They are no worse than us; we are no better than them. How can we wish for God to come bring vengeance upon and extract divine retribution from the bad people of the world, when God in His grace has come to save bad people like you and like me? So, let us not be condescending and quick to condemn. Let us instead reach out to them and speak to them as one of them. Let us tell them about the vengeance and divine retribution bad people like us deserve. Then let us tell them about the one who was punished in our place and made payment for our sins so that bad people like us and like them could be saved. Let us say to them what the prophet has said to us, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will [has] come, he will [has] come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will [has] come to save you.” Amen
[1] Matthew 11:4-5