Today has been a sobering day for the citizen’s of Ferguson, MO and the greater St. Louis area.
I don’t know if I have come across many blogs or Twitter users that have not had something to say about what we can learn about the rioting and protesting and judicial announcement surrounding the death of Michael Brown. Everyone has an angle; everyone has an opinion; most of us have a bias. And, granted, there are a myriad of lessons and meditations we need to have.
So I hesitate so say anything because so many have already said so much that is helpful. But I do want to make one contribution to the discussion and it is this: everything that has happened in Ferguson reminds me of how desperately our world needs the Gospel.
If you ever wanted evidence of how broken our world is it the last 24 hours. Seeing people go out of their minds because a grand jury didn’t go their way is evidence of a broken world. Hearing a step-father yelling for people to burn a building is evidence of a broken world. Blaming much of the violence and looting as evidence of racism is evidence of a broken world.
This world we live in is fallen. Ever since Eve decided to take that piece of fruit from the forbidden tree, we have had cycles of killing, pillaging, violence, jealousy, hatred, etc. And we will continue to see more Ferguson’s in years to come … until the Lord tarries.
And here is more bad news: if you watch any major news outlet, you will not hear them give any hope. No one is going to show you light at the end of the tunnel. They will glamorize and popularize the darkness. They will report the events of the day, give their biased opinion, debate the facts and conclusions, etc. But none of them – not MSNBC nor FOX nor CNN – will ever cast and give real hope to the citizens of Ferguson or the rest of us watching the events unfold on our TV’s. None of them will give us hope that the curse doesn’t have to dominate our lives. None of them will say, “The Gospel solves our fallenness.”
You see II Corinthians 5:21 tells us that Jesus took on our fallenness – or He became our fallenness – to reconcile us to God. He did not to make sure that the cursed world we live in could experience redemption. (And I am thankful He softened my hard heart and reconciled me to Himself!)
The Gospel is the one truth you will not hear many people talk about right now in the middle of this Ferguson mayhem.
What Ferguson needs is the Gospel. What the grand jury needs is the Gospel. What Michael Brown’s family needs is the Gospel. What the St. Louis and Ferguson police departments need is the Gospel. What the civil rights leaders need is the Gospel.
We don’t just need more laws in our court systems or better training for police affairs or more cameras mounted in squad cards. We need more of the Gospel. We need more hope to be shared and proclaimed and prayed for.
People need to know they don’t need to be enslaved to their sin any more. They can be freed from it (Rom 6:18).
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
Some other blog posts on today’s events that I would recommend reading at your leisure (in no particular order) would be:
- Kevin DeYoung – “A Prayer for Ferguson”
- Thabiti Anyabwile – “The Ferguson Grand Jury Has Given Us Our Marching Orders”
- Russell Moore – “Ferguson and the Path to Peace”
Worldly Saints 