Holy Confrontation

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

A few years ago, I picked up a book called Seven, which juxtaposed the deadly sins against the beatitudes. This book was rare in that its account of the deadly sins allowed me to see myself in all of them. I call this humble recognition. The result of this can be one of three things: wallowing in self-pity, complete apathy, or need for a way out.

Since coming to know the Lord I have learned one lesson repeatedly – I cannot be my own way out. If it’s up to me, I’ll fail all the time. I can be determined, I can be disciplined, I can even be enthusiastic, but the human will cannot will itself to do the things that only God can do. Amen?

So, in the book, it discusses the necessity for good to triumph over evil. But, when we look around we see a different landscape. We see evil winning the head to head match ups on a regular basis. It doesn’t appear that good is winning very often. This is a fallen world, one in need of a savior. And this is where the relevance of Advent and what it leads up to is so important to the human soul.

Because Jesus is born, lives a perfect life, offers it up in sacrifice, dies and rises three days later, good triumphs over evil. And, this is the source of our hope. This is our way out. In the birth of Christ we see a holy confrontation. Jesus has come. He is here to challenge the status quo and to triumph over evil.

In response, as Jeff Cook (author of Seven) says, “… (because of this) we have a reason to walk the hard roads where goodness often leads us. Such confrontations give us hope that, yes, the sacrifices we make, the passions we restrain, the drops of blood we give are not vanity but are marks of the complete and happy life.”

I guess I never really thought that sin would be so central to a focused advent. But, it is. And the rigor of the Christian walk is the very thing that excludes it from vanity and motivates us towards eternity.