published: Dec. 14, 2012 | updated: December 15, 2012
What a sad day; Shootings in Connecticut1 where, so far, 20 students and 8 others (including the 20 year old culprit and his mother) confirmed dead from a senseless act. Another story overshadowed by the USA tragedy; 22 children ages six to twelve injured in a knife attack, and an elderly lady killed in China2 Today, we live in a world where life is no longer treasured; Children are no longer cherished; and most of all, God is no longer honored.
No wonder Christ’s heart broke under the weight of sin. Oh how He pleaded with God to take the load, the weight of this world off of Him. When our Saviour knelt in the garden preparing for the cross, when He looked forward in history and glimpsed all that we see today, all that transpired before us, and all that will transpire after these senseless acts, His heart ached for all of us.
I can only imagine how Satan must have tempted Christ to walk away from the whole thing. I envision something like this:
“You’re doing this for nothing; they will never give up their selfish ways and do what you want,” snides Satan.
“Why are you doing this? Walk away and save yourself, Jesus. They will never have gratitude for the magnitude of your suffering.”
“Don’t you understand…can’t you see that even when you showed yourself to them in the desert with Moses they rejected you? Don’t you remember that they chose an earthly king named Saul over you? They don’t care about you! Come on Jesus, even one of Your own closest friends, one of Your disciples who listened to You for three years has been conspiring and will betray You.”
Jesus lay prostrate that darkest of night on the cold ground. The night air hung heavy with dew. Jesus, pale and weak from the temptation, wrestled in ways we may never understand. Yet still, He chose to ignore His foe and waked all the way to Calvary so that some day He could take the righteous from such a wicked, heartless and calloused world. These senseless acts are not new, we just hear more and more about them because of the 24-hour news society we live in. “The human heart longs for sympathy in suffering. This longing Christ felt to the very depths of His being…How dark seemed the malignity of sin! Terrible was the temptation to let the human race bear the consequences of its own guilt, while He stood innocent before God.”3
Please pray for these families. Pray that they may find comfort in the One who looked through ages past and saw all these senseless acts. Pray that Christ our deliverer can restore their peace and their purpose. But most of all, that they can surrender their hearts and lives to Him.
Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you. “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore.” Revelation 1:18. I have endured your sorrows, experienced your struggles, encountered your temptations. I know your tears; I also have wept. The griefs that lie too deep to be breathed into any human ear, I know. Think not that you are desolate and forsaken. Though your pain touch no responsive chord in any heart on earth, look unto Me, and live. . . .
The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased. . . .
He who stilled the angry waves and walked the foam-capped billows, who made devils tremble and disease flee, who opened blind eyes and called forth the dead to life,–offers Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice, and this from love to thee.4
- http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/14/at-least-27-dead-in-shooting-at-connecticut-school/, accessed 2012-12-14 [↩]
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248054/China-stabbing-22-children-elderly-woman-stabbed-outside-primary-school-Chinese-knifeman.html , accessed 2012-14-12 [↩]
- Desire of Ages, pp74, Gethsemane [↩]
- Desire of Ages select quotes, read it here Desire of Ages [↩]