Good News for 2016: Finding Hope in a Discouraging Election Cycle

Odds are, regardless of your party affiliation, you’re not excited about either major party’s presidential candidate. I’m not. There’s a lot not to like. A year ago, it was easy to poke fun at the comical bizarreness of it all. Now that the general election is upon us, it’s getting harder to laugh. We’re all coming to terms with fact that, like it or not, one of these two maniacally dishonest, power-hungry narcissists is going to be occupying the most powerful office in the land. Our comedy has become a tragedy.

As reality continues to set in, the rhetoric from our friends and neighbors grows increasingly frantic. It resembles the panic that overwhelms cattle when they realize they’re in line for slaughter.  Not long ago, it was easy to eat grain and drink water and chew cud and soak up the sun on the hillside and not give much thought to the future. But, when the smell of blood fills your nostrils and you’re next in line and you’re stuck in a chute with no way out and no way back, things look a little different.

As with the cattle, the panic is largely justified. We’re concerned for the future. What will become of our nation? Our liberties? The constitutional guarantees that we hold dear? Will we be kept safe? Will we become the victims of fruitless and unnecessary wars? What about the national debt? What about social security? What about healthcare? Will our children and grandchildren be afforded the same opportunities that we once knew? Or will they be robbed of our national birthright by some smooth (or not-so-smooth) talking demagogue?

These are worthwhile questions. Ones we should have opinions about. And it’s entirely justifiable to be angry about the prospect of losing things we all ought to hold dear. But I can’t answer these questions. I can’t tell you who to vote for. And I don’t see much point in trying.  I would just as soon offer you advice on which bull you should choose to stomp and gore you to death. Look, if not-being-gored is not an option, then I can’t see where I (or anybody else) can offer you much help. (Not sure why I’m so into cattle metaphors today.)

No, I’d like to offer hope of a much different kind. Dr. Johnson once said, “when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Often this quotation is abbreviated to a sort of proverb: “Death concentrates the mind.” This is true. Many of us have observed this truth in action in the lives of loved ones. In the face of a devastating medical diagnosis, for instance, we gain perspective. When the end is near, things of supreme value come into sharp focus while frivolous things fade into meaningless periphery.

We all know this. It’s a common theme in literature. Cliché as it may be, there’s still something sobering about the thought of old Ebenezer Scrooge, friendless, childless, wife-less Scrooge, weeping at the sight of his cold, lonely, neglected tombstone.  

This idea – the sobering power of death – has been carefully considered by thinking people of all times. From Plato to the Stoics to Moses, who captured the thought beautifully in the 90^th Psalm:

The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

So teach us to number our days,

That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

This was the very same idea behind the ancient memento mori custom, where victorious Roman generals were inoculated against the temptation of inordinate pride by the quiet admonition to “remember death.” All of our accomplishments, our aspirations, our occupations, are called into proper perspective by the contemplation of death. The prospect of “the end”, of the unavoidable loss of all that we so desperately cling to, sobers us and allow us to carefully assess where we ought to direct our best efforts and our most careful attention.

Having read thus far, you’re probably thinking, “What kind of hope is this? We have a miserable election cycle and we’re supposed to feel better after being reminded that we’re all going to die?!” (It reminds me of Westley’s line from atop the castle wall: “My brains, his steel, and your strength against sixty men, and you think a little head-jiggle is supposed to make me happy?”) I get it. I haven’t offered much so far. (And actually, the news gets worse before it gets better.)

I want to apply Dr. Johnson’s principle on a wider scale. As long as this election is such a dismal one, why not use this opportunity to reflect on what is most important? Where should we be directing our time and attention? Where can we find hope in the face of such disappointment? Now I don’t want to carry this too far. I don’t mean to imply that this election necessarily constitutes the death of our nation. I can’t know that; I’m not a prophet. But, there is good reason to be concerned for the future. And it does look like we stand to lose an awful lot of things that we hold dear.  

So, where can we turn? Where can we find hope? What can we do to secure a bright future for our children and grandchildren? To find the answer, we need to look at our most dire problem of all, something that runs much deeper than undesirable political candidates. If this election shows us anything, it is that humans are deeply flawed. There’s something wrong with us. The evidence surrounds us. It’s easy to look with disgust at Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. But let’s remember that they were put there by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who voted for them. Many stand by them still.

The simple truth is that humans are messed up. To use biblical language, we’re sinful. By sinful I mean that we are all prone, by nature, to do that which we know is wrong. We all routinely violate the moral standards that we claim to hold dear. This strikes us as offensive. Yet, it’s true. Our whole way of life is structured around its truth. Why do we have locks on our doors? Why do we have courts of law? Why do we have alarm systems, security cameras, police departments, fact checkers, loss prevention specialists, military forces, contracts, and treaties? Why do we have a Federal Bureau of Investigation or Child Protective Services? Why have so many been forced to cope with the difficulties of a broken home?

We live with the constant awareness that people do bad things. If we can’t deny this truth, then we try to escape it by deflecting attention to those we view as worse than ourselves: “I’m a pretty good person. I haven’t murdered anybody.” But comparison can’t change reality. A man with Stage 3 liver cancer would be correct in pointing out that there are men with Stage 4 liver cancer.  But does it follow, then, that the less-severely afflicted man should not seek treatment? He’s still got an extremely serious, life-threatening condition.

Perhaps you’re saying, “Fine, we all do bad stuff. But that’s just the way things are. That’s life.” Not really. Just the opposite, in fact - it’s death. Our sinfulness is a death sentence worse than any cancer diagnosis. The Bible reveals that God is absolutely just. And after we’ve lived our lives, we will meet Him as our Judge. God will have no choice but to render a guilty verdict for all sinners. And His justice will demand that we be punished for our sin. (The apostle Paul explains in the New Testament book of Romans that the just penalty for our sins is death, including separation from God in hell.) This is bad news for us all, because we are all sinners. This is what I mean when I say that sin is a death sentence.

At this point, many of us reflexively begin to justify ourselves by offering up the good things we’ve done as a counterbalance to our failings: “If there is a God, then I hope He will let me into heaven because my good outweighs my bad.” But this is no good either. The two categories are unrelated. No just judge can let an offense slide because of the defendant’s do-gooding. Can you imagine a judge permitting a serial rapist to go free because of prior volunteer work at a soup kitchen? That would be an outrage, an affront to our God-given sense of justice. The judge’s question is simple: has the law been violated? If so, justice demands punishment. Good deeds don’t enter into it. To offer your good deeds as a counterbalance to your sin would be like our cancer patient offering up his well-groomed fingernails and good dental hygiene as evidence that he’s actually in quite good health. Those things may be nice, but they have no bearing on the urgent and deadly danger he is facing.

In the same way, the question for each of us is simple: have we violated God’s law? The easiest way to answer this question is by having a look at God’s ten commandments. Even a cursory glance reveals that nobody’s going to make it. We’ve all lied. We’ve all stolen. We’ve all valued material things over the God who gave us life. And, lest you think you’re doing ok on the big ones, Jesus taught that, in God’s eyes, to lust is to commit adultery in your heart, to hate is to be guilty of murder. You see, God doesn’t just see what we do, he sees what we think, what we want, what we fantasize about. He sees what we would do if we could get away with it. So it’s no wonder that we’ll be declared guilty.

At this point, things don’t look good. We’re all guilty and we’re all powerless to do anything to change that fact. Bad news, right? Well, I’ve got some good news. You may have heard Christians talk about “the Gospel.” The word “gospel” simply means “good news.” And the Gospel is very, very good news. Here’s the basic message: God recognized our total helplessness. He knew that, left to ourselves, we’re hopelessly lost. So He sent Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, to die in our place. That’s what the cross is about. Jesus wasn’t a nice guy who messed with the wrong people and got Himself killed. The cross was God’s plan all along.

When Jesus died on the cross, He was offering Himself as the direct fulfillment of hundreds of Old Testament prophecies about a coming Messiah, a Savior for all the peoples of the world. King David, writing 900 years before Jesus (and before the invention of crucifixion), prophesied that Jesus’ hands and feet would be pierced, that He would be mocked by the crowd, and that bystanders would gamble for His clothes (Psalm 22). These predictions (and so many more) were fulfilled in striking detail.

The prophet Isaiah (writing 700 years before Jesus) did more than predict the physical details of Jesus’ death. He gave us a window into what Jesus would accomplish by His death. Isaiah writes hauntingly in his 53^rd chapter:

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

Isaiah recognizes that we are all sinners, that we all “like sheep have gone astray.” Yet he doesn’t leave us hopeless. He promises a Savior who will lay down His life in our place. He explains that this Savior will bear the guilt of our sins (our “iniquities,” our “transgressions”) on Himself. Bear in mind that this incredible text was penned 700 years before Jesus lived.

The apostle Paul, in his landmark text on the significance of Jesus’ death, reveals that this promise was fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus bore the weight of our sins on Himself:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

This is what Christians mean when they talk about Jesus “dying for our sins.” He offered himself as our substitute. He took the penalty for our sins. He died in our place, took the death that we deserved. We were next in line on death row and Jesus stood up and said, “I’ll go instead.” Three days later, Jesus proved the truth of His identity by His resurrection from the dead. It was the unexplainable fact of the empty tomb of Jesus Christ that launched Christianity in the world.

Here’s the best news of all: God doesn’t ask us to try to earn the benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice. He doesn’t require that we keep seven sacraments or five pillars or offer sacrifices or celebrate certain days. He doesn’t want us to try to jump through hoops and struggle and work to earn forgiveness. In fact, he only offers salvation to those who are willing to give up on all the self-effort. God’s grace is like a lifeboat: you can only be saved by it if you’re willing to forsake the idea that you can make it on your own. If you’re going to be rescued by a lifeboat, you must acknowledge that your water-treading skills aren’t going to cut it. You need to give up on the self-effort and get into the boat. You need help from beyond; you need something that you can’t provide for yourself. You need access to resources that you simply don’t possess.

So it is with the Gospel. God simply asks for our faith. He calls us to be willing to turn from our sin, to turn from self-trust and simply say, “Yes, I believe Jesus died for me. And I’m trusting Him to save me from my sin.” When a person chooses to place their faith in Jesus, a lot of incredible things happen. Our broken relationship with God is reconciled. Our sin debt is forgiven. We’re given the unshakable hope of a heavenly inheritance. We’re redeemed from the dominating power of sin. We’re given new spiritual life from within.

This is why Christians get so excited about Jesus. Jesus changes everything. Jesus frees us from the power of our sin. He delivers us from that part of ourselves that we hate. He reconciles us to God. Jesus gives us new life. He guides us and grows us and cares for us. He opens our eyes to the beauty all around us. He helps us to change in ways we always wanted to but never could. Jesus gives us victory over death. He enables us to love people that seem unlovable. He equips us to do good to everyone we meet. Jesus gives us confident hope for the future. Jesus delivers us from the shame of our past. Jesus makes us part of an awesome, eternal family where everyone is wanted and loved and everyone has a vital role to fill.

And here’s what I really want you to grasp: None of these awesome benefits are affected by the ups and downs of this crazy life. Jesus gives you new life and confident hope and all the Trumps and Clintons in the world can’t take it from you. If you’ve come to Jesus in faith, your life is secure in the hands of your Creator. He promises to care for you, to prepare a place for you and, one day, to make all things right and establish a kingdom where there’s no room for political hucksters. He promises that evil will be punished, that all wrongs will be righted and that justice and peace will prevail eternally.

So if you’re looking for answers; if you’re looking for hope for your children and grandchildren; if you’re looking for someone you can really trust, someone whose integrity you can stake your life on; if you’re looking for someone who really has your best interest in mind; if you’re looking for someone who will deliver on their promises, I’d ask you to investigate the claims of Jesus Christ as revealed in the New Testament. Read the Gospel of John. You owe it to yourself. Consider the state of our nation, of our world. Consider the brevity of life.

Politicians will always let you down. Jesus never will.