Everywhere you look these days there is violence to be seen and heard. It is truly a violent world we live in and it’s been that way since the beginning of time when Cain killed his brother Abel. The Bible is full of violence (read the Old Testament) and Jesus Himself was the victim of extreme violence. When will it end, you ask? Unfortunately, as long as the human race is alive and well, there will be violence; there will always be the perpetrator and the victim. I remember watching the opening scene of the movie 2001 Space Odyssey; there were two tribes of human like ape creatures rummaging for food in a rocky valley full of dry bones. The two tribes just happen to run into to each other and immediately the male leader of each tribe starts to demonstrate violent behavior trying to scare the other tribe away from the hunting grounds. One male leader inadvertently grabs this huge leg bone from the ground and starts swinging it around as part of his violent demonstration. He accidentally hits the other male leader on the head who falls on the ground holding his head. The male leader with the leg bone continues to hit the other male leader until he stops moving. Suddenly, the victorious male leader throws the leg bone in the air and you see it rotating in slow motion. The next thing you see is a spaceship shaped like a leg bone rotating slowly in outer space. The implication is that no amount of modernization is able to eliminate violent human behavior.Technology is not the antidote to what unfortunately lies at the very core of our being. The only antidote I am aware of is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who Himself the victim of violence had these words to say to His perpetrators, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus also in the Garden of Gethsemane told Peter to put his sword away and then had the audacity to heal the person Peter struck with his sword trying to protect Jesus from the perpetrator who was coming to take Him away. The words and actions of Jesus are the only antidote to violence I know that can change a person from the inside out. The question is, are we willing to follow in His footsteps and allow that change to take place?
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