Genesis and Matthew 33: Violence

So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham.

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. 

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Abraham looked to the east, to the west, to the north, and to the south. And all that he could see, God said, became his. Here was a barren region, completely unproductive, ignored, the domain of wanderers and the homeless. But it became the land of Abraham . . . a future site of a country populated by millions of people: the family of Abraham. 

The story of Abraham, beginning even before the Hebrew nation was launched, is steeped in violence. Bloodshed attended every forward step, it seems. But the territory now claimed by Abraham, belonged to no one before him. It was not stolen. It was not occupied. It was Abraham's. And the aspect of family took great root there. Nations are families grown very, very large. 

There is such a thing as owning land as property. There is such a thing as property. We can't help it. We want things that are our own. Any person, any child . . . anybody, of any age, wants that sense of possession, of pride. 

My toys. My hobbies. My job. My car. My health. My accomplishments. My talents. My family. 

There's nothing wrong with the word my. George Harrison sang about it, in the Beatles song I, Me, Mine. And yet, he rather enjoyed the fruits of his life's labors: his estate, and privacy, and money. Possessions are good. Individual traits are good. It can fill us with a sense of purpose, of pride. 

And nothing tops the sense of satisfaction one attains, when they stop wanting more. We should be happy with what he have. Possessions are wonderful. But they become a problem when we are more concerned with what we don't have, than what we have. 

That's where violence creeps in. 

The human condition descends into a violent state, unless it keeps its eyes firmly on forward movement, on thankfulness, on acceptance, on service, on spiritual things. 

When we enter eternity, I believe, we will be painfully embarrassed at our emphasis, in this life, on things, and not people. Even politicians that feign concern for the "needy" are only doing it to line their own pockets. 

John the Baptist was the simplest man ever. He posed no threat to anybody . . . except that he called out wrongdoing by others. He was a whistle-blower of the Jordan Valley. And wrongdoers, rather than fix the wrong, too often respond by hurting the whistle blower, making things worse for others, and for themselves. 

Property, wealth, want, poverty . . . doesn't matter. Violent people will find a way to be mad. And we seem stuck with that condition, until Christ returns.