If You, Being Evil …
Being evil is the domain of the morally corrupt, the particularly wicked; never you or I, it’s always someone else. Right?
Not so, according to Jesus.
One thing Jesus was not, and that was naïve about human nature. He gets us, but not in, as is popular, ‘he’s got your back.’ He may do, but this doesn’t near cover, ‘he gets us.’ The apostle John wrote as much after the crowd had put their faith in Jesus because of the signs he performed – “But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.”1 He gets us, all right!
Which brings us to what Jesus said to his disciples when he spoke of the love and goodness of God in answering prayer. It is to his disciples he said the following, not to the crowd, nor the Romans, nor the conspicuously evil. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”2
He calls us evil. Whether we read this as, essentially evil (which I suspect is the point), or partially evil, maybe even, given to the possibility of evil, it isn’t a compliment. What it is, is a rebuke to the popular belief that humankind is essentially good – given the right circumstances. No-one or any one era has ever given us the ‘right circumstances,’ and evil is as rampant today as it was in our past, so saying evil is an unfortunate anomaly is acting like a threatened ostrich.
History is a stark reminder that positivity and belief in the goodness of humans, is a graveyard of false expectations.
However, this isn’t all the story as Jesus also said they, the disciples, know how to give good things to their children. People are capable of love and generosity. It’s not all doom and gloom – bright spots are not uncommon. Parental love is, admittedly, instinctive, but not for this reason any less valuable.
Humankind is capable of great and wonderful good, whether inspired by faith or not. It can be argued that belief in Jesus Christ, inspires more good than atheism ever will, but to discount good from any sphere is unnecessarily cynical, aside from being not true.
People can do good, even bad people. But to insist that, therefore, people are inherently good is a bridge to far; we aren’t. The capacity for evil isn’t far from anyone.
One of the reasons we can’t quickly escape the reality of evil is that evil is personified, and not just in the actions of all, but because an evil being called Satan. It is why we will never be able to legislate good because an evil supernatural being exists, and he isn’t subject to our laws or wishes/philosophies.
It is because of this fact Jesus tells us to pray “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.”3 This prayer doesn’t have an expiry date. As long as I have breath this prayer will be prayed. It faces the reality of our entanglement in evil and the awful consequences of it. Evil isn’t just a principle; it is embodied in a being, and in humanity. Until Jesus places the last enemy under his feet, we will face the uncomfortable fact of personal and corporate evil.
Should we give up on good? Absolutely not. We aren’t totally helpless and hopeless. Human agency and accountability still matter. As we do good, we show the nature of the Kingdom of God that scripture says will one day cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.
In the meantime, give good things to your children.
1 John 2.24-25. NRSV
2 Matthew 7.11. NRSV
3 Matthew 6.13. NRSV