Blog
“When the Tree Is Dry”
Categories: M. W. Bassford, Meditations
Like many, I’ve been devoting a lot of thought recently to the Ahmaud Arbery shooting. I suppose it’s possible that exculpatory evidence might emerge from somewhere, but the video (recorded by a friend of the shooters, incidentally) appears damning. Based on what we know right now, it seems that an innocent man was murdered because he was black.
Is this where we are, in the year of our Lord 2020? 20 years ago, I would have told you that racism was on its way out in the United States. As soon as the last of the old segregationist coots died, it would rightly be consigned to history’s trash heap. That’s not the way that things have gone. Instead, American society seems to be becoming more tribal with each day, with the members of each race growing increasingly suspicious and afraid of each other.
Tragically, for the past decade, all of this has played out against a backdrop of steadily increasing prosperity. For the past 10 years, crime has been way, way down from the levels of previous decades. Unemployment has been way, way down. And yet, even in the midst of peace and plenty, far too many ears have been open to the divisive whispers of Satan.
No, I don’t think that most white Americans, and certainly not most white Christians, would do what the McMichaels did. However, you don’t have to spend too much time reading comments on self-defense forums and YouTube videos before you run across some that are subtly, snidely racist. Honest question for those who concealed-carry: when you think about the unthinkable, when you imagine a situation in which you have to use your weapon to defend yourself, in your mind’s eye, is your assailant black?
I don’t know what the answer is for you, but I know what the answer is for many because of what they’ve said online. Note again that this fear has arisen in a time of prosperity and low crime rates.
In Luke 23, as Jesus is carrying His cross to Golgotha, He stops to converse with a group of women who are weeping at His impending death. He tells them that they should be weeping for themselves, not Him, because of the tragedy that is coming upon Jerusalem. In v. 31, He wraps up His discourse with a rhetorical question: “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (CSB)
Various translations are all over the map about how to render this text, but the point appears to be this: If the Romans are willing to do this to an innocent man now, what will they be willing to do in a time of rebellion and lawlessness? Forty years later, during the Great Jewish Revolt, the Romans answered the question. Crucify Jews on the hills around Jerusalem until they ran out of wood, that’s what.
Times have been good. They are not likely to be good in future, and recessions are hard for everybody. Lots of folks out of work. Alcohol and drug problems way up. Crime rates through the roof. Politicians with extreme solutions suddenly getting a serious hearing.
If Ahmaud Arbery happens when the tree is green, what is going to happen when it is dry?
None of us can change the course of our country by ourselves, but we can change our own course. We can honestly examine our own hearts for ugliness and hatred aimed at somebody who was created in the image of God. We can be real with ourselves about the suspicion and fear we nurture, whoever we are, whomever we fear. We can be people who show the love of Christ to everybody, because Christ loves everybody.
The days may be growing increasingly dark, but that’s when Christians are supposed to shine brightest.
