Hearts of Stone
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12
“She needs to die.” With a slack jaw I sat in stunned silence unable to fathom what I was hearing. I work in a nursing home and our staff had just learned how a patient was, once again, in critical condition and had been hospitalized. As a patient in our nursing home for years, she had spent the time bedridden and needing dialysis twice a week. She enjoyed her routine however, talking to the staff and regularly watching the Beverly Hillbillies. “She has no quality of life,” my co-worker continued, “She needs to die!” I then retorted, “No she enjoys her routine, drinking her cranberry juice, and…” “No,” she interrupted, “She has no quality of life and she needs to die!”
I know on a theological level how wicked and lost our world is, but hearing a statement like this is deeply unsettling. To say someone who enjoys their life, and has learned contentment in the midst of seemingly unbearable circumstances, is somehow unfit to live, truly appalls me. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!1 This is what the Prophet Isaiah speaks to his own wicked generation. To say we know who should live, and who should die is essentially to say, “I am wiser than God, “I could do better than that fool in the sky!” Jesus declared, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts…“2 We have rejected God, and rejected His law, every man doing what is right in his own eyes, is the inevitable outcome of this and it is a bleak picture indeed. Although I dislike rampant speculation and careless proof-texting about the Last Days, seeing the increasingly evil hearts of my fellow man, gives me hope that the Lords return will be soon.
1. Isaiah 5:20
2. Mark 7:21-22
Amen!