Parousia...Public Spectacle

A Public Spectacle

We live in a “gotcha” society that thrives on scandal.  The more salacious the details are the better.  Television programs want high ratings.  Newspapers want to increase circulation.  Websites long to engineer hits.  Politicians dig up dirt on their opponents.

Regardless of what motivates media outlets and power brokers, they are presenting only what we, the public-at-large, watch and listen to.  We long to hear all the dirty minutiae concerning our entertainment celebrities, governmental leaders, and religious icons.  Public spectacles of shame, embarrassment, and humiliation have become public sport.

We’d be well served to listen to the ancient Hebrew prophet, Obadiah.  He wrote to Israel’s brother, Edom.  When the conquering armies entered the gates of Jerusalem, Edom rejoiced at the calamity.  They watched on as Judah was ravaged. Outraged, Obadiah announces:

“But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother
      In the day of his captivity;
      Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah
      In the day of their destruction;
      Nor should you have spoken proudly
      In the day of distress.
      You should not have entered the gate of My people
      In the day of their calamity.
      Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction
      In the day of their calamity” (Obadiah 12-13)

Voyeurism watches on, taking perverse delight in the adversity of others.  It does not offer a helping hand, a word of encouragement, or a sigh of sympathy.  It does not turn away in order to allow people the dignity of privacy.  Instead, it simply gazes for the entertainment value.

There might be many interrelated cause of this, but one is that looking at someone else’s problems distracts us from looking at our own.  The public spectacle diverts us from addressing our own personal hurdles.

Related to public spectacles and our own difficulties, the Apostle Paul wrote about God’s work in Christ that disarmed the shame and sting of sin.  “God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:13-15).

God didn’t shame anyone for their sin; God showed publicly that sin has become powerless.  Through Christ’s death and resurrection, God decisively displayed that sin and its death hold no sway.

This week, you may be invited to look at the faults, failings, and foibles of others.  When this opportunity presents itself, consider Obadiah’s advice.  Do not gaze on the affliction of your brother or sister.  Instead, look at what God accomplished.  It stands as an eternal assurance for all to see that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward publicly as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood” (Romans 3:23-25).

Thank God.