Power Outage

Mark 10:17-22

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Rich Young Ruler

¹⁷ As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”...Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” ²² But at these words ^[a]he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property....

Load shedding.  “What in the world is load shedding?” I asked my South African husband after reading the term on a mutual friend’s facebook page.  As it turns out, load shedding is scheduled blackouts to prevent an overload on the power grid and total blackouts for the whole country.  According to most sources, it’s supposed to be a last resort.  South Africa has been using its “last resort” since 2008.  It appears that South Africa has only one main utility provider called “Eskom”.  Eskom at any given point will either say “there is no problem”, “wet coal is the problem”, “people using too much electricity are the problem” or “we cannot afford to fix the problem.”

Now, I’m not one to knock on the woes of a third world country, but it would appear to me, that if your country has the means and technology to host the “World Cup” of soccer, then someone there has to have the means to build more power stations.  But that’s when we get into the, the chicken or the egg discussion.  The power company says “we need money to build more power stations” and the government says “even if we did build more stations the power situation is so bad that we’d probably still need blackouts until we can be sure the electricity is distributed properly, so no. No more money for power.”  But, maybe I’m oversimplifying a complex system of underfunding, corruption and people basically not knowing how to do their jobs.

It sounds a lot like the discussion of poverty in America.  People cry out that poverty is a problem, a crime even, and other people shout out it’s a systemic problem and we have to fix the system before we can really help people in poverty.  “People are starving” some cry, only to get the response “We’ve got to teach them to fish so they can feed themselves.” All the while children in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, go to bed hungry. 

Is poverty a problem? Yes. Is it a systemic problem? Yes.  Should we feed some people for free, while others have to work hard for the food on their table? Yes.  Should we expect people to work hard and learn a trade so they don’t need the government’s assistance? Yes.  Apparently, third world mentalities hit home in the U.S.A. as well.  A problem that would seem to have any number of solutions, can’t be fixed because every solution has it’s own problem.

It’s kind of like sin. You can stop people from sinning in certain ways with laws and guilt, but there aren’t enough rules and laws in the world to stop all sin.  You can change people’s public actions as best as you can, but you can’t change their hearts.  You can love people from here to eternity, but you can’t make them recognize that a life of love and a Godly lifestyle are the best for them. We will always serve other gods, always embrace culture, always build idols.  It’s our nature.  Every solution to sin has it’s own problem whether it be too many rules, a hindrance to free will, or a decline in standards so that our sin doesn’t seem quite so…sinful.

But that is why Jesus actions leading all the way to the cross are so miraculous.  He showed us that, yes, you are sinners. Yes, your hearts have conformed to the ways of the world.  Yes, you will always make your own idols and make God’s of yourselves.  Yes, I love you. Yes you are worth saving. No, you cannot do this on your own. Yes, I will be the final solution to your sin.

The Son of God dying on the cross was the only answer to sin.  His sacrifice is our redemption.  His loss, our life. It is the only answer that doesn’t refute itself.  His death is the  only thing that can change our hearts and our lives. 

The only problem now is… who will share the solution? Yes, the world is lost and dying in sin…and if they reject Jesus, like the rich young ruler, they only have themselves to blame.  But, if they haven’t heard the answer, if they don’t know the solution, the "power outage" is our fault.