Occupy Tears Down, Jesus Builds Up

It turns out that the leaders of the Occupy Wall Street movement are anarchists. I recommend this article from The New Yorker if you wish to find out who they are and what they are all about. The anarchist movement does not have a good history in this country. An anarchist killed President McKinley. Anarchists want to tear down the institutions of our nation. They have a vague picture of the people running the country, but I’ve not been able to figure out how they plan to do this without any organizational structure. Anarchists also want to get rid of capitalism. Good luck on that one. The Communists tried the same thing, and now they are the greediest capitalists on the planet. Oh well, it turns out that I am not one of the ’99 percent’. I wish to build up our world, not tear it down.

Jesus preached revolution. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). But Jesus’ revolution was very different to the message preached by today’s revolutionaries. First, he did not support the tearing down of government institutions; “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21). He was not interested in reorganizing society. Jesus was interested in reorganizing people’s hearts. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Jesus wants to create a loving and supportive relationship with God in the hearts of everyone. Jesus wants to build us up with God at the center of our lives. And this process of building up does not happen in the world around us, it happens within us; “Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). And so Jesus came to change the world by changing us. The change starts inside of us and then spreads outward. Tearing down the structures of the world will not save the world. Building up the hearts of everyone with God’s love will.

The last few years I have felt a lot of anger towards our country’s institutions. And so the Occupy movement appeared very attractive at first. But now I’ve seen the bankruptcy of it. Only God’s love can save the world. Only God’s grace can repair the brokenness. Only God can build up all of the things that we have foolishly torn down.

God bless you,

Pastor Bill