This week a college student coolly, cruelly and deliberately murdered thirty-two fellow students and professors at Virginia Tech University. Scores of others were injured. He then killed himself. In a video he said that the school and the wealthy victimized him. Angrily he denounced them and explained that the shootings were their fault. Something dark in this person set off his worst deeds, an unimagined horror for the affected families. Some say that he was mentally ill and unbalanced. Who is to argue that point? But I have known mentally ill and unbalanced persons and they have never wished harm upon others. What propelled this human being off on a course of inhuman destruction? The more I listen to what is said of him and what he said, I keep thinking of the philosophy of nihilism or nothingness. This is a belief that says human life is meaningless. We are a cosmic accident in a cold, impersonal universe. Beyond this existence there is nothing. There is nobody home in heaven. There is no God. There is no justice. There is no future. Right and wrong is no more than what we have the courage to decide for ourselves. Once a soul believes this maxim, only protest remains. It may rage against the nothingness by doing something incredibly sacrificial or insanely deplorable. Cho Seung-Hui chose the latter and people who deserve better weep.
Toward the end of his earthly life, John the Apostle peered with aged eyes into the misty realm of eternity. The glimmer of a distant celebration glowed back through the fog of temporal time. He wrote that I heard the living things in creation-everything that lives in the air, and on the ground, and under the ground, and in the sea, crying, “To the One who is sitting on the throne and to the Lamb, be all praise, honor, glory and power, for ever and ever. (Verse 13)” When this frail, old man looked with all of the faith he could muster upon the surrounding universe, he saw beyond the blank spaces into the starlight of a glorious meaning. He recognized an eternal order to what is and what will be. And it thrilled his heart. I hope that in your reflection upon the meaning of life that you escape any ‘nihilistic’ conclusions. I hope that you arise and walk with eager expectation into a divine order for who you are and what you are to be. I hope that you can see with countless others two vital truths for living life with purpose and expectation.
First, remember there is a throne. “Unto him that sits upon the throne be blessing, honor, glory and dominion forever and ever!” There is a throne or a moral order to the universe. We are not left to ourselves to determine what is right and what is wrong. Human history has an editor who judges the wrong and accents the right. No greater vision is found in the Bible than that of Isaiah when he testified that I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. The foundations upon which I stood shook at his voice. And I saw that the whole earth was full of His glory (Isaiah 6). We are not left to the cold, indifferent drone of nothingness. Our existence is defined by a divine glory that emits from the throne of God’s holy presence. However such belief and affirmation does not rule out cruelty and evil. It does rule out suffering and tragedy. But it does rule in vindication of what is right. It does rule in a day when the wrong shall be righted and the evil judged and banished (Revelations 21:3-4). A month ago, I was cleaning out our storage house when I heard strange whimpers. I looked about and discovered two small puppies whose eyes had not opened and they were doing their best to crawl on the open ground. Their mother was nowhere to be found. She would not return. They were cold and near dying. Their intense cries searched for a benevolent being. They found me or I found them. They are now in shelter. But why did I bother with these helpless creatures? What could they do for my existence and me? Why not let them die and get their ‘tough to get started’ life over? I cared because someone somewhere beyond me cared. His creatures cried to Him and together their cry reverberated to me. I cared because He who sits on the throne of the universe has saved me and made me once again a caring human. God has restored my humanness and therefore I am compelled to live my humanity regardless of the inhumanity about me. I must care and likewise you must care for the poor, for the lonely, for the weak, for sufferer, for the lost, for the erring, for the hostile and for the creation. We must care because He who sits upon the throne cares. We are not orphans in a universe that has forgotten us. There is a throne and righteousness is its scepter (Psalm 89:14)! If I commit a felony on a faraway planet and never answer for it in a human court, there is a throne. If commit the perfect crime and escape detection, there is a throne. If I perform great good and receive evil for it, there is a throne. If I do good and no one remembers, there is a throne. The throne rules for us and for the world.
Second, remember there is a Name to live by. “Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory and blessing (Verse 12).” The lamb is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, even Jesus Christ (John 1:29). In his video, Cho Seung-Hui mentioned that Jesus was cruelly victimized on a cross. He went on to say that the university had victimized him and that he was justified in vindicating himself at his fellow students expense. It is as if he claimed that Jesus Christ died for nothing and that if Jesus could have he too would have killed his tormentors. But the record of Jesus is otherwise, saying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34)” Jesus was formable because he was forgiving. Jesus was a giant because he was gentle. Jesus was huge because he was humble. Jesus was great because he was gracious. Jesus was larger than life because he loved even his tormentors. You and I need a Name to live by. We need a Name bigger than Glock, bigger than F-16, bigger than Wall Street, bigger than PHD, and bigger than USA. We need a name bigger than life and bigger than us. We need a name bigger than our hate. We need a name bigger than our failures. We need a name bigger than our knowledge. We need a name bigger than our mortality. We need a name bigger than war, tyrants, greed, and evil. We won’t find that name on the athletic field, in the classroom, at the bank, in the Congress, or in Hollywood. But we can find it here in the church, in the Bible and in faith. There is only one name of such honor and his name is Jesus Christ.
The Austrian novelist, Franz Kafka, once wrote a short story of person who wanted to enter the door of a great mansion. However he never tried to enter because its doorman was large and intimidating. On his deathbed he called for the doorman and asked why he had always blocked him from entering the mansion door. The doorman replied, “I didn’t keep you out. I was there to serve you. I would have been more than glad to open the door for you, but you never asked to come in.” I believe that too many people live life as if it is a closed, locked door. To them life seems ‘a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing.’ But there is significantly more to our existence than the eye can see and ear can hear. There is an exit out of the nothingness into eternal meaning. Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find boundless fields of life. (John 10:9)” There is a throne and there is a Name to live by.
Dr. Gerald A. Little is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bainbridge, Georgia.
