The struggle between good and evil often gets confused with a struggle between evil and evil. So we have phrases like “a lesser evil” as if to justify our acceptance that fighting evil tends towards using a lesser evil to counter a greater evil. Would it not be possible to simply overcome evil with good, and not have to resort to using evil to counter evil? Sometimes there is no cure for one evil than another evil, and sometimes it seems the cure is worse than what is cured. Leaders, shepherds, have to fend off evils somehow, and many are prone to using methods too unfair to the vulnerable. The poor become poorer, and fail to thrive under such leaders, like sheep and lambs made unhealthy by their unworthy, neglectful shepherd. To find a worthy shepherd is hard, and often unsuccessful. God has this ultimate unhappy task of finding decent shepherds for His hapless sheep. He condemns unworthy shepherds, but sometimes lets them continue their low grade work for lack of alternative, or perhaps when the sheep have by their wandering away angered their God. So into this backdrop we are blessed to have a worthy shepherd, a good shepherd, set aside by God for the ultimate time when the evil is to be finally overcome with good. God saves the best till last. Just a few decades and this good shepherd will come. The Christ. Having laid down his life for the sheep once and for all at his first coming, raised from the dead to ascend to the Father, he awaits the Father’s signal to return again. How does he overcome evil in a good way? He teaches the evil doer that their ways are evil, even though they hated him for it and crucified him out of that hatred. He leaves his word as sayings to be learned and persisted by those who believe in him and uphold his teachings, so these teachings can still be levelled at the evil doers through the ages and now today. Lies are evil. Murders are evil. Those practising such things are children of evil, not children of God. Biological descent and heritage make no difference. It is how we behave that determines what we are. His teachings can make the evil receiver of them good. Like a rebirth. But it takes first a confidence in Jesus being the good shepherd, sent by God, and secondly a deliberate effort to keep persistent hold on his teachings, so they take effect long term. No turning back. It is not a temporary cure, but needs to be integrated into our lives permanently. God has no temporary children. Temporary status is for slaves, not for children. Can it be a cure for evil today? It depends. If there is unbelief, and hardening against this high regard of Jesus, ignoring him as irrelevant, or simply insisting he is just as bad as the unworthy shepherds, then his teachings have no effect. The evil stay evil. The liars stay liars until they die. The murderers stay murderers. They die in their sins. But to those who believe, his teachings offer a way of escape from the clutches of such evil ways. Christ died for you. His sacrifice of his own life is as a lamb sacrificed by God for your sins. This is a new covenant available to you if you will believe and hold to it. And it leads to eternal life. It is the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Christ is alive for you.
