Katrina and the Kingdom of God
2 Amens
© Eric M Schumacher - September 4, 2005
A few weeks ago, as I preached on Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament, I encouraged you to read all of the Bible as a story about Jesus Christ. One application of that is learning to view all of life in light of that storyline—it is called having a ‘biblical worldview.’
As the massive devastation left by Hurricane Katrina is fresh in our minds, I want us to attempt to view this event through the lens of Scripture. I want us to ask, “Where do hurricanes fit in the Christ-centered storyline of the Bible? Where do they come from? How should we respond to them?” To do that, we will begin with creation.
In the Beginning
The book of Genesis tells us that man was created to rule the earth. Genesis 1:28 tells us that after God created man in his own image, God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Together, Adam and Eve were to “fill the earth and subdue it.” Man was to exercise dominion over the created order.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews (2:6-8) quotes from Psalm 8 when he says, “It has been testified somewhere, ‘What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.’” Then, he comments, “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”
So, when we face situations like a tsunami or Hurricane Katrina, we have to ask an obvious question—If God has created us to have dominion over all of creation, then why are there hurricanes and earthquakes? Why don’t we see everything in subjection to us?
To answer the question, we need to look only a little farther in Genesis. In Genesis 2:15, after God created Adam, God placed Adam in the Garden and commanded him “to work and keep it.” Adam was to care for the Garden, to protect it from enemies, to make sure no harm came to it. So, when a serpent enters the Garden and tempts Eve to eat of the fruit that God had forbidden, we naturally expect Adam, the worker and keeper, to step in, subdue the serpent, and exercise dominion. Rather, Adam passively stands by as Eve listens to the serpent and eats of the fruit. Adam follows suit, and deadly consequences follow.
The Wages of Sin
Regarding this forbidden tree and its fruit, God had told Adam, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” There would be consequences for sin. The wages would be death (Rom. 6:23). Sin would disrupt the relationship between man and God, as Adam and Eve are sent out of the Garden. Sin would disrupt the relationship between man and woman, as sin will lead her to desire against him, as sin leads him harshly rule over her.
Sin would also disrupt the relationship between man and the world that God created them to rule over together. God had told Adam and Eve to “fill the earth and subdue it.” Filling the earth would now be painful, as God tells Eve that the pain of childbirth will be multiplied. Listen to what happens to the relationship between creation and man, as God speaks to Adam, in Genesis 3:17-19:
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Adam would not exercise dominion, so creation was subjected to a curse. In other words, God is saying that the task of subduing and exercising dominion over creation will now be much more difficult. Thorns and thistles will grow now. Creation will not cooperate; it will work against Adam. Filling the earth and subduing it, exercising dominion, will be painful work.
All Creation Groans
The Apostle Paul describes the results of the curse in Romans 8:20-23:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Creation groans under the curse of sin wanting to be redeemed. Hurricanes, floods, tornados, earthquakes exist because creation was “subjected to futility” and is in “bondage to decay” because of the curse of sin. Hurricane Katrina is creation groaning under the burden of sin, crying out for the day when it will be “born again.”
Hurricanes are part of the wages of sin. As Russ Moore recently put it, “The CNN meteorologists can explain the hurricane only in terms of barometric pressure and water temperatures. We know, however, that at its root this natural disaster isn’t natural at all. It is a creation crying out, ‘Adam, where are you?’”
Who Will Free Us From This Cosmos of Death?
The Apostle Paul once cried out (Romans 7:24), “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” We might well cry out, along with
For the answer to that question, we can turn to Mark 4:35-41:
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?"
I used to read this passage and interpret it as meaning “Jesus is God, so I should trust in Him.” Both those points are entirely true, but I think that Jesus (and Mark) were trying to show us something more specific than “Jesus is God.” We are seeing that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised redeemer of creation.
Jesus the Messiah is the greater Adam who exercises the dominion that the first Adam would not. Where Adam’s failure brought thorns and thistles, the Messiah exercises dominion over creation (Mark 4:35-41). Where Adam failed to subdue and cast the demonic serpent out of the Garden, Jesus exercises dominion over demons (5:1-20), casting them out of a man, into pigs, and over a cliff. Where Adam’s failure brings decay and death to our bodies, Jesus heals a hemorrhaging woman and commands a dead girl to come back to life, showing that the Messiah exercises dominion over sickness (5:21-34) and death (5:35-43).
The Already & the Not Yet.
Of course, this begs a further question: If Jesus is the promised Messiah who will redeem the cosmos and exercise dominion, then why do we still have hurricanes? The answer is, we still have hurricanes because we live in the age of the already and not yet.
The Kingdom is God’s saving reign in Christ. While this saving dominion has come with Christ’s arrival (Matthew 12:28), its fullness will be seen when He comes again (Matthew 25:31-34), which is why we who already possess the Kingdom (Matthew 5:3, 10), still pray “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10). Christ’s kingdom is seen already in things such as the sending of the Holy Spirit and the redemption of His people. Yet, we still await what is not yet, the overthrow of death, the resurrection of our bodies, and the making of a new cosmos.
What is “not yet” will come with Christ’s return. We are told in 1 Corinthians 15:23-28 that at Christ’s return, he will “destroy every rule and every authority and power,” he will “put all his enemies under his feet,” the last enemy being death. He will subdue the earth and have dominion over it. He will raise us from the dead, conquering even death. Having perfectly subdued and exercised dominion over the world, he will then hand the kingdom over to His Father.
The End of Hurricanes
In the end, what will this Kingdom, this saving dominion of Christ look like? The old earth will pass away, along with the sea (and its hurricanes). Death, crying, mourning, pain will have passed away, for Christ will make all things new. Listen to the promise of Revelation 21:1-5:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
The Kingdom will be a New Heaven and a New Earth, free from the sorrows of the curse, where the redeemed people of God dwell with their bridegroom and their God.
The New Cosmos will be under the dominion of Christ and free from the curse of sin. For,
Revelation 22:3 says, “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” There will be no curse there, because the Lamb, unlike Adam, will exercise dominion as He sits on the throne.
But what about us? What about man? What will we do? After all, we were created in the image of God to fill the earth, subdue it, and exercise dominion over it! Revelation 22:4-5 states that we, his servants, “will reign forever and ever.” At long last, our creation purpose, will be fulfilled as we reign with Christ. We, the redeemed people of Christ, are the rightful rulers of creation. At the resurrection, we will assume our thrones to reign with the King. We will stand with our living Redeemer and exercise dominion in the new world.
It is on that day and in that world that hurricanes and all such consequences of the curse will be destroyed and gone forever. But, as we wait, how shall we respond when such tragedies strike?
So, How Should We Respond to Hurricane Katrina?
We should respond to Hurricane Katrina...
1) ...with hope-filled homesickness.
We are filled with hope, because as Hebrews 2:9 states, while we do not see everything under our feet now, “we see...Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.” This gives us hope because, as Romans 6:5 tells us, “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” If we know with certainty that Christ has died for our sins on
Hurricanes should make us homesick. They should remind us that, like Abraham and the saints before us (Hebrews 11:10, 13-16), we are strangers and exiles in this world. We are the true refugees. This is not the world in which we belong. We are now looking for our home, which is an indestructible (hurricane-proof) city, whose designer and builder is God, in a better, heavenly country. Until that day comes, we are not home. As Russ Moore (originally of
2) ...with compassion and generosity.
In 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, Paul boasted of the Macedonian saints whose “abundance of joy and extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity” when fellow believers were in need. Though they were dirt-poor, they gave beyond their means, “begging earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.”
As we experience rising fuel prices and anticipate high heating costs this winter, we should not allow ourselves to be selfish when we hear of the hundreds of thousands of people in need. When we see our brothers and sisters in Christ in the South who have lost everything, we dare not withhold our goods so that we can assure ourselves of the luxuries of a warm church building (something the New Testament never requires that we have). For that matter, we ought to examine how we are living (and giving) in light of the fact that the living conditions now experienced in the hurricane-racked regions of the South are little different from the conditions faced by a multitude of Christians around the world every day. We ought to fear falling under the condemnation of James 5:3, “Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.”
3) ...with a call to repent and believe in Jesus the Messiah.
Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in
When disaster struck, Jesus did not seek us to search for a specific sin or level of unrighteousness that must have brought this devastation. The secret things belong to God. Rather, he exhorted us to “repent”, lest we perish in the same manner.
In that same article, Russ Moore comments, “The hope after Katrina is not for civil defense and architectural rebuilding. It is for
Hurricane Katrina is God’s judgment; it is the result of the curse of sin. Nevertheless, it is also God’s grace. Hurricane Katrina, like all sickness and suffering, is less than we deserve. It is a warning of the destruction that awaits all those who do not obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There were people in
We must not allow our souls to grow numb to the warning of suffering and death. We should flee from the wrath to come. For the fury of God’s wrath in hell will make Hurricane Katrina look like a gentle, spring breeze.
Fortunately, there is a rock of refuge from that coming hurricane. We have a Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who has been crucified for our sins, bearing in his body the wrath of God, the curse of sin. He has been raised from the dead, victorious over sin, death, and devil, able to give life to all who will come to him. If we have cast ourselves upon the rock of Christ Jesus, then we are covered by the hand of God’s grace. He will pass over us on the day of his wrath and will bring us safely into his kingdom, where we will reign with Christ forever and ever.
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