Pastor's blog

What do you want first, the good news or the bad news? It's a tough question to answer. Most people choose the bad news first, right? Get it over with, they think. Besides, there will be good news to soften the blow. The risk, as you know, is that the good news might not be all that good. The bad might so out weigh the good that that the good news barely registers when you hear it. That's why some people try the good news first.

That way you've at least had a moment of happiness. At least you can hold off the bad news for a moment and relish the good stuff. Unfortunately, the bad news will still come and it may be true again that the bad news leaves a bad taste in your mouth. You may have wished to wait for the good news that was sweeter than it was sour.

Good news is hard to find sometimes and even when we do find it, it turns out that good news for me might mean bad news for someone else. When it snows I can finally slide down the ski slopes, but on the way I'll probably see a car or two that has slid off the road. When the rain falls in the summer it's good for the farmers crops, but not so good for those whose jobs depend on sunny days.

So, good news is a trick thing to pin down. It's no different when we consider that the Bible talks a lot about good news. The word is gospel. There's the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of them have some good news to share. The problem is not everything they right sounds like good news.

Healing is good news. Teaching about eternal life is good news too. But there is also cursing and weeping and judgment. All the authors of the good news tell the story where Jesus overturned tables of good, religious people. Even Jesus' own disciples get scolded and he tells them that "the way" to eternal life is narrow and requires carrying a cross. Besides all that there are some people he's just not very nice to. It doesn't make sense.

Why do we call this good news? There seems to be a portion of good news only to be followed by some bad news. There are other times when the good news seems good for some people, but bad for others. Is it fair to call all of this news about Jesus good? All of these questions highlight the fact that when we understand the gospel to mean good news in the ordinary sense, we misunderstand the word.

Instead of thinking of the word gospel as good news, we might think of it as an announcement. Whenever someone royal or wealthy was born an announcement was sent out. It was a gospel. For example, when a heir to the throne was born they sent out an announcement of good news. A gospel is an announcement that a king is born. That makes sense.

At least it does to me. We'll leave it there for now. I'll fill in the blanks and round it off on Sunday.