Luke 20:9-19
Charlie Brown is sitting on a bench. He says, “Rats! What could be worse than a long walk home after losing the first game of the season?” Then it happens as he walks home with bat in hand, it begins to pour down a hard rain on him. Charlie never won a baseball game in fifty years of the comic strip. In fifty years, you can bank on that being true. Charles Schulz never let it happen in his comic strip.
Our human family has been through all types of epidemics and pandemics. The Black Death hit in 1346 and lasted until 1353. The Black Death traveled from Asia to Europe leaving devastation in its wake. It was estimated that it wiped out over half of the European population. The bacterium was spread by fleas on infected rodents. The bodies were buried in mass graves.
The Philadelphia Yellow fever killed over 5,000 people in 1793. In 1916 in America, polio started in New York City with 27,000 cases and 6,000 people died that year. Fifty million people had the Spanish Flu In 1918-1920 with ten million deaths worldwide. The Asian Flu in 1957-58 caused 1.1 million deaths worldwide. America had 116,000 deaths. From 1981 to the present time Aids has claimed an estimated 35 million lives. In 2009-2010 the Swine Flu pandemic virus infected 1.4 million people across the globe and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 according to the CDC.
Now in 2020 we have a new pandemic – the Corona Virus. In our human family we will face epidemics and pandemics in the future. We can bank on this to happen.
The BI-LO Supermarket chain had an old advertisement that said, “You can bank on BI-LO for low prices.” They were telling us that we could count on them for the best prices anywhere anytime. The truth is if you run a fact check on the advertisement you would find some other food chain with lower prices on some items. In our life we have only one thing we can bank on – God. He is in charge of that which He has created.
What do we bank on when it comes to life? What do you know to be true? What do you know to be a sure thing? What do you count on when the events of life are harsh? I want to share with you what I bank my life on. I bank my life on the fact that God is in charge, even when we are living in fearful times. God showed us that He is in charge when He became one of us. He let us put Him on the cross to suffer and die. Then God, in human form, pushed the stone away that covered His tomb and said to us, “I am in charge of life”. We can bank on that.
In the last days of the earthly ministry of Jesus, the religious leaders would challenge the authority of Jesus to minister and speak the words of God. These religious leaders were saying they didn’t think this carpenter could minister with such authority. They seemed to wonder who he thought he was? Jesus then tells them the parable of the vineyard about the owner (which is God) and the renters (which is us). God created us because He wanted us for His family. Jesus knew the source of life and knew that He was in charge of time, the universe and eternity. We can still bank on this truth.
Jesus tells us and the religious leaders, “I am the owner of the vineyard.” Jesus told Israel, and still tells us today, that we are only renters here in this place that He gave to us to live in. Jesus was saying, and is still saying to us, “I am in charge. You can bank on this.”
God planted the vineyard and let us be renters and care for the vineyard. God reminds us that He is in charge for He created our home on earth, the universe, the wind, the rain, the sun and the stars. Yes, He made us and created time and space. I bank on this in my own faith in God. I met His Son Jesus Christ and He is in charge of my life.
In our human history we meet people, or know about people, that believe that they can take charge of our lives. We see this in the crazy world of earth- bound people as we study human history. Even people living with us now today think they are in charge.
Nations rise and fall as well as so called leaders. We have people who want to rob us of our freedoms and turn us into some kind of state where the government is in charge of our lives. My trust is in the God that has the power of life in His hand. Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote that Abraham comes down from the mountain with Isaac just as he went up, but the whole situation has changed. Abraham knew that God is in charge of life.
In a book titled “Raspberry Kingdom” the author writes about the fact that God is in charge and we can bank on it. “When I look back to beginnings to the ultimate genesis I am reminded that I came from dust and to dust I will return. I get a view something like an astronaut on his way to the moon, who looks back and sees the earth in relation to its environment. I see myself and my world as microcosm in relation to the vastness of God’s infinite macrocosm. But unlike the atheist, I am not crushed by such a sign. I do not despair that I am less than a speck on the windowpane of time and space. For God has assured me that I am precious to him in spite of my apparent lack of importance in his cosmos. I am called to be his heir, with a unique purpose in His plan, to be mature, no longer a child blown about by careless winds.”
In this time when we live in fear of the corona virus, God provides for us, through the minds of the entire medical world and through faith if we call on the name of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We can know that we live under the shadow of His cross. I know we can bank on God’s love, hope and grace even in times like these. All who believe in Him can know this truth also.
