It’s probably not the Easter message you expected, but for the sake of argument, let’s set aside miracles, repentance, heaven, hell and claims of divinity.
Countless people who reject Jesus Christ as the Son of God will nonetheless grudgingly acknowledge him as a “good man” or “wise moral teacher.”
But does modern society truly practice even the broadest principles that Jesus preached?
“Take heed and beware of covetousness,” Jesus proclaimed.
America in 2024 celebrates covetousness in myriad ways, including the time-tested “keeping up with Joneses” pursuit of the Almighty Dollar. Backstab your way up that corporate ladder! Gamble the food budget on lottery tickets! Gotta shower loved ones with more “stuff”!
And of course, stirring up class envy enshrines covetousness on a pedestal. You can practically set your watch by politicians’ perennial “soak the rich in their magically inexhaustible pockets” schemes. (The Empty Tomb makes us uncomfortable, but mayors and governors have unshakable confidence that they can kill the goose that laid the golden egg and bring it back to life over and over.)
“Can the blind lead the blind?” asked Jesus. “Shall they not both fall into the ditch?”
Millions are swayed by self-appointed “experts” who are skilled at nothing except latching onto the latest grift. Legislators who have never met a payroll intuitively “know” that small businesses need oodles of new rules and regulations. Bureaucrats who don’t know one end of a gun from the other lecture us on “common sense” firearms restrictions.
“But rather give alms of such things as ye have,” Jesus implored in reference to personal charity. Somehow that has metastasized into forcing someone ELSE to “donate” to your pet projects. Even collectively, we don’t actually give of what we have; we give of what we DON’T have, running up trillions of dollars of debt.
Copyright 2024 Danny Tyree, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.