THE PLAGUE AND THE CURE
(A parable by Jim Plueddemann)
Once upon a time, in a city not too far away, people were slowly dying
of a plague. The plague didn't kill its victims immediatelybut it produced
many strange side effects. As individuals became infected, they gradually
became selfish, rude, depressed, and angry. Families fell apart as crime,
violence, and deceit filled the streets. Armed robbery, drugs, and rape
increased as the plague spread. Philosophers pondered long and hard over
the problem while politicians spent billions of dollars trying to find
a cure. Sociologists blamed oppressive social structures. Economists asserted
that the root problem was poverty. Psychologists argued that the problem
was caused by low selfesteem. Biologists conducted research to show that
the plague was caused by genetic defects. All of the scholars analyzed
the plague and claimed to have explanations for the problems of pain, injustice,
and evil.
Various religious leaders proclaimed that they had found a cure for
the plague. One religious master taught that life is an illusion and the
solution is to learn to live with pain. Another teacher claimed that pain
and suffering are the fate of humankind and people must blindly submit
to a god who created pain. Another instructor created a religion with hundreds
of rules to guide behavior, claiming that if people were good enough, God
would help them to fight the problem of evil.
Since people couldn't agree on the solution, they began to fight and
kill each other. Finally there was so much fighting and killing over proposed
solutions to the problem of selfishness that people decided to accept everyone's
solutions. They agreed that there were no right and wrong answers to the
problem of the plague. The whole society became dogmatically relativistic.
One day a small group of tattered pilgrims entered the city with the
good news of a cure for the plague. They gladly proclaimed the only true
cure-a cure with a 100 percent success rate; a cure that didn't cost any
money. They announced that the God of creation had provided the cure by
sending His Son to die and come back to live in order to take away the
horrible sickness. The joyful pilgrims talked to everyone who would listen.
When the people of the city heard the good news, they became furious.
"Who do they think they are," the people said, "coming into our city and
telling us that our cures are wrong and that their cures are right? Do
they think they can cram their medicine down our throats?"
Millions of people rejected the free medicine because they wanted to
remain openminded about truth. Perhaps the plague was making them insane.
But many listened and accepted the free cure, and their lives were changed.
They began to be more loving, more joyful, more kind, and less selfish.
As pilgrims traveled around the world telling the good news, millions received
new life.
The Bible message is clear. Jesus is the only cure for the horrible
problems of the world. Scholars can provide valuable insights into the
needs of the world, but only Jesus can cure a selfish heart and bring hope
and joy to a suffering world.
Billions of people have never heard about the cure for sin. They have
no hope in this life or in the next, and they are still trying other cures.
If Jesus is the only cure, why is it that so many people who have received
the Good News, sit back, thinking only of their own comfort? How can we
enjoy the cure for ourselves, and not be torn apart by the fact that most
of the world is dying?
No sacrifice is too great for sharing the only answer to the greatest
problems of the world. No life is more wasted than the one that hoards
the medicine while people are dying all around us. No task is more fulfilling,
no life is more joyful than one spent taking the Good News to a dying world.
As we see humanity's failing solutions all around us, let's recommit
ourselves to the purpose of evangelism-taking God's free, eternal medicine
to all, praying that they will gladly receive it.
(The above article is reprinted
with the permission of SIM, the Society of International Ministries, including
the Sudan Interior Mission.)