Actually, We DID Start the Fire

Do you remember Billy Joel's #1 smash hit from his 1989 album Storm Front entitled "We Didn't Start the Fire?" In this song, Billy Joel tried to absolve the baby boomer generation from all the sins of this world literally saying, "We didn't start the fire, it' was always burning since the world's been turning." In truth, he is not exactly right. While the fire started long before May 9, 1949 when Joel was born, it hasn't "always been burning, since the world's been turning."

We [humans] are, in fact, the arsonists. We started the fire. It is God who wants to rescue us not only from the fire we started but also, and more importantly, from our disposition to starting fires, that is, from our life of arson. But to be rescued from a life of arson requires that we know how destructive arson is. Fires always start out small. If God always instantly put out all the fires we started, we would never come to appreciate the damage that fires can do.

We started a fire in consenting to evil. God has permitted this fire to rage. He grants this permission not so that He can be a big hero when He rescues us, but so that we can rightly understand the human condition and thus come to our senses. In rescuing us by suffering on the Cross, Jesus does end up being the greatest hero of all-time. But that is not the point of His suffering. The point is to fix a broken relationship between God and humanity.

In the Garden of the Gethsemane, Jesus beseeched His Father to let this cup pass from Him if there was any other way possible to redeem our souls. But there was no other way. Our sin demanded the ultimate price. It is a price our Lord willingly paid. He paid it at the Cross and He bears the marks of the Cross to this very day. Perhaps the next time that particular Billy Joel tune comes over your oldies radio station or your iPod you'll think about it a little differently. I know I will!