“Homicide on the Highway.” No, it is not the title of an old Agatha Christie or Margaret Truman novel but: the description often found in our newspapers, of the growing phenomenon of road rage. It tells of the low threshold of tolerance, the flash point of fury and frustration, displayed by many drivers who respond with anger and violence to minor offenses or inconveniences caused by others.
We have had McChicken and McFlurry and now we have McFury – instant rage, rapidly heated, quickly served and spilling over, at times, into murder. It is a sad commentary on the unrest of the human heart and the inability of mankind to deal with the very pressures he himself has manufactured in modem society Intending to create a millennium, he has instead constructed a madhouse of high-pressure existence, ruled by deadlines, clocks and daytimers. For many, “Time is money.” Unforeseen delays cannot be tolerated, and frustrated “victims” lash out at those perceived to have caused the inconvenience.
A first-century physician, Luke, recorded the violence often seen in his society in chapter 10 of his gospel account. The hazards of highway travel are intimated in the story of the Jewish man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The thieves, not content with assault and robbery, came perilously close to murder. That Jericho Road, with its lurking dangers, aptly pictures our course through this world. The condition of that dying man is a fitting reminder of our spiritual destitution without God, without Christ, without hope and beyond self-help.
Perhaps the most famous figure from any of the Savior’s parables is the gracious benefactor who came along, the “good Samaritan.” Luke records the words of the Lord Jesus, “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” This parable points poignantly to the advent into our world of the Son of God. We see His grace in coming from heaven to a world of violence and unrest, His love and compassion for helpless humanity, His death for guilty sinners and His resurrection from the dead. This is the gospel, God’s life-giving message of salvation. Despite mankind’s centuries-long war against God, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The rage and fury of the human heart were answered by God with love and compassion. Moments after the nails bit deeply into His hands and feet, the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” After His resurrection, the Savior commanded His disciples to preach the gospel to every creature, starting at Jerusalem where He was so unjustly rejected, tried and condemned.
All those who trust this loving Savior are placed on a new “highway.” Translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son, they are placed on the narrow road that leads to heaven. The Savior Himself assures a safe arrival home: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” Eternal security and safety are offered to you today by the loving Savior, Who said, “He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.”
