| Good news about him (Jesus) spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. |
| —Matthew 4:24 |
In our current society in the United States, we are surrounded by news. We hear news on the radio, see it on television, read it on social media, and find ourselves immersed in news, even when we try to steer clear of hearing or seeing what’s happening around us. News comes to us like a flood after a drenching rain. We can hardly escape being swallowed up in the news.
It seems like most of the news we see or hear is what we can rightly define as “bad news.” Seldom do we hear or see any news that lifts us up, encourages us, or creates a sense of peace within us. It seems as if the news that buffets us is bad news.
Fortunately, there is good news available to us. We find one example in Matthew 4:23-25:
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 Good news about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Almost everyone knows Alan Alexander (A. A.) Milne’s character “Winnie-the-Pooh.” Do you know Pooh Bear? Well then, you know that Winnie-the-Pooh is a very special friend of a little boy named Christopher Robin. You probably also know that Winnie-the-Pooh lives in the forest and has a very special something that he likes to eat: honey. In fact, Winnie-the-Pooh will go to great lengths to get some honey.
As A. A. Milne writes in a story:
One day, Rabbit and Piglet went to visit Winnie-the-Pooh. They knocked on Winnie-the-Pooh’s door and waited for the bear to answer. When Pooh opened the door, Piglet said, “Hi, Pooh-bear. I have good news and I have bad news.”
“The good news is that Rabbit and I have found a very large mess of honey for you.”
“Wonderful,” Winnie-the-Pooh exclaimed.
“The bad news,” Piglet continued, “is that the honey is near the top of a very tall tree.”
“Oh,” Winnie-the-Pooh responded.
“The good news,” Piglet continued, “is that there are lots of branches near to the ground to make it easy for you to climb the tree.”
“That’s great!” Winnie-the-Pooh smiled in anticipation.
“The bad news,” Piglet went on, “is that the bark of that tree is really slippery, so you are likely to slip when you start climbing.”
“Oh,” Winnie-the-Pooh whispered, and sadly sat down on the ground.
“The good news,” Piglet said once more...
And, so it continued, back and forth. First the good news and then the bad news. First the good news, and then the bad news. Minute by minute. Hour by hour.
Sometimes, our lives can be a little bit like that exchange between Piglet and Winnie-the-Pooh. First we get some good news and then we get some bad news. It was that way for the Church back at the time, many hundreds of years ago, when the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, first John would share some good news with the church, and then he would share some bad news. And, do you know why he would do that? He would do that so that the people in the church would learn about how God expected them to live their lives.
So the next time someone says to us that they have good news and bad news, just remember that it is probably a time when we are going to have to do some serious learning. And, that serious learning will prepare us, so that we can serve God to the best of our ability, as enabled by the in-dwelling Holy Spirit.
