NOTES for Luk 3:21-22

It was not God's will that evil should appear in the world. He did not want it; we ourselves allowed evil into the beautiful world created by the Lord, where everything was "very good." Yet He feels responsibility for it upon Himself, just as parents blame themselves and their upbringing when a child gets into trouble.

But what can be set against evil? Surely He would have had the power to deal with it in direct combat, for He is almighty. But He does not do this. It is like parents trying to give a child the chance to correct his own mistakes, so that he may understand them and learn something. Yet He still sets something against evil (for as a Good Parent He wants to help us), not His might, but His defenselessness.

How could Herod's violence have been subdued? It is very hard to understand that this vicious tyrant can be opposed by the defenselessness and weakness of a small bird, a dove that is easy to kill, yet a weakness that conceals within itself the boundless power of the Spirit of God. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption", the Apostle tells us. How harmoniously this allows us to continue speaking about ourselves and God in terms of children and a Parent. We grieve Him when we do something wrong. Let us think about this special sorrow. It creates us.