As a student of mass communications, I once considered getting into the world of broadcasting. (Preferably classic rock radio, of course.) I’m still intrigued by communication technology, now and historically, and this 1912 quote by the inventor of the wireless telegraph recently grabbed my attention: “The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make war ridiculous.” Apparently, Marconi truly believed if we could more easily share information and resources, we’d have nothing left to fight over.
How I wish he’d been right. But wireless tech seemed to have just the opposite effect, with radio communication a major contributor and tool in the wars to follow. Fast forward to today, and we clearly see “more” doesn’t always equal “better,” particularly in a world of impersonal communication. Present state of the global stage aside, perhaps most ridiculous is that we now wage war wirelessly with strangers—and those we once called friends—from behind our own private keyboards.
Certainly, our failures to communicate didn’t begin in the wireless era either. These are issues that may predate even smoke signals. Yet this makes me thankful to know a better communicator than any of us could hope to be, and one who is particularly persistent in his message to us.
While I didn’t always understand it, I now deeply appreciate that “long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son (Jesus), whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
The created world seems a hard message to miss for me now, given its complexity and beauty. Even “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Through it, “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” It might be hard for some to ignore something so obvious, but it certainly wasn’t always so clear to me.
Starting with those prophets, the Creator’s story was passed down through the generations, well before wireless communication or even the printing press. I was admittedly slow to believe those messengers. The Bible didn’t make sense to me, and I even fought against believing it. But God’s persistence wouldn’t let me ignore him, and it finally became clear he is showing us “in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself”—that this collection of letters is actually all about Jesus.
Still, his loudest message was in actually showing up. While we become increasingly impersonal behind our devices, in-person communication is so important to God, he came to be with us. Even then, many of us missed the memo, as “he was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” But Jesus didn’t wage war against us for our lack of understanding. Instead, in a shocking communication of love, he fought to the death for us. While momentarily misunderstood as defeat, once the headline of his resurrection started to circulate, his real message began to be received: Murdered by our misunderstanding, he was still willing to forgive, allowing all who hear and believe him to commune and communicate directly with our Creator.
There are so many ways the Lord broadcasts his love to the world, and his message is for you too. So, consider creation. Survey Scripture. Visit a church in person. Speak to God in prayer, asking his help to understand what this message means for you. And if you’re a resister, like I was, I pray he’ll help you to stop fighting and start listening—to receive and believe the message of Jesus.
And if you'd like to hear this year's Easter message as an actual (and intentionally meta) broadcast, have a listen here:
Scripture: Hebrews 1:1-2; Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20; Luke 24:25-27; John 1:10 (ESV)
Art: unsplash.com