Poor Agamemnon, he arrives home after many years at war against Troy, during which time he has suffered extreme hardship. His wife Clytemnestra welcomes him warmly. However, as soon as she has him behind closed doors, she stabs him to death.
Do I feel sorry for Agamemnon? Hmmmm…..he sacrificed his own daughter in order to appease a goddess. He went off to war over Helen, his brother’s wife. He came home with the lovely Cassandra in tow as spoils of the war. Clytemnestra was angry….no surprise there.
Do I feel sorry for Clytemnestra? Well, she had an affair in Agamemnon’s absence and her lover was complicit in the murder.
What is the matter with these people?!?
The same thing is the matter with people now.
In this morning’s paper, I read of two brothers who got in a fight over shoveling snow. One hit the other in the head with a baseball bat. On the internet is a story of a newborn baby abandoned in a toilet. In the dentist’s office this morning, I paged through a book of the most important photographic images of the 20th Century. We have all seen the Vietnamese girl with anguish written on her face, who has been burned by napalm , and is running down the road naked. Man’s inhumanity to his fellow man is unending. The news is the same every day…just the names of people and places change.
And yet, we have those who believe that human nature is basically good. Certainly, there are many good people in the world, but all of us are capable of evil if the right buttons are pushed. At a minimum, we all know how to be self-serving. The image of God implanted in us has been marred by our own self-will. We are incapable of consistent goodness on our own. Hence, the need for the redemption that comes through the shed blood of Christ and for a daily recommitment of our hearts and minds to being a conduit of His goodness. Our own goodness is always questionable. It is just not GOOD enough.
