Bazooka Joe

 

Remember Bazooka Bubblegum and the Bazooka Joe cartoon papers inside?  I read one where Bazooka Joe comes home from school and says to his dad, “Dad, would you spank me for something that I didn’t do?”  Of course, his dad replies, “No.”  So Bazooka Joe pulls out a note from his backpack and hands it to his day saying, “Well, here’s a note from my teacher saying that I didn’t do my homework.”  That’s just a joke, but it illustrates an interesting problem: wicked and evil are not just describing sins that we do, but wicked and evil can also describe sins that we DON’T do.  You see, we are familiar with things that are on the bad list, but we forget that there are things on the good list that we SHOULD be doing.  We know that stealing and lying and dirty jokes are bad, but NOT helping our fellow man, and NOT obeying God are just as bad.  The story is told by Jesus in Matthew 25 of three employees that were given money to use while their boss was gone on a business trip.  Two of them invested the boss’s money, but the third was scared and hid the money.  When the boss returned, the two entrepreneurs said, “Boss, here is your seed money AND the profit that we made for you.”  The boss was pleased and commended the two.  But the timid employee said, “Boss, here is your money back.  It’s all there.  You can count it.”  But the boss was angry and called him WICKED because he did nothing with the money.  The employee didn’t lose any of the boss’s money, but he didn’t gain any money for the boss either.  Bad form.  God expects us to work for Him and to serve Him as Christians.  We don’t work to become a Christian; we work because we are a Christian.  See Ephesians 2:8-10.  Hey, wicked and evil are not just bad things that you do; wicked and evil are good things that you DON’T do.  Think about it.