Matthew 24: 15-28
Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. (Matthew 24:28 ESV)
Have you ever stopped to watch the prime time news for five minutes? If you have ever engaged with mass media during a peak news cycle you have no doubt noted the overwhelming gloom that permeates all of the terrible news. The reason is that bad news draws the attention of people.
Jesus, delivered a stern word to his followers. He was warning them about the signs of the end times. And he cautioned them to remain optimistic. He didn't want his followers to proclaim a message that was inundated by the dark stigma of weighty world issues.
People today really are drawn to bad news. In school when I was learning to be a journalist, I remember hearing the phrase "if it bleeds it leads," regularly. Death, disaster, and decay draw people's attention.
The sad truth is that this kind of thinking makes its way into the church far too often. One bad little thing can happen, and we can focus so hard on it that we completely neglect the other thirty-five awesome things going on. We are not people who celebrate death and negativity. Jesus came to bring the dead to life.