A tangled web
“What do you think about Lance Armstrong?” was a question I was asked the other day. This was against the background of mounting evidence that the cyclist was at the head of a highly developed and yet secretive doping programme that helped him to win the Tour de France an amazing seven times. I found myself replying, almost instinctively, “It’s a good thing that God will judge one day.” And I find myself thinking the same about Jimmy Savile and the sordid revelations concerning his predatory sexual behaviour.
I’m reminded of those famous words of Sir Walter Scott: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.” In both these cases, it seems that a vast and tangled web has been woven by the deceptions of these men and others around them. How were they able to get away with it for so long? Who knew what, and when? Why did those who knew something do nothing? These are webs that I’m in no position to untangle myself, and maybe no investigation or court of law will be able to do it either.
But that doesn’t mean that they will never be untangled. Thankfully, there is a day when everything will be untangled and laid out in the open, when everyone will get exactly what they deserve. God “has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed” (Acts 17:31, NIV) – the God-man Jesus Christ. That will be a day to fear for some, and at the same time a day of great comfort for others.