UK Prime Minister David Cameron has offered a grim picture of the perpetrators of violent looting in the UK:

“There are pockets of our society that are not only broken, but frankly sick. It is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society, people allowed to feel that the world owes them something.”

Sick

Anyone who has seen the videos of roving youths attacking police officers, pillaging stores and setting cars ablaze must concur that this is is a grave sickness.

What is the cure?!

No one wants neighbors who destroy the fabric of society.  So what must we do? We must introduce them to the One who came not for the healthy, but for the sick, the One who had a reputation for being the friend of sinners. Jesus was surrounded by sick people. Indeed, the sick and sinners flocked to him because they knew they were sick. They didn’t, like the rich young ruler, try to justify themselves; they wept and washed his feet.

In the days that follow the riots, the people who best know themselves as sick are those who most need to hear good news for rioters. They need to know that the Son of Man said to the thief crucified with him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” They need to know that he wasn’t afraid of being touched by prostitutes. They didn’t make him dirty; he made them clean. They need to hear the parable of the two sons:

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”

The way of righteousness is open to the repentant who confess their sickness and come to the healer. The door to the Kingdom is swung wide to rioters.