So the following news happened in the last couple weeks and got me to thinking about how as a Christian, I should react to this.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523581,00.html
First off, I think anytime someone or something dies, someone else suffers and therefore we should mourn with those who mourn. Whether the person is a ruthless dictator or an elderly woman who works with tribes in Africa, when they die someone cries and hurts.
Second, I think that some people’s lives are lived in such a way that when they die, it is hard to feel sorry for them. People who live their lives under the addiction of drugs and alcohol ruining and wasting their lives and the lives of their loved ones are hard to feel sorry for when they eventually die because of their addictions.
Thirdly, life is not simple and straightforward. There are layers to every persons lives and choices that cannot possibly be understood by an outside observer. God only knows the heart and it is impossible to fully know another persons heart no matter how close we are to them.
The easiest answer to this question is to think that this doctor was judged by God and therefore was murdered by someone else. My opposition to abortion and 4 children would fortify this position in my heart and it would be easy to stop there. Doesn’t the Bible say, that murderers will not inherit the kingdom of God?(Gal 5:21) God’s justice in the Old Testament and the New Testament seem to be against all unrightousness and while his justice is patient, it seems to come in one way or another. We know that regardless of our upbringing, choices, and beliefs, that we will have to answer for the things that we have done either in this life or when Jesus returns. There will be a final peace and justice in the end in which all things will be made new and this sinful world and bodies will be restored. Here’s my problem with this thinking: we don’t know the mind of God nor are we perfect in our own earthly judgements so why would we think that God killed this man because of what he did?
There is a tendency to elevate sins above other sins in our hearts and in the churches as a whole. In my own effort to make myself feel better about myself, I will routinely remember the shortcomings of others and my “good” response to the same situations. Marriage is great for this since you see everything behind the scenes that no one else sees(not that my wife ever makes mistakes). We want justice to happen in the world and when we see a wicked man like this killed, we want to think that justice was served and that he “got what he deserved”. But is this how we should look at this murder?
Jesus is talking to a group of people left over from the thousands who had gathered to hear him and the people brought up some Galileans who had been killed and mixed in with the Jewish sacrifices. Apparently, the people in the crowd, thought that those people were pretty bad because otherwise it wouldn’t have happened to them that way. Jesus’ reply to them is pretty revealing of their hearts and what his mission was. Luke 13:2-3: And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because the suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Jesus then goes on to say the same thing about 18 people who had a tower fall on them. So what is Jesus trying to say in this passage that has bearing on this current situation and many more situations that happen around us everyday?
Jesus knew the hearts of those he spoke with and he knows our hearts. He seems to be pointing our eyes from staring at other people to looking inward at our own hearts. God the father is the judge of the heart and the only one who can know what really is going on. When we presume to know the answer to something like this, even though we might be right, we take away the right of God to judge another and we may bring judgement on ourselves. Jesus is telling the people listening to come to grips with the fact that every person is a sinner who God demands justice for. Jesus was that trophy lamb who justice was poured out on at the cross.
Wickedness took this man’s life. I don’t think as Christians we should ever rejoice in wickedness or the acts associated with wickedness. As difficult as it may seem to forgive this man or have any sort of pity for he and his family, I think that Jesus gave us the example of forgiveness on the cross and that we should try within our own hearts to pray for this man’s family.
My heart really has little pity for this man. I think that some of that is natural to what I said earlier about people living their lives in such a way that it is hard to feel sorry for them when they die or when tragedy hits. I think Jesus would have us pray for his hurting family and repent of our own sinfulness. I think we should also pray that the horror of abortions and specifically full-term abortions would be removed from our world.
July 16, 2009 at 7:42 am
I’ve had a lot of opinions about abortion over the years and I’ve usually regretted everything I’ve said about it. Of course my first reaction is that Dr. Tiller — having performed about 30,000 late term abortions, making several million dollars, and being publicly active and proud — probably wasn’t very smart to go anywhere near a House of God, since that is where judgment begins. Of course that is a knee-jerk reaction.
We are to love and pray for our enemies. Murder is always wrong. I even think Bonhoeffer was wrong to join the conspiracy to kill Hitler — although that’s an easy sin to forgive.
Moving into a Presby Church from a more right-fundamentalist background has opened my eyes to a lot. God wants us to be content in all circumstances and to know that this world is rapidly fading away. Many of my Christian friends are the most discontented people I know. “If only they’d outlaw abortion, if only everyone spoke in tongues, if only they’d abolish the capital gains tax, THEN things would be okay….”
There’s always some great atrocity in the world. Abortion is the current one, but the Holocaust, child abuse, slavery, war, it goes on and on. that’s what the world does.
Dr. Tiller will be replaced and the witness of Christ is damaged again. In fact, I’ve concluded that the whole political response to abortion has been wrong from the get go, the vote-for-this-guy-picket-this-clinic response.
What if, 30 years ago, all the evangelical and Catholic and even mainstream Protestant leaders had gotten together and announced to the world, “We have a network of 15,000 churches and we will adopt any child being considered for abortion, no questions asked.” I think that would have been a much more proper Christian witness and response. Instead, today, we are simply the screaming nuts being dragged away from the Sotomayor hearings and the Notre Dame speech, we’ve lost the battle politically and we’ve really lost most of the under-30 Christians on this issue too. In fact it’s finally lost me, because I no longer feel any connection to that “wing” of the church. I’m at a very imperfect church where very imperfect people love Christ and are mostly happy. I’m working harder to follow Christ and be content. I see someone like Randall Terry or Alan Keyes on the TV, they’re unhappy and they are so angry their eyes are popping out. You also have a lot of Rush Limbaugh/Michael Savage types who are against abortion and gay marriage (and the capital gains tax), they say they believe in God, but you never hear them say “I follow Jesus” or “I’ve been born again.”
It’s interesting what you say here about Jesus trrying to turn our eyes back to ourselves, particularly as I study the Reformed approach to eschatology. While the dispensationalists look for the antiChrist among the world’s political leaders, the Bible says antiChrist is a spirit, and I think the place we need to look for him is — in the mirror.
So I guess I’m agreeing with you, although it took me many more years than it took you to get to this point. Thanks for letting me ramble.
July 16, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Good thoughts Dan…you should have a blog.
August 31, 2009 at 7:44 am
I’m looking forward to your next blog, Micah~