The nation's attention has once again turned to a tragic school shooting. On Valentine’s Day, a young man entered a Florida High School to take the lives of 14 students (some as young as 14) and 3 teachers.
This shooting seemed different than others… The young man was well known by school officials and had been expelled for violent/threatening behavior. He was known by neighbors who filmed him firing guns in his backyard. He was known by students, who sensed the gathering danger in their midst. He was known by local law enforcement, who visited him 39 times. He was known/visited by the FBI. On social media he broadcast his desire to be a “professional school shooter” and “shoot people with an AR-15.”
This is first time I’ve heard people being chastised for offering thoughts/prayers, because to quote numerous celebrities, “prayers cannot stop bullets.” Crazy stuff. Not only shouldn’t we pray “in” our schools, we shouldn’t pray “for” our schools. People are demanding political change, institutional accountability, legislative action (i.e. new laws, new policies, tighter gun control). Everyone has a passionate opinion about gun violence, and how to stop it. How you feel about gun control has become yet another line of division, even between Christians.
Jesus often found himself entangled in heated disputes (political, religious, and moral), where sharp lines had been drawn, and people demanded Jesus take their side. “What is your position Jesus? Are you for or against, pro or con, left or right, red or blue?” Jesus had the way of shifting conversations on divisive matters to an entirely different stratosphere. I told someone that when people start shouting, I always try to step back and ask, “What isn’t anyone talking about here… How might Jesus respond to this issue of violence in our culture… and not just gun violence, or mass murder…?”
First, Jesus shifted conversations toward personal responsibility.
When it comes to violence, we perpetually point to the failure of others, and never our own failure, and we deflect any/all responsibility. Maybe you’ve heard of the social media craze, “PLANKING?” [Somebody tell me, what is planking?] Actually, that’s not the kind of planking I’m thinking of. Planking is where you take to social media to take a speck out of someone else’s eye while the whole time you have a plank stuck in our eye! Jesus never allowed planking.
When you read the Sermon on the Mount, there is a curious absence of planking. Jesus doesn’t allow us to deflect personal responsibility. He doesn’t let us externalize, or globalize, or impersonalize the problem of evil. You have heard that it was said, “Do not murder but I say to you…” Not to him, her, they, them, or those people! But you. There are things within you and me, within your heart and my heart… there are patterns of sin, planks in our eyes, that need to be dealt with. Nobody does any soul searching in the aftermath of these things. We do planking/scapegoating.
Second, Jesus shifted conversations toward goodness/love.
We saw this a few weeks ago in Matthew 5:21-26. Yes murder is a problem, especially mass murder. Murder is so egregious, it always steals the headlines. There were just as many murderers, and just as much violence in Jesus’ day as ours. Jesus could have named Herod, Romans soldiers, Jewish zealots… But Jesus addressed the precursors to murder: like anger, the malicious attitude of heart that gives rise to ridicule, insults, labeling, humiliation, bullying, condemning… The malicious attitude that denies people mercy, forgiveness, and grace… that denies reconciliation and opts instead to write a person off. He addresses the vindictive attitude that turns to authorities (like courts, judges, officers, institutions) to settle matters we really ought to be settling personally.
In Matthew 5:39 Jesus turns our attention to “evildoers,” and in Matthew 5:43, “our enemies.” The issue isn’t so much who is your enemy, or what have they done. The issue Jesus addresses is, “What is your attitude to your brother or sister, to your enemy, to the evildoer in your life? What is your attitude toward your spouse, your son or daughter, your father, your mother, your Ex, your rival, your abuser, your accuser, the person who most threatens you?”
Goodness is this… What is your heart toward people (esp. evil people)? What are your intentions? Are your intentions good or evil? Are your intentions redemptive or murderous? Are you operating by God’s redemptive game plan, or are you following your own game plan? In Matthew 5:47 Jesus asks a series of revealing questions. He asks, “What more are you doing than your enemies? What more are you doing than the pagans? What are you doing out of the ordinary?” Ouch. In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Which means this… What of God’s perfect heart is being reflected in our hearts? Our attitudes even as religious people can be just as murderous, merciless, as that of the evildoer! Jesus would turn our vitriol right back on our own heads. Where’s our goodness?
Third, Jesus shifted conversations to kindness/love.
Jesus never created this false dichotomy between the heart and behavior. If the root is good, the fruit will be good. If our heart is good, our behavior will be holy, righteous, and good. Whereas goodness relates to the inner disposition of the heart, kindness relates to the outer actions of our body. Kindness emanates forth from a good heart. God doesn’t just hold us accountable for what’s in our heart. He judges every word and deed!
So how do these evil monsters emerge among us? Monsters are created by thousands of seemingly trivial slices. 70% of monsters felt their life is so worthless they may as well kill themselves. Why would we ever give a person 13 reasons, or even a single reason, to feel so terribly worthless? 70+% Monsters were aggressively bullied. Why would we have such deep contempt for a fellow human being, that we’d make sport of an angry person, provoking them to murderous levels of insanity?
Jesus says, settle matters quickly with your adversary. Don’t escalate things to court, judges, officials, authorities, institutions. Let your worship mean something—be a peacemaker, pursue reconciliation. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn your other cheek. If someone wants to sue you for the shirt off your back, offer him your coat. If someone demands you go one mile, go two miles. If someone asks something of you (a favor, for help, even for money), don’t turn him away. Don’t hate your enemy, but pray for those who persecute you. Don’t just love people who love you, what good is that? Widen your circle of love. Do good works that people might praise Father.
Here is the clincher… Jesus says, “be perfect like God is perfect.” Well how so? Jesus says, God causes the son to rise, and the rain to fall, on the righteous and the unrighteous. God demonstrates his love in this, while we were still enemies Christ Jesus died for the ungodly! God uses kindness to turn monsters into missionaries. He demonstrates kindness, even unto death, even death on a cross, and don’t you think we ought to ask why? What does God understand about evil that we don’t understand?
In Romans 2:4 Paul says, “Do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Whereas hate begets hate, and violence more violence, and anger more anger. Kindness engenders repentance. And isn’t it change we most want to see? Prayer isn’t going to stop a bullet that’s been fired. Prayer isn’t going to restore these lost lives. But something prayer can do is stop a bullet from being fired in the first place. In prayer, God synchronizes our heart with his, our goodness/kindness with his… and this goodness/kindness is not without affect on our enemies and evildoers.
Fourth, Jesus shifted conversations to Justice/Mercy.
When people hurt us, we almost always want them to pay. But here is the irony: We want justice for others, but mercy for ourselves. We want retribution against our enemies, but forgiveness/grace for ourselves. What Jesus says is that mercy is a two way street. “Forgive as you’ve been forgiven. If you don’t forgive others when they sin against you, you’re heavenly Father won’t forgive you. With the same measure you use against others, it will be measured to you.” Mercy isn’t just God’s business, its to be our business too!
So what about justice? I’ll share four facts about divine justice…
#1) Justice is God’s business. God says, “It’s mine to repay.” When we show mercy, there isn’t nobody getting off the hook… we’re giving that person over to God.
#2) God ordains imperfect human authorities to administer justice (i.e. to establish order, punish wrongdoers, and facilitate restitution). Human justice is always imperfect, and at times, less than just! As much as we hate the incompetence of human authorities, the lawless violence of vigilantes is far worse. We need to pray for governing authorities, enable their success, hold them accountable, and exercise our civic responsibilities to fullest extent. We need godly people in government.
#3) Divine justice is deferred. It is being stored up for the future. God doesn’t give instant justice for at least one huge reason. “He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but all men to come to knowledge of truth… and repentance… and salvation” But make no mistake about it. Just because God’s justice is deferred, doesn’t mean it is any less imminent. The Son of Man will appear in the sky, and his justice will roll up the enemies of God and cast them into hellfire. There will be no mercy for the unrepentant, just weeping and gnashing of teeth, judgement and fire, and eternal torment.
#4) Mercy triumphs over Judgement. Sometimes, because of the goodness of God… Sometimes because of God’s kindness shown toward all men in Christ Jesus, shown through his peacemaking Sons & Daughters (the church)… evildoers turn from their wicked ways. And when anyone repents, what does the Bible say? By His wounds are we healed. When any man repents, regardless of his sin, he doesn’t get the justice he deserves, he gets mercy! The penalty we deserve for our sin is nailed upon that cross. Christ’s death becomes their justification. God’s Spirit is given for our washing and sanctification. Life, not death, becomes our destiny. Mercy triumphs over judgement, and it's all for the glory and praise of our Father in heaven!
Communion Meditation/Response.
Just now we come to our time of communion. When we take the bread and cup, we’re reminded God’s way, was for his own body to be broken and shed, that his own son Jesus would become our shelter from his judgement and wrath against all sin. Through the elements of communion God isn’t just declaring his goodness and kindness. He’s declaring his purpose. God is in the mercy business! And he wants his business to become our business! If we can reenact Christ’s response to evil here in communion, perhaps we’re that much closer to expressing his goodness, kindness, mercy to enemies.
NOW WHAT? SEVEN STEPS to PRAY ABOUT...
1. Ask God to soften your heart and help you see your enemies through His eyes.
2. Ask God to soften your enemy's heart and to see themselves through God's eyes.
3. Die to self daily, choosing redemptive words and deeds over fleshly reactions.
4. Walk by faith, not by sight. Embrace goodness and show kindness even when there aren’t immediate results.
5. Embrace suffering as an inevitable, but momentary reality, even as you wait for God's perfect justice.
6. Preach the way of Christ and be ready to welcome your enemies as brothers and sisters in Christ should they come to repentance.
7. Be a peacemaker. Leverage your influence for goodness and kindness, mercy and justice. Get involved, even when it's tough.