"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who hunt you, and pray for those who abuse you." "Don't give back evil for evil." "If anyone hits you on one cheek, let him hit the other one also."
Yesterday, Charlie Kirk was assassinated. So far, I haven't heard if they caught the person or who it was. I only know of him from what I've heard through certain podcasts. I didn't really know much about him apart from them. I imagine that I'm like most people these days with regards to this. From what I've heard, he's a man with whom I would have likely disagreed on many points. As I understand it, he said a lot of things which hurt a lot of people with whom he disagreed. He was also a major supporter of Donald Trump, something of which I've made no secret where my opinion is concerned. It is likely this person would have considered me and people who hold similar opinions to me "the enemy."
Doing violence against him was not what Jesus taught, no matter what he said or did. Jesus, and the entire New Testament, explicitly teaches the opposite of doing violence to those who hate you, disagree with you, and count themselves your enemies. Murder is a malfunctioning flesh reaction born from anger/aggression which itself is a response to fear or panic. It's trying to destroy that which you feel threatened by. Jesus taught as much by example on this subject as by words when He let them torture Him, and He let them crucify Him until He died; and even in the middle of it, He forgave those doing it and begged His Father to forgive them too. It would have only taken one word from Him, and they would have withered like the fruitless fig tree did. Jesus taught to love your enemies, and He practiced what He taught.
Murdering Charlie Kirk, or anyone by whom you feel threatened, accomplishes nothing good and more harm to the murderer's cause than he ever intended. A martyr has been made today, and the backlash will likely be far more intense than anyone realizes. It will likely produce more violence against those with whom the murderer presumably identifies, and not less. It gives an excuse for those on Charlie Kirk's side of things to seek and exact revenge and feel justified in so doing. By this one action, this shooter has harmed potentially thousands if not millions of people with whom he likely at least sympathized.
Right now, somewhere in Eternity, there are two possible outcomes for Charlie Kirk. Either He's met Jesus and is going through a life review right now seeing everything he's ever done from the perspective of the other people affected, or he's enveloped in darkness and possible torment until he cries out for help, and then he'll go through the life review. Either way, he will eventually come to his senses, as will we all, and embrace the all consuming Love that is God, and be embraced by Him.
In this life though, he leaves behind a grieving wife, son, and daughter, not to mention other family members and friends. The shooter has not just harmed Charlie Kirk, he has harmed all of these people as well. In addition are all those who followed and listened to Charlie Kirk, and thought well of him. They are now grieving too. The shooter has harmed them as well. By this one calculated action, this shooter has harmed potentially hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, most of whom Charlie Kirk never interacted with personally, and whom the shooter had no idea existed.
And the shooter, by this one action, also harmed himself irreparably. If he hasn't already taken his own life, he will be hunted. Everyone he knows will be questioned. His life and the lives of everyone he loves will be turned upside down, and it is likely when he is caught and prosecuted, his own life will be ended for it.
The Way Jesus taught was different. It avoided all of this harm and sought to stop it before it started. Forgiveness, non-retaliation, and even flat out pacifism were the hallmarks of the very early followers of the Way as they practiced the love which He taught.
Yesterday, Erika Kirk watched her husband bleed to death from a gunshot wound. Her world has been destroyed in one moment. His children watched their father die. That is not an image which will ever leave their minds. They will see it in their nightmares possibly for the rest of their lives. Put yourself in their skin for a minute. Imagine what it must feel like to be them tonight. It doesn't matter if you disagreed with him or saw him as a threat. Put yourself in their skin and watch it through their eyes. Feel every moment of horror as the man you love and spent your life with, the father whom you loved and respected and thought the world of, falls to the floor, his own blood spilling everywhere. Be her, be them, in that moment. Experience that moment as they experienced it, and also as God experiences it through their eyes and ears. Tell me then, how can you honestly claim to love anyone if you can, much less God Himself, if you can pull this trigger and cause this much pain, horror, and harm.
It doesn't matter what kind of a man he was. He was a man. He was loved. If I am to follow Jesus Christ, I am to love this man as though he was me. And so in the very end, he was me and I was him. In the end his wife and kids are me, and I am them.
I feel deeply for Charlie Kirk's family as I imagine what they are feeling and having to live through right now. I also feel deeply for the shooter, and what must have driven him to take this extremely harmful and devastating action. I feel deeply also for all those others who are impacted by this one action in which they had no say.
No comments:
Post a Comment