Last night around 6 o'clock our time, Nikkie came into the kitchen as I was finishing up preparing some pad thai for dinner and said, "They killed Osama bin Laden. It's all over the news." "Really? Like they're absolutely certain he's dead?" I said with some disbelief. Two seconds later I was in the living room watching the special news reports and President Obama addressing the nation, confirming the outcome of the raid on bin Laden's compound in Afghanistan. As the President left the podium the television screen was filled with images from Times Square and streets in Washington D.C. with people in the streets cheering and chanting. Shouts of "USA! USA!," "Na na na na, hey, hey, goodbye," rose in the air across the nation last night. In our house, I sat quietly on the couch and shuddered.
Nearly ten years ago I watched on television in a college classroom the second airplane hit the World Trade Center and the hours of coverage and carnage that ensued afterward. I was incensed at the senseless acts of violence and terrorism and immediately all of my classmates and I were talking about revenge and justice. Ten years, trillions of dollars, and thousands of American lives later, we have it. And I cannot feel more differently today than I did ten years ago.
Let me first say that I am ever so appreciative of the efforts of our service men and women to bring us to this point today. They know sacrifice better than most, and the cost of war in terms of lives is not lost on them.
I shuddered as the news unfolded last night because what I saw on television and Facebook and Twitter were the unabated and untempered cries of jubilation at the death of a wicked man. Yes, Osama bin Laden was a wicked man. He masterminded a horrific attack on unsuspecting and innocent men, women and children. His actions were and are deplorable and of the highest rank foul. Yet as I watched people fill the streets of America singing and shouting to celebrate his death, what I saw was not all that different from the shouts of men brandishing AK-47s and celebrating the death of thousands of Americans at the hand of terrorists.
Something within me felt off about the whole situation. I was relieved to hear that bin Laden was dead, but I was deeply bothered by the reaction of many Americans to the news of his demise. The mood in our house was less than celebratory as I reflected on what God says in Ezekiel 33:11: "‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’"
This word from God to Israel implores them to repent from their wicked ways. Why? Because God does not enjoy the death of wicked people, and we are all wicked people. Scripture states and explains time and again that we are all evil, wicked people, separated from God by our sin and recipients of his wrath because of our own defiance of his Lordship. Osama bin Laden was a sinful man of the highest degree. But I am sinful too. Is my sin or your sin as disgusting or murderous as bin Laden's? Likely not. Does my sin make me an object of God's wrath as much as bin Laden's? Absolutely. Bin Laden is a sinner the same as I. The only real difference between bin Laden and me is that my faith is in Jesus Christ for redemption and reconciliation to a just God.
While our God-given desire for justice spurs us to breathe a sigh of relief and say prayers of thanks for the events of yesterday, our knowledge of our need for Christ in light of our sin should bring temperance and humility to our time of rejoicing.
Let me exhort my friends, family and those who read this that for we who are in Christ our allegiance belongs to Him and His Kingdom. Our nation is not our god, and neither are its politics or military campaigns. As we rejoice in this symbolic victory over the wicked plans of an evil man, let us remember that very literally, "There but for the grace of God, go we."
May the events of May 1, 2011 remind us of the world's need for a Savior, and inspire Christ's followers to be good and humble citizens of His Kingdom, living to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to ends of the earth.
