Collin Hansen’s article (see here) has me thinking about the evil that two pastor’s families have recently faced. Pastor Fred Winter was murdered during a church service. The man who murdered a pastor’s daughter in Minnesota was recently convicted.
What should Christians say to these families? How should we pray? I’ve thought considerably about it in the last few days. I believe that if Christians are to follow the example of Christ, we should show sorrow, but also outrage, in the face of such evil.
John 11 tells us that Jesus’s response to Martha and Mary at the loss of their brother Lazarus was that he was “deeply moved and greatly troubled,”. In the original language, the words used to describe Jesus’s grief are raw words that don’t come through well in our English translations. It might also be translated that Jesus was indignant or angry. The depth of Jesus feelings was such that he literally shook under the force of it. F.F. Bruce (246), wrote, “Not only did [Jesus] shake . . . he burst into tears.”
Not everyone agrees on why Jesus was so emotional. Was he sad because of Martha and Mary’s grief? Was he concerned with a lack of faith he observed and the way that Mary and Martha were being treated? Was he righteously indignant with the pain people face in a fallen world?
I tend to think Jesus was intensely moved in spirit and greatly distressed for all those reasons. I agree with Don Carson when he summarizes in relation to this passage:
Those who follow Jesus as his disciples today do well to learn the same tension – – that grief and compassion without outrage reduce to mere sentiment, while outrage without grief hardens into self-righteous arrogance and irascibility. D.A. Carson, 416.
Where Christ’s love and indignation are perfect and holy, we are flawed saints. Still, we are His Body and we feel in some measure that combination. We are so deeply concerned that these families must go through such a loss. We are outraged at the face of evil.
I have a wife and four children. I don’t know how I would respond to someone who murdered one of them. I cannot imagine the pain the Winters and Olson families face. But, I do believe that the Lord will grant believers the grace to love our enemies and to pray for these who have persecuted us (Matthew 5:43-48), even as the Lord himself prayed for those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34). He will give us the strength to avoid revenge (Romans 12:17-21), even if revenge is nothing more than a bitter and vindictive spirit.
But, persecuted believers can also rest in the justice of God. He is just and he will pay back to those who trouble His people (2 Thess 4:6). Vengeance belongs to Him and He will repay (Romans 12:17-21).
It is a sobering reminder for all to consider what those who refuse the grace of Christ will face, not only killers will face his wrath, but all whose penalty is not paid by the atoning work of Christ. Thankfully, we can look to the Cross this Good Friday where the Father, “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).”
But, Good Friday and Saturday are not the final word. John 11 doesn’t end with Jesus’s raw emotions. At Jesus’s command, Lazarus walks out of the tomb. And, soon the Winters and Olson’s believing loved ones will have the same view of the world that our Lord had when he walked out on Easter morning. Our Lord is the resurrection and the life. Resurrection day will be here soon. Very soon (Revelation 22:20).
With a measure of such love emotion, deeply moved, troubled, outraged, and with the hope of the resurrection, I pray for the Winters and Olson families.
Come Lord Jesus!
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” . . .
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. . .
43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
I agree with the Olsons. Forgiving a horrible evil perpetrated against a loved one is a process. I labored under the false belief that as a Christian I was commanded to automatically forgive a very evil person who greatly harmed my 9-year-old daughter. The guilt I experienced over not being able to muster up ‘hopey-changey’ feelings of good will dragged me down to despair. The criminal displayed no repentance, no remorse, even after being sentenced by the Judge. My hatred burned white hot for three years, but the price of my sin nearly destroyed me. Intense prayer, Bible study, and coming to understand the depths of my own total depravity are the only things that have aided me. I am almost at peace, but true forgiveness for real evil takes lots and lots of time.
John 11 is my favorite chapter in the Bible. It seems that leading up to Easter there is a sharp increase in the violent stories reported. I could be wrong, but it has seemed that way to me in the last several years. I actually wrote twice about John 11 on my own blog last week as I watch my mom slowly die of cancer. Often the only comfort I can gain or light I can see in the face of all the violence and death around me is Jesus’ outraged weeping at the tomb of Lazarus and His offering of Himself as the antidote to it.