When we think we are too good for God, that we are virtuous and good for our world, there is no hope.
We live in a sick and broken world.
The response and reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk were so revealing. There was enough online without me wading in. The state of hearts and prevailing culture in response to such tragic events was so sad, hard-hearted and alarming. I apologise for the traumatic comments of others listed below. I hope you understand that these are in no way my view of the events, and I am not in any way trying to be sensationalist. My only desire is that we have wisdom, reading what is revealed, what we see in the human heart, so that we may be better ambassadors of Christ and communicate better with a world which is so desperately in need of him. Much of what I try to do here is see how culture and mission mix, and in many ways, this event was as revealing as it gets in that realm.
In schools of several Western countries, there were numerous devastating quotes from teenagers, assemblies and R.E. discussion groups saying "he deserved to die". One vox pop speaker in Amsterdam said on the streets, "I don't know his positions, but i'm glad he is not with us anymore, it is a good thing." and even a teacher was quoted as saying "we need more assassinations." The Western World has become an asylam run by the lunatics, and what it says makes no sense. Hate is irrational, and the depth and width of it present in our age are not isolated or confined. The Oxford Union President said, "Some institutions are too broken to be reformed; they should and must be taken down by any means necessary". Any means?
How do we make any sense of this, and what does it mean for gospel declaration in our day?
The celebration of a murder is as broken as it gets. To suggest that life goals for freedom are furthered by getting rid of people and killing people who don't agree with us (especially when we don't understand what they stand for) is as inhumane and foolish as it gets. The value of human life has plummeted to subhuman levels. Contrast this with the establishment of laws of protection, health and care in past generations (largely driven by followers of Christ). One spokeswoman, Lizzy Page became the centre of attention when she said she spoke on behalf of those who said Charlie deserved to be " a human water fountain". She describes herself as a writer, poet and mental health worker. In these chilling words, she describes mental and social health in terms that can only be described as sick, without the remotest sensitivity to the human condition, with calculating callousness and ruthless grimness.
Everybody should be able to speak, but please only say what I agree with.
The next stage or phase of interaction is, however, what I want to consider for a moment. Many have gone on after spouting such verbal bile to ask for the authorities to defend their freedom of speech and their perspective, hatred (of Christians) and beliefs as an outstanding virtue in society. They have portrayed themselves as the victim, that their position needs defending, and demanded that governments have a kind of freedom for free speech, which prefers their personal view of goodness (and their definition of what is right) for society. If such were true, there is no hope.
Most chilling of all were the words of the suspect, Tyler Robinson, to his parents. When they asked him why he did it, he said, "There is just too much evil in the guy; he spreads too much hate." Tyler believes he was doing a good thing by killing Charlie, a virtuous, loving act on behalf of a hurting world. This is satanic, to not see intrinsic worth in human life, and to justify hatred and murder as a loving act. I am not dismissing for a moment that there are many views on how wise, tactless, and antagonistic Charlie may have been. From my personal understanding, there seems to be a gap in his communication, a wrong tone for which he was known by as the only feature to some (many), which is not becoming as a speaker of the gospel of love. People may never hear the glory of the gospel, the magnitude of God's grace, if our tone and communication style is one which raises the level of hostility to spiritual defcon 2 before any relational dialogue commences. Maybe all of what Charlie said was manipulated to form a reel of what was interpreted to be hate, but maybe there was substance which he himself alone could amend.
The high calling of being a witness of Jesus Christ.
We serve the gospel better by showing wisdom and tact from a heart of compassion, speaking truth, yes, but as one full of compassion, saved by undeserved grace. This is the gospel of the one who cried over the masses and sacrificed all of himself in obedience to the bigger plan of grace. Having a passion for conflict is never a healthy sign in a child of Christ, and it doesn't end well. My understanding is that Charlie's motives were good, and expressed badly at times, but I admit that my understanding is very limited; I don't know his heart, and that is between him and God. None of us should relish conflict. However, none of that makes murder a virtue... and this is as twisted and tangled as it gets.
A different reaction.
What was a simultaneous rare ray of light in these dark times was Dortmund footballer Felix's posts bubbling lower down in the news. The 24-year-old said ...
"May the Lord grant the Kirk family special grace during this time. Jesus is the true way to peace and love"
Isaiah 52:3 ff remind us that we need a substitute who stands in our relational place before God, as a way to be free from the destructive patterns and dynamics we are all prone and disposed to. Without you or me ever getting to that place where we see we are broken, none of who God is and has done for us makes sense. It isn't only our Sin that we need to be saved from, but also our best excuses and proneness to be self-righteous and virtuous. We need to be saved from ourselves and our own self-justifying view of ourselves.
I need a Saviour. I'm so grateful our God came for the sick.
Jesus said, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners." Those who believe they are right cannot hear the heart or words or heart of God, or His last ultimate word of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. The world today is "too good" in its own eyes. It protests it all day, every day, with an increasing crescendo of self-proclaimed virtue. In doing so, it ignores the only way to break the chains of sin and see peace with God. We need the Spirit of God to break into our generation with loving conviction of sin.
People who think they are good, righteous, virtuous, religious, just don't understand Him, and He has nothing to say to them. Sometimes the religion people serve is the cause of "free speech", a definition of freedom which gets rid of Christians if they suggest this is not the true road to ultimate freedom. Such militancy, which seeks to eliminate people who do not think like us, to make more excuses for indefensible behaviour, and to double down on our anger, never leads to a better society. What is undeniable here is the sad, stark reality of where all this leads. It should drive us to our knees in repentance. When we, I look inwards, here is a great illustration of how corrupt my heart is. (Jeremiah 17:9), (Matthew 5) (1 John 3:15). I am to love God, and love humanity like God. How far I fall short.
Personally, I feel my guilt so keenly, my brokenness so deeply, I am in need. He and His forgiveness are the greatest celebration of my life. I need it, I need Him. The cross of Christ is the only place which makes sense of humanity in our brokenness and shame.
The one who stands in my place, despised, rejected, scorned as the perfect incarnate, covers my guilt, my excuses, my habits, my self-defence in His goodness. Something miraculous has happened in my life. In seeing Jesus, I have started to own up to what I am, discovered who I am through who He is, and have started the process of seeing progress. I do this in the security of His love, that His faithfulness and righteousness will never let me down (Hebrews 4:15). What He has started in me, He will bring to completion. (Phil 1:6). I cannot bear my own guilt but He has borne it for me. Who doesn't need that? He is my only virtue.
Our objective moral guilt before God is our true problem. It is a problem deeper than our self-image. God loves guilty people and on the cross has borne human guilt in totality, taken it far away. It is not a psychological mind game, a philosophical proposition; it is a relational gift of God who loves us more than we can comprehend, a lasting way out for us from Himself, bearing the cost Himself. Forgiveness changes everything. We can live in the freedom of forgiveness. There is hope. There is grief, grief for our sin, grief for our world, grief for grieving families of both perpetrators and victims, but in Christ, it is a grief which leads to joy.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
Surely He has borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed him stricken,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The death of Christ is the begining of our lives. His death brings our depravity to death. He won for us and purchased for us the richness and fullness of life forever, in who He is, in His character, in His victory over sin forever. With His stripes we are healed. Because he was crushed, we are healed.
Keep offloading your guilt on Him and there is freedom and joy for the whole of life and increasing into eternity. Once you discover His virtue and goodness, there is no end to it, and no containment of How Good our God is.
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