No Way Out

Love the enemy? Love him when he wiped out thirty innocent people in a horrifying slaughter, blaming those he murdered for pushing him to this action? You won't find me volunteering for the job, and I haven't even been personally touched by this incident. This kid was psychotic and wicked. He compared himself to Jesus!

Love the enemy? If I suggested this I would probably be lynched by the families and loved ones who are mourning untimely, gruesome, traumatic losses.

And it doesn't even seem prudent to try to extend grace. First of all, he's dead—thank God. How will forgiveness benefit anyone? Second, the last thing we need to do is heap attention on the killer and thereby create copycats.

So what do we do with Jesus' words, telling us to love our enemies? What do we do with the biblical mandate to forgive those who hurt us?

I don't know. It seems like we could find something in the Bible that would justify righteous anger over this situation ... but if we stuck our noses there we'd keep bumping up against words like, "it is mine to avenge," and "forgive, and you will be forgiven."

Is there no way out?

Note: I can't bear to bring this blog entry to conclusion. If you want a deeper discussion on this topic, hang in there for a few months. Larry's book, A Different Kind of Crazy, will stun and delight you with better answers than I can give on how to really live out Jesus' words.