I have to admit a small slice of joy over Osama's death this week. And then I felt guilty. The Facebook posts varied from 'Justice was done' to 'Love your enemy' and I'm still waffling between the two emotions. I was going to write a treatise on this, but frankly, someone beat me to it... kudos to Chris Seiple for his article recently published in Christianity Today. I couldn't have said it better, and I'd highly encourage reading it in full. It's worth quoting a few highlights:
"This weekend, the perpetrator of 9/11 learned that there are consequences for sin. Those consequences are sometimes delivered by governments whose responsibility is justice (Rom. 13:3-5; 1Pet. 2:14)—even if their bows, according to their condition, may yield evil with the good.
Indeed, since it is a "dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31), we are also humbly reminded of and hopefully repent of our own sin. And we remember anew that God's Son lived, died, and today teaches a New Testament, calling each of his believers to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:44-45).
I didn't love bin Laden. And I can count on one hand the number of times I prayed for him over the past ten years. My heart convicts me—forgive my sin, dear God—but I have no qualms about his death, or how he died.
I do know, however, that it is not a time for celebration.The God of history is quite clear:"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" (Ezek. 33:11). Bin Laden's death, instead, should be a time for somber reflection. We should be grateful for justice, even as we renew our call to live out the message of reconciliation "as though God were making his appeal through us" (2 Cor. 5:19-21).
Pray for more people-to-people relations between America and Pakistan, such as the relationship I have with my Islamist friend. It is these relationships of reconciliation that break down the walls of misunderstanding, creating the possibility of mutual respect and peace. Pray that you might be given a meaningful relationship with a Muslim in your own community.
Finally, pray for wisdom and stamina. This stuff isn't for sissies. As Jesus forewarned: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves" (Matt. 10:16).
The times are too many when I have been less than shrewd, less than innocent, as I have journeyed into the Islamic world. It is not an easy thing to let go of stereotypes and preconditions, but I am learning.
It gets easier, I have found, the more I rely on the One who died for his enemy, for my sin. After all, did this Jewish rabbi not engage the enemy Samaritan at the well in mid-day (John 4)? Did this Prince of Peace not forgive his enemies on the cross when nobody asked (Luke 23:34)?
Do we dare aspire to anything less?"
