A ruthless dictator is killed along with his son and grandchildren and the first thing I think of is the sadness of the loss of young lives, then I realize how many other young lives were snuffed out by the violence of this dictator and others like him and Jesus' words come to mind: They that live by the sword, shall die by the sword.  But I feel no sense of satisfaction or justice served, just sadness at the way of the world.

An infamous terrorist leader is killed along with his son and from sports talk shows to FaceBook, my fellow Americans rejoice and shout that Justice has been served.  But again I can' t join in.  Are the forces that delude my fellow Americans again at work by distracting them from the failure of our government of the people, for the people and by the people to provide fairness to the people by offering up a sacrifice to the God of national pride?

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses the life of his eternal soul?  What do we gain if we belong to the greatest militaristic society the world has ever known and lose our eternal soul?

It wasn't revenge that empowered Jesus to rise from his grave on that first resurrection morning, it was love.  If we look at the natural world around us there is gray everywhere.  But if we look at our Risen Saviour and see Him as the Truth and truly become Friends of the Truth in our heart, there is pure light, the light that overcame the darkness and wants to shine through us to overcome the darkness of greed and self-interest; the light that people walk in when they come to the aid of their tornado/earthquake/hurricane ravaged neighbor.  Let's not celebrate darkness in any of its forms:  it was true of Malchus' ear and it's true of those we perceive of as evil today, those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.  But let us walk in the light and follow the examples of those among us feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.   I pray that just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem we can weep over the death of our enemy with sadness in our hearts that we even have enemies and that there are people in this world who perceive us as their enemy.

Mathew 5:43 & 44

Romans 11:32 & 33