Celebrating Justice While Remembering To Love

I’m a big James Bond fan. I always have been. When I was little, I would pretend that I was a 00 Agent in Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and I would strut around my house, routing out the bad guys, thwarting terrorism at every turn, and trying to act as suave as possible while doing so. I had a small suction-cup dart gun that I would keep tucked in the waist of my pants so that any time an evil-doer came looking for trouble, it was trouble he found. I even tried to talk with a British accent—or Scottish one, depending on which Bond movie I had most recently seen—so I could be more like Bond.  By the way, Sean Connery is and will always be the greatest Bond. None of the others come anywhere close.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized just how violent James Bond really is. As Jess and I were watching one of my favorites, Thunderball, my lovely wife pointed out to me that Bond is ruthless! He even uses women as body shields! I thanked her for forever marring my conception of one of my childhood heroes, but I had to admit that she was right. James Bond is suave. He’s cool. But he leaves a long trail of bodies in his wake in every single movie.

And as a child I celebrated every single kill.

Now, we live in a world today where it is commonplace for the average person to watch and enjoy movies like this. The James Bond film franchise alone makes enough money to keep Disney’s MGM studios running right now, because people are driven by action. We thrive for the stories where the good triumphs over evil in amazing ways. This is one of the reasons that the Easter story is so important to us. In it, we are reminded of the ultimate story of Good conquering evil, life winning over death. And just as it is the case with the Easter story, we yearn for justice to prevail in all aspects of our life. We celebrate all of the stories in which good triumphs over evil and the wrongs are made right.

Just like we celebrated what happened on Sunday night, last week.

Osama bin Laden, one of leaders and figureheads of a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organization, was captured and killed. By the time I found out on Monday morning, the news was everywhere, and it seemed that everyone was celebrating in different ways. There were people dancing and singing in the streets at Time Square, Washington DC, and a number of other places. Bars and restaurants stayed open later than usual so people could gather together and toast the ending of an era. People were jumping online and posting on Facebook, twitter, and their blogs all through the night, sharing their joy with the World Wide Web. News programs were scrambling to bring viewers the most coverage. Editorial writers and commentators were going to town on the subject. Everyone seemed to be celebrating this death.

And as a Christian, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Are we really celebrating that someone was killed?

Many of my friends on Facebook—both back in Texas and here—were lifting up praises that God has vanquished the evil one. They were quoting Scripture out of context, equating bin Laden to Satan, and equating American justice with God’s divine justice.

And most of the people doing this were my pastor friends and other Christian leaders whom I really look up to.

It made me sad.

Is this really the way that we as Christians are called to respond to such an event? Can we really rejoice in the death of anyone, even someone who orchestrated the deaths of so many people? Even more importantly, can those of us who believe that only Christians are saved from sin truly celebrate someone’s death when they hold that he is now suffering an eternity of damnation for not following Jesus? Is that living out the love to which Christ calls us?

This is one of the hardest challenges of being a Christian. Christ calls us in Matthew 5:38-48 to live differently than the world and to respond to injustice differently than the world. We’ve talked before on the practical application of this text and how it can be seen as a call to non-violent resistance for those living under oppression. We know how turning the other cheek, giving your cloak, and walking the extra mile are ways of fighting back without ever fighting back. But hear the radicalness of this message. The old ways of “an eye for an eye” are not to be followed. Instead, we are called to love not only our friends, but also our enemies. Those that do us harm, those who would see us parish, we are to love.

Christ calls us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. It’s radical. And yet many of you here, myself included, feel a great sense of loyalty and pride toward our nation. The United States of America is not just a country for you. It’s home. It means something powerful. And last Sunday, our nation brought down the figurehead of a worldwide terrorist organization. This should be celebrated, shouldn’t it? We should feel pride in apprehending the bad guy.

So how do we hold these things together? How do we love bin Laden, pray for people like bin Laden, and still feel proud of our soldiers, our nation, for apprehending an orchestrator of terror?

Friends, I don’t know. I think that this is the tension in which we are called to live as Christians, that tension of being in the world and yet not of the world.

Toby Keith, one of the many country singers who responded to the 9/11 attacks through music, wrote a number of songs about the attack, about the war, and about our troops. “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” came out just days after the attacks and was Toby’s immediate response to them. It’s brash and bold, uplifting America and warning terrorists around the world what they have coming to them. A year later, in his album, “Shock ‘n Y’all,” a play off of Operation: Shock and Awe, he released a song entitled “If I was Jesus.” It is bold in a very different way, reminding listeners that Jesus conquered death not through violence, but through love.

“I’d lay my life down for you. I’d show you who’s the boss. I’d forgive you and adore you while I was hanging on your cross.”

In this song, Toby brought out the tension of the Christian life. On one hand, he held his patriotism and his desire to see justice accomplished. On the other, he held his faith and his understanding that he follows a God who calls us to love even when it seems the hardest thing in the world to do.

I am not sure what the “correct response” to this is. I don’t honestly know if there is one. But I do know that I do not feel right celebrating Jesus’ victory over death one week and then celebrating the death of anyone the very next. In a way, I feel like we’re not much different than the crowds in Jerusalem who gathered one day to shout “Hosanna!” and gathered just a few days later to scream “Crucify!”

Christ says in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, now you must love one another.” In the same speech, two chapters later, He says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

And the kicker is that, as we know and as we celebrated just two weeks ago, Christ lived this out. He loved us so much that He died for us and lived again for us. And, what is more, Jesus Christ loved Osama bin Laden so much that He died for him and lived again for him. Even though he might never have worshiped Jesus, even though he orchestrated the death of many of Christ’s disciples, Jesus loved Osama bin Laden no less than He loves you or me.

My friends, we are called to do the same. We are called to love one another as Christ has loved us. Not simply our friends and those beloved to us, but also our enemies, those who persecute and come against us.

May we be a people that live this out. May we celebrate life, not death. May we lift up Christ’s love and resurrection, not rejoice in death—be it a Bond victim or bin Laden himself. And may we, above all else, strive to love one another—every one another—as Christ loves us.

Amen.