Much of the news over the weekend revolved around the tragic shooting, deaths, and injuries that took place in Colorado late last week. Our hearts and prayer go out and up for the people involved, for healing for those who survived, and for healing for the many families affected by these tragedies.
There is always a sense of dark intrigue when something like this happens. As the details keep trickling out, it seems like this young man was planning his attack for months in advance, stockpiling weapons and ammunition, and then carrying out his plan on an unsuspecting theater filled with people simply out to enjoy some entertainment.
As you read and hear about this story, it's likely that you have wondered what could cause someone to do something like this. And the thought has probably gone through your head at some point: "I could never do anything like that." And to some degree, I will agree. Most of us never will be able to bring ourselves to the level of action that this young man raised himself up to.
And yet, I would also dispute that you and I could "never" do anything like this. Why do I believe I can say this? Because I'm confident that every single one of us can think about a time where something happened that outraged us enough that we contemplated doing the unthinkable. Someone cut us off in traffic, and we gave a momentary thought to running him or her off the road. Someone said something that we really didn't like, and we momentarily wanted to hit them.
Sure, most of us may not take months planning out how to do something like this, but we HAVE found ourselves ready to react without thinking about things first. When the surge of anger hits, we often have a tough time restraining ourselves (and in some cases, we may not have restrained ourselves).
This brings to mind a word that Jesus said in Matthew 5 in talking about murder. He said that anyone who is angry with his brother (and we can take brother to mean every other person in this world) is liable to judgment, and anyone who basically thinks of another as a fool (or an idiot or whatever your preferred term may be) is liable to hell.
Admittedly, we're talking about two different things here. God sees our sin as equally damning, no matter the depth or width. Anything less than perfection is damning to the God who calls for us to be perfect as He is. That's why Jesus can equate murder with anger, or with thinking less than charitably about your brother.
But the second thing is that God also has guidelines for our lives as we live in this world. God's will still applies to our lives. Murder will always be much more damaging to the human community than anger at another. From our human standpoint, one is worse than the other when it comes to our relationships with our neighbor. From that standpoint, the punishments for each should be adjusted accordingly.
The thing that I most hope that you take away from this post today is that, while you may not plan ahead to do something like this (though we do plan how to carry out our anger at others for long lengths of time), each of us has such a nature that can be driven by anger to do unspeakable things.
There is always a sense of dark intrigue when something like this happens. As the details keep trickling out, it seems like this young man was planning his attack for months in advance, stockpiling weapons and ammunition, and then carrying out his plan on an unsuspecting theater filled with people simply out to enjoy some entertainment.
As you read and hear about this story, it's likely that you have wondered what could cause someone to do something like this. And the thought has probably gone through your head at some point: "I could never do anything like that." And to some degree, I will agree. Most of us never will be able to bring ourselves to the level of action that this young man raised himself up to.
And yet, I would also dispute that you and I could "never" do anything like this. Why do I believe I can say this? Because I'm confident that every single one of us can think about a time where something happened that outraged us enough that we contemplated doing the unthinkable. Someone cut us off in traffic, and we gave a momentary thought to running him or her off the road. Someone said something that we really didn't like, and we momentarily wanted to hit them.
Sure, most of us may not take months planning out how to do something like this, but we HAVE found ourselves ready to react without thinking about things first. When the surge of anger hits, we often have a tough time restraining ourselves (and in some cases, we may not have restrained ourselves).
This brings to mind a word that Jesus said in Matthew 5 in talking about murder. He said that anyone who is angry with his brother (and we can take brother to mean every other person in this world) is liable to judgment, and anyone who basically thinks of another as a fool (or an idiot or whatever your preferred term may be) is liable to hell.
Admittedly, we're talking about two different things here. God sees our sin as equally damning, no matter the depth or width. Anything less than perfection is damning to the God who calls for us to be perfect as He is. That's why Jesus can equate murder with anger, or with thinking less than charitably about your brother.
But the second thing is that God also has guidelines for our lives as we live in this world. God's will still applies to our lives. Murder will always be much more damaging to the human community than anger at another. From our human standpoint, one is worse than the other when it comes to our relationships with our neighbor. From that standpoint, the punishments for each should be adjusted accordingly.
The thing that I most hope that you take away from this post today is that, while you may not plan ahead to do something like this (though we do plan how to carry out our anger at others for long lengths of time), each of us has such a nature that can be driven by anger to do unspeakable things.
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