As the news spread and reports began to come in I have to say that I was uneasy with many of the scenes of celebration throughout our country. Not the joy at seeing justice done, which I'm sure was part of the emotional mix, but the party atmosphere that has since been described as "spiking the football" and a "Super Bowl party" (Why so many football analogies). It just didn't sit well with me as many people, many of which were very young (if around at all) when 9/11 happened, danced around looking like they were just happy to have found another reason to party.
I asked myself at the time, "what is the proper response that I, as a Christian, should have to the news." I was happy then when Voices of Faith changed their regularly scheduled question to ask how a "person of faith" (the newspaper phrases their questions very broadly) should respond to bin Laden's death.
In talking to people since then, I know that many Christians have struggled with how they should respond to bin Laden's death, and as I have thought (and read others' thoughts) about it, it is clear that it is an issue that doesn't have a single, simple answer. Our responsibility as Christians is to think God's thoughts after him. A few thoughts on what this means for us:
The scripture tells us that God himself has said, "As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live;" (Ezekiel 33:11). We should share this reaction. We would rather have seen bin Laden's repentance than his execution. Bin Laden spent his adult life not only carrying out and ordering others to carry out unspeakable acts against other human beings, but he also spent his life in idolatrous rebellion against God. He trafficked in the most extreme sect of a false religion, daily storing up wrath against himself for the day of wrath.
While he lived, there was always a chance that God, in his inexplicable and boundless mercy, would grant repentance to this man who was still made in God's image, as warped and corrupted as it was. We might think that bin Laden was beyond salvation, but we should quickly remember that God is sovereign and he has saved countless people that humanly speaking were beyond redemption. God is mighty to save. When you think about it, if he can save me, he can save anyone.
With his death bin Laden's opportunity for repenting of his sin and rebellion is now past. That is not something to celebrate.
On the other hand, to see temporal justice being meted out on evil is certainly a cause for rejoicing. In Exodus 15:1, speaking regarding the destruction of Pharaoh's army said, "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea." Justice is part of the nature of God as well, and to see evil overcome is praiseworthy.
Finally, God's word assures us that government functions as "the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer" (Rom 13:4).
Vengeance is not for us to seek individually, but judgment on evil, even through the agency of our Special-Ops forces is a cause for thankful praise to our holy God.
Let me conclude with a quote from Proverbs 24 that gives wonderful instruction, for us as well as for any who may follow in the late terrorists footprints:
[15] Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous;
do no violence to his home;
[16] for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,
but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
[17] Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,
[18] lest the LORD see it and be displeased,
and turn away his anger from him.
[19] Fret not yourself because of evildoers,
and be not envious of the wicked,
[20] for the evil man has no future;
the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
[21] My son, fear the LORD and the king,
and do not join with those who do otherwise,
[22] for disaster will arise suddenly from them,
and who knows the ruin that will come from them both? (ESV)
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