Sunday Reflections: When Bombs Go Off

By the Rev. Ben Black

Tragic. Horrific.  Senseless.  These are a few of the words that describe the events that occurred in Boston.  We rack our brains to come up with explanations to answer the questions as to why something so profane as the senseless violence would ever take place. 

What happened in Boston was evil, pure and simple.  It is hard to fathom what would possess someone destroy lives and drive a serene city into chaos.  It is in times like these where we come face to face with the truth that this world is broken.  We are forced from the comfort of our recliners to see the carnage of violence that enshrouds so much of the world today.  Evil exists and the realities of Boston was another rude awakening that the brash actions of just a few can change the reality for many.

I will not belabor that point any longer, but what I am primarily concerned with is this: How do we respond?  My mind is taken to the words of Croatian theologian Miroslav Volf who said this:

"To triumph fully, evil needs two victories, not one.  The first victory happens when an evil deed is perpetrated; the second victory when evil is returned.  After the first victory, evil would die if the second victory did not infuse it with new life."

This does not sit well with us.  We want action and we want justice.  While the manhunt ensued in Watertown and Dzhokar Tsarnaev was pinned down in that little boat, there was concern that he had a bomb on his person and would commit suicide.  I listened intently to the news broadcast from a computer with a roomful of friends as the police surrounded the boat and planned the capture. 

One of person made the statement "I hope he does not commit suicide."  I agreed and asked him why.  Without missing a beat, his response was "For justice."  That evening I also read posts on facebook and elsewhere from angry people wishing they could put a bullet in Dzhokar Tsarnaev's eye for what he had done.  All for justice.

These impressions have haunted me over the past week and a half.  I agree, we all want justice.  But, if you believe in God, then you also believe that everyone will be held accountable for their lives.  The justice of God is far more terrible than the justice of man.  We seldom talk about this "God of justice", but in a world of Evil we must.  Again, I think Miroslav Volf says it best in his work Exclusion and Embrace:

"My thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West. To the person who is inclined to dismiss it, I suggest imagining that you are delivering a lecture in a war zone (which is where a paper that underlies this chapter was originally delivered). Among your listeners are people whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit. The topic of the lecture: a Christian attitude toward violence. The thesis: we should not retaliate since God is perfect noncoercive love. Soon you would discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God’s refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die. And as one watches it die, one will do well to reflect about many other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind…if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did NOT make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship."

God hates violence.  God hates evil.  God hates revenge.  In fact it was Jesus who said "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."  I think it is clear that we have an enemy in Dzhokar Tsarnaev.  How do we respond?  Can we possibly pray for this man? What would we even pray for?  For me, I must pray two prayers.  First, that I might be transformed by God.  As the events transpired, I realized that I do not feel much love for my enemies.  I pray that God would grant me the gift to love those who are impossible to love.  My second prayer is that God would transform Dzhokar Tsarnaev and not just Dzhokar, but all men gripped by evil. I am praying that by the power of God, peace might prevail and this broken world would be transformed from the inside out. 

Will you join me?

The Rev. Ben Black is pastor of Forest Hills Presbyterian Church.