The last few days have seen what looks to me to be a good-natured debate within the Christian community about how exactly we should respond to reports of Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of the US Navy Seals. There has been jubilation (Exodus 15:1, 1 Sam 17-18, Proverbs 11:10), there has been praise for the military and intelligence communities (Romans 13), and there has been consternation over saying anything positive at all (Prov. 24:17, Ezekiel 18, Jonah, etc), with pretty much every party insisting that the other is doing it wrong, and with the verses to prove it.
What atheists foolishly call the contradictions of scripture, wise men see as a reproach to our bent toward simple-mindedness. The magistrate IS a minister of God’s wrath on the unrighteous, and we should believe it, but we should not believe it in such a way as to invalidate God’s claim that He would rather see the wicked repent and not be destroyed. The people rightly rejoice when the wicked meet their end; but the vengeance was not theirs but the Lord’s, so we must do so humbly, lest we fall into all kinds of temptation. Jesus calls us to a simple faith, but not a simplistic one, in part because He has not been deceived (as we are) into thinking that our enemy’s machinations against us will be simplistic.
This illustrates a point that bears repeating: the Christian tradition consists almost entirely of resources for perpetual self-critique. On every side of this issue stands a Scriptural corrective reminding us just how creative we can be when it comes to finding ways to sin. A wicked officer would refuse to pursue justice; a wicked blogger would demand that he refuse to. A wicked man gloats over the death of a military enemy, but another wicked man cannot conceive that this enemy’s death may indeed have been just; yet another wicked man cannot tell the difference between gloating and rejoicing (and scolds the latter as if it were the former), and still another doesn’t understand why we should care what happens to a mastermind of mass murder, since he is God’s to judge. And lest we forget, Christianity (as Judaism before it) is a faith forged under exile and oppression, so when the powerful claim great accomplishments we are not so credulous as to simply accept their version of history uncritically.
None of us get to speak infallibly ex cathedra on this issue; we all stand condemned of our sins of commission, omission, and motivation. But God in his mercy has not left us there to mud-wrestle in the squalor of our confusion and speculation. The Holy Spirit now indwells us to teach us how to think, love, judge, and walk as Jesus walked, and to teach and encourage one another to do the same. The Scriptures stand as our reference point for God’s gracious self-revelation, not to provide us with one simplistic rule for any given situation, but to shape in us the kind of wisdom which begins with the fear of the Lord and works itself out in loving community.
