Reactions towards the 'wicked'

One can learn so much about their friends in how they react to news. For example, this Sunday was when the nation learned that Osama bin Laden died. To be honest when I first heard I was so tired that I didn't care but I passed it on to my friends so that they were aware because I figured it was important. 

I was not expecting what happened though. Riots outside of my window? Cheering and spontaneous parades on Main Street? USA chants every night in the bars? Since when did our nation care?

People took so much pleasure in the death of one man. Yes, he was responsible for terrible crimes. Yes, it appeared that he was not repentant for the acts of Sept 11. Yes, our government needs to protect its people. But he was still a man with a soul. I worry about how people in the Middle East will react to our response to this news. We call ourselves a "Christian nation" (although I would argue that we are not) yet as a people we do not share the grace that our God shares. What impact will this have in our relations with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq?

On a smaller, more day-to-day scale, where do we act without compassion and grace towards the wicked? One example I've noticed is how we treat criminals. Do we act with grace and wisdom in trying to help them and pray for a change in heart? No. More often than not, I see the opposite. For example, people in my classes get together every week to watch the show 'To Catch a Predator' so they can make fun of each man that appears on the show and so they can feel better about their own lives. They get an ego boost because they aren't 'as bad as that guy.'

This breaks my heart on so many levels. Where do we find justice in comparing ourselves to others when we all have different stories and personalities and problems? No one is good, not one. Through the grace of God, we can be forgiven and freed from our sin but not a single person deserves it. It hurts a lot hearing people make fun of rapists or murderers or felons of any sort when they have not met or gotten to know one. So much systemic injustice and brokenness exists in societies that end up causing these crimes to happen and complicate things. 

If there has been one lesson that I have learned this year, we need to learn how to forgive the most heart-breaking and disappointing crimes otherwise nothing will get restored. And the only way to truly forgive someone is by leaning on God and asking him to change YOUR heart and not just the "wicked's" for we all are wicked. 

We should not rejoice in another human's demise but we should rejoice when another has a change of heart. Ezekiel 33:11 says, ‘...As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live....' Let this be our stance and motto as a nation instead.