It has been almost two weeks since we heard that terrible alert over our phones that a violent person was moving somewhere in Saskatchewan. We heard shortly that there was a murder of ten persons on the James Smith First Nation. Then there were four tense days that we followed the police as they tried to locate and arrest the perpetrator.
Every adult must try to process this unbelievable carnage. What does our Christian faith offer us as tools to process such evil?
At the roots of our faith is our God who comes precisely in the mess of humanity. God is not distant, tut-tuting us for the killings and robbery that we do to each other. The spirit of God is moving among us. The spirit of God is moving among the terrible suffering of these crime scenes.
Stand with two feet on the ground. Evil is very real. We often turn away from a frank and blunt discussion about the reality of evil but it happens; and happens right around us. What is more difficult for most human beings is to be honest enough with themselves to recognize that they are capable of evil. This is the black side of our personality. We too could inflict evil on another human being.
This is not written in the Bible but we have always believed and interpreted that whenever one human being does evil or caused destruction towards another human being, there the suffering of Jesus on the cross happens all over again. Christ suffers among us. Christ suffers the evil that one human being inflicts on another. Christ is moving among the soldiers involved in the war in the Ukraine. Christ is in the killing fields!
We have not given this enough attention in the past decades but we, not only must not divorce Christ from human evil, but we must locate it where Christ wants to be. Christ is among us in these evil episodes.
Our response in Saskatchewan has been one of compassion toward the victims, the family and all those injured by knife wounds. We also want to be understanding towards the police personnel, all the medical people and government people who were involved in this evil storm.
What our Christian faith supports us with is the closeness of Christ to the victims and all the compassionate people who lament such evil. In faith, we are trusting that Christ walks with us in these tough times. We may never understand why this carnage happened but we trust that Christ is with us in all this suffering.
This is not cheap Pollyanna stuff but is motivated by a strong conviction that Christ is with us and Christ will support us through this time of trial.
We do not buckle under the weight of evil. We need to be very truthful about the reality of evil but recognize that our Christian faith moves us towards life and goodness.
It is not written in the Scriptures but it empowers us to change evil into life-giving forces. “Better to light one candle than to ever curse the darkness!”
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