Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
I just finished watching a movie. I don’t even know what it was called. But there was such an interesting part at the end… I had to blog about it.
The movie was about a series of brutal, horrible serial killings of young women. They did a good job of setting up like 4 different possible killers. So, well written. BUT… in the end it was the least likely guy – the brother of the main character… and even though he has killed so many people and hurt and messed up so many lives… you end up feeling sorry for the guy. There is a detective who has been tracking him for like 10 years or something… and the brother is trying to kill him at the end, so he can get away, and his sister ends up shooting him… killing him. (the brother)
And, as the movie ends… the sister is so sad she had to do that… and the police guy and the detective… they both have long faces. And I was right there with them. It was sad.
But immediately I thought… but wait! Justice has been served! They got the killer! They got the bad guy! Why is everybody sad! He’s been doing nothing but this for 10 years?? What’s with the long face. Do a dance of joy or something!!!
But really… in the end… it’s just not nice when someone loses. Part of us knows that. I mean, justice is a good thing. God is Just. And his "eye for an eye" thing is a good and right thing. But the thing is, we all mess up. Everyone one of us. Some mess up MUCH bigger than others… but we all mess up.
When someone gets what they deserve… if we really think about it… that should have been us. All too often, we DON’T get what we deserve. My Bible college professors called that "Mercy"… I call it lucky.
It’s way easier to jump and cheer and celebrate when Saddam is captured and we see the man stripped of any dignity as they show him dissheveled and weary and beaten down on TV… but that’s us. Left unchecked… we would do the same thing. Some of us just get farther down the road.
We are all made in God’s image. ALL. Even Saddam. Even Hitler. Even me. It is sad when any of us faces the consequences of our actions… we were meant for life, not death.
Justice is important. But Jesus proved that grace… and mercy… and forgiveness… and love… are SO MUCH BETTER. That is what the church is all about. A bunch of messed up people who get to love each other through the mess-ups… the every day variety, or the blow up in your face variety.
We can make some pretty big blunders. Maybe even cost us our life (if not literally, figuratively…) The cool thing is, we get to love each other through them… not pointing fingers, shaking our head and saying "I can’t BELIEVE he did THAT!!!" But really just understanding.
That detective didn’t see the vicious killer who killed his fiancee many years ago… he saw a messed up man – made in the image of God – priceless… who messed up big time, and paid for it. That’s not ever good.
That’s just what I’m thinking…