What a strange juxtaposition of events. One day we were singing joyously “Christ is risen!” and only a week later came the news “bin Laden is dead.” I wonder if I am the only one who feels the tension of that contradiction, or even sees the contradiction at all. Surely I cannot be alone in this.

It is not that I am denying death. I know too well that death is still something we all must face. The contradiction I see is in self-styled Christians announcing in the media that this was a necessary outcome. The contradiction is in the celebrations that broke out after the news came. O Judgement! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason! How can we shout “Christ is risen,” then in the next breath celebrate the death of a man- any man?

Some may argue that by bin Laden’s death countless others may be saved from his plots. Maybe, but al-Qaeda will not go away. No doubt several others, his sons perhaps, have already risen up in his place, preaching the same hate, the same violence. How can we know anyone has truly been spared?

Some may argue that he deserved it. No doubt, he did. I cannot help but question the sufficiency of that argument, though.

Tolkien deals with this question in the mines of Moria through the mouth of Frodo, when he discovers the evil Gollum is following him. The wisdom of Gandalf is worth repeating.

FRODO
It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him when he had the chance.

GANDALF
Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?

Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment… even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

I cannot shake the feeling that we as a nation are walking around like Lady MacBeth with blood on our hands, and that this is a stain we will not be able to wash out. Can we give life to the dead? No? Then what business do we have taking it from the living? How dare we play God, deciding who lives or dies, setting ourselves up as judge, jury, and executioner. Did this man deserve to die? Sure, but by the standards of righteousness, so do we.

It has been a week and a half, and still there is the sting of it shouldn’t have happened this way. Rational arguments say we had to do something. It is expedient for one man to die for the people. (Funny, that sounds familiar.) The trouble with rational arguments is that faith is not rational. It is most decidedly not based on the rational. Faith is, always has been, and always will be spiritual, and the spiritual life is often counter-intuitive.

Do not ask me what we should have done instead. I have little interest in political discussions, nor do I think they would be at all productive at this point. What I do know is we “deal out death in judgement” at the risk of our own souls.

The question, I suppose, is whether I really want to follow Jesus or not. If not, then I am free to plaster the internet and airwaves with my hatred for another human being. If, however, I honestly want to follow Jesus, if, like Paul, I wish to be a slave to righteousness, then I must deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Jesus. I must see every man, even the most monstrous, as a living breathing image of God and treat him as such. Rather than wish him dead or rejoice at his demise, I must pray for his salvation. And I must continue this even if it costs me my own life. This, after all, is what Jesus would do. This is what Jesus, his apostles, and countless others through the ages have done. If I wish to be counted among God’s friends, I must act like one of God’s friends.

Yes, it is irrational. Yes, it is counter-intuitive. But it is neither if I remember that this life is not all there is, and that my goal is not to last as long as possible here and somehow maybe cheat death. No, if my goal is Christ, then this makes all the sense in the world.

Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
In Arabic and Greek