School Shooting... Marysville WA

www.MarysvilleNaz.org

Almost three weeks ago the unthinkable happened in my community, we had a school shooting.  I haven't written about it in large part because I'm not sure what to say and in many ways I'm still in shock.  It all seems a bit unreal. 

How exactly does one get a handle on this?  There really aren't words... and blogging is all about words, I'm all about words... but in this moment they seem completely inadequate.  

So here is what I think.  

First, evil is real.  None of us know what was going on in the young man's mind that day but neither can we deny that the choices he made were evil.  No getting around it, massaging it or sugar coating it.  What happened at Marysville-Pilchuck was evil plain and simple. 

We live in a world that wants to run away from the idea of evil.  We like to say they aren't bad, what they did was bad.  I get what they are trying to say, the kid wasn't Hitler but still, I think the distinction is lost on the families of his victims.  Evil is real and denying it doesn't help. 

Second, evil always damages innocent victims.  It is the nature of evil.  It would be one thing if the only person hurt by evil was the person doing it, but it never works that way.  Evil always harms bystanders.  I often think this is why God hates evil so much.  

Third... and most importantly, the remedy for evil is not justice but Love.  Don't get me wrong, there is a very important place for justice.  Locking up folks that do this sort of thing is absolutely the right thing to do, but justice can never cure the problem it can only respond after the fact.  In the case of our shooting, there isn't even anyone to lock up.  The shooter took his own life.  The whole justice mantra seems hollow and very unsatisfying.

Love is God's answer to evil.  It's not as immediately or emotionally satisfying as justice but it is the only answer that actually address the problem.  It is also the only answer that can eliminate the problem before it finds expression in destructive actions.  

The real trouble with evil is that it's a heart problem and no amount of justice can change the heart, only love can do that.  The power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that He came to bring justice but that he came to bring a remedy for evil.  It was love not justice that motivated Jesus to surrender his life and absorb the consequences of our evil.  It is only Love that can open our hearts to what he wants to do in us.  To use His language, "cleansing us of all sin."  (1 John 1:7)  The only cure for evil is to change our hearts. 

In the days since the shooting I've been privileged to watch an outpouring of love in our community.  There have been lots of hugs, words of support, material gifts and sometime just gathering for the sake of being together.  Somehow we intuitively know that the response to evil must be Love.  Love is the cure and Love will heal. 

I think maybe this is why Jesus added only one commandment.. "Love Each Other"