Divine Justice: American Idol, Cesar Millan and the Death of Osama Bin Laden -- by Brad Jersak

Jesus says, "I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me." (John 14:30-31).

Yesterday morning I was thinking about our image of God as a Judge and what a judge actually does. It all depends on the setting. I thought about the American Idol judges. They are so kind this year, so encouraging. It is never their heart to disqualify... in fact they can't, only the crowds do that. Those judges endeavour to draw out the best in the artists and even their critiques are only a call to become and to succeed at who they truly are. I wonder: What if Jesus is even a better judge than Steven Tyler and Jaylo? I know they have set the bar very, very high as exemplary judges, but when I think of the 'Judgment Seat of Christ,' is it possible that Jesus might even be better than Steven Tyler? More gracious, more compassionate, more redemptive than Jennifer Lopez? Is Jesus up for such an immense challenge?

Last night, I watched the show again (during NHL playoff intermissions). I quote Steve Tyler's comment to one contestant: 'There's nothing to judge. You're just beautiful.'

 Biblical 'justice' is defined as 'making things right' where 'right' means 'love of neighbour.' Prophetic justice is neither punishment, nor sloppy sentimentalism (our new favourite pejorative for 'love').

I started thinking about the death of Osama Bin Laden and the President's comment that 'Justice had been served.' Something about that feels true. If human justice includes ending a terrorist's reign of fear, the President is right on some level. Of course, we also get the sense that vengeance is not necessarily justice. I.e. it doesn't always make things right. Vengeance (justice as 'an eye for an eye') always runs the risk of escalation, retaliation, and so on. It falls short of the standards of divine justice.

What if divine justice were measured by the following standards?

Divine justice would be perfect.

Divine justice would truly make things right.

Divine justice would include restoration, rehabilitation, restitution, and reconciliation.

When the Cesar Millan (the 'Dog Whisperer') works with an aggressive and dangerous dog, he is doing justice work. He always says, 'I rehabilitate dogs, I train humans.' He never considers 'putting the dog down' as success, as making things right, or even as an option. He always either rehabilitates the dog by correcting its owners, or he finds another home where the dog's needs and gifts can be satisfied, or in the very worst case scenarios, he gives them one of his healthy dogs and adopts the aggressive dog for himself. If you destroyed the dog, he would never say, 'Justice was served' (things have been made right). He would regard that as utter failure.

What if Jesus' idea of making things right is higher than the Dog Whisperer's? What if divine justice is never satisfied by putting down 'the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood' (Rev. 22:15)? What if he has all the time in the universe to rehabilitate the 'dogs,' train the church and heal the breach? Or is he not quite up to Cesar Millan's standard of justice?

Back to OBL. Humanly speaking, I am glad that he is dead. I like that they killed him and how they killed him. I am not sure that it was wrong per se ... humanly speaking. But I'm very sure that we have not seen anything like divine justice. The families were not compensated in any way, their loved ones have not come back from the dead, we have not been reconciled to our Islamic enemies, and nothing like the 4 R's above has been accomplished. I don't fool myself into thinking a Bishop Tutu style 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' would have worked, but let's not be naive on the other end: if this is justice, it is a very low end, fleshly version that is impotent to truly make things right. It is not justice so much as catharsis.

What would Jesus have done? We don't know. But here's a start: what if it were possible to at least take OBL into custody, disempower him, and start using his considerable assets to pay out compensation packages to the victims of 9-11? What if the families were invited to hearings to see his living face in person as a verdict was rendered? I don't know ... maybe the satisfaction of instant gratification outweighed the risk of him slithering free somehow. Perhaps his death will open a door for closure, but if closure means healing, my experience is that the penalty inflicted on one's enemy does not in fact satisfy human wrath or heal human grief. And that discovery is very disillusioning.

By the way, while the President decided not to release the photos (a good idea in my view) because 'that's not who we are,' let's remember for a moment that we found OBL because we tracked a courier who was betrayed by an informant who gave us the information while we tortured him. Indeed, that is who we are.

Furthermore, to me it seems like OBL fits the biblical description of the 'wicked.' If he was a 'dog' who needed to be 'put down,' remember this: like Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein, he was also at one time our employee, trained by us, equipped by us for death. He was not killed for being an attack dog. He was killed for breaking off our leash and biting the hand that fed him. 

I wonder. If OBL was the latest 'prince of the world' in the demonic sense (and he may have been), how would Jesus' words in John 14 judge us? Could we say this? 

"Osama Bin Laden has no hold over me, but OBL came so that the world would learn that we love the Father and do exactly what our Father has commanded us."

Comments

[k. w.]

If there are any photos... Probably the man was dead years ago. I don't see why people are so quick to believe propaganda which perpetuates war.

For the most part, people were either shouting "Praise the Lord! Bin Laden's dead!" (which upset me) or saying something like what Brad has written here (which I thought beautiful). But both responses kinda miss the big picture.

War is evil. Innocent people are dying all over the place due to it. It's not stopping, even though this one evil dude was purportedly killed.

I didn't really like the idea that Jesus might've approved if 9-11 victims had received war spoils. If someone killed my family, I wouldn't want some so-called heroes killing a bunch of other people's families just so they could get me some filthy money and capture the murderer. I'd want peace and freedom.

But then, I'm fairly naive, and my perspective might be quite wrong. I thought the rest was beautiful.

[alf]

When I heard that OBL had been killed, and saw the celebrations over it, I felt sick. I wonder how many Christians joined the celebrations, how many had prayed for this day to come?

Did the disciples pray for Saul's death, the persecutor of the Church?

What if they got what they wished for?

Or did the Church pray for him? Forgive him?

What if the Church today had prayed for Osama? Would he have had a Damascus road too? That, I believe, would have been Divine Justice. But then we would have HAD to forgive him, welcome him as a brother.

I guess a bullet to the head was a lot easier...

[jan]

thank you for helping us to see better.

Divine Justice knows who we are.

that is why Divine Justice kindly and wisely tells us to forgive as we are forgiven.

but don't think i don't understand how difficult that is.

blessings y'all.

[Ted Hill]

Thanks Brad for this! It is a great expansion on the MLK Jr. quote - which is good, just too easy to repost on Facebook! Thanks for your investment in justice and calling us to consider it deeply and honestly.