Why The Cross Matters More

Like many of you, I awoke on Monday morning to the news that American troops had apprehended and killed Osama bin Laden.  Also like many of you, this news was met with a touch of patriotism, but more so, relief.  After 10 years, the leader of the group that had carried out the terrorist attacks of 9/11 had finally been apprehended.  As an American, I understood the enthusiasm and even some of the celebration that came with the demise of an enemy.

But as a Christian person, I quickly began to ask myself, how am I to respond to this news?  Is the death of another person, even someone as terrible as Osama bin Laden, truly something to celebrate?  The gravity of the whole situation set in.  The reality is there have been thousands of deaths over the past ten years that are lamentable, sad, and bring us some degree of grief.  Is Osama bin Laden’s another or should it be treated differently?  I read a quote recently from the Vatican that I thought summarized well a Christian response to this news.  It said, “Osama bin Laden, as we all know, bore the most serious responsibility for spreading divisions and hatred among populations, causing the deaths of innumerable people, and manipulating religions to this end.  In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred.”

In the economy of this age, we live with the regrettable reality of hatred, division, suffering, and war.  The sad reality is that we all know that the death of Osama bin Laden will not be the end of it.  If history has taught us anything, it is that we human beings are very capable of choosing conflict over peace, choosing hatred over love, and choosing death over life.  It will no take long for a new face and a new name to become the common enemy of us all.  More blood, whether innocent or guilty, will be shed, and none of it will atone for past losses and sufferings.  Osama bin Laden did and said terrible things.  Even worse, he did and said those things in the name of God.  But the sad reality that is faced by all of us, especially by those who have lost husbands and fathers, mothers and wives, children and grandchildren in the past 10 years, is that his death will bring none of them back.

The reality we face in this age is that we have so little faith to believe that there is only one person whose blood has any ability to atone for anything, and that is why the cross means so much more.  Perhaps the best way for us to respond to this historical event, namely the death of bin Laden, is to renew our commitment, in word and deed, to faith in Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection is the only reality that matters.  In Matthew 25, Jesus tells about the coming of the new age when ‘the Son of Man comes in his glory” where all will be gathered before him and Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats.  The criterion for this judgement?  When did we see someone naked and give them clothes, someone hungry who we fed, someone thirsty who we offered a drink, a stranger who we welcomed, or a prisoner who we visited?  This is not some claim to a works-based righteousness, but rather a reminder that any true follower of Jesus lives a life marked by compassion, humility, mercy, and love.

I trust that God will judge Osama bin Laden for his sins.  I trust just as much that God will judge me and you as well.  My hope and faith is that the blood of the lamb will be sufficient and will wash us white as snow.  As Americans, perhaps our response to the death of Osama bin Laden should be to do something good for a neighbor, to do something to promote peace, to give and care for those who are suffering because of this 10 year war.  What better way to show the world that we are not the selfish, hoarding, war-mongering, infidels that bin Laden thought we were than to show the world, in word and deed, that we are something far different.  As a Christian, perhaps our response should be to show that we are not children of this age, but we are people who seek an age to come.  We are not people of vengeance and hate, but we are people of peace and resurrection.  Perhaps we ought to take Jesus seriously and we should give the naked clothes, give the hungry some food, give someone who is thirsty a drink, welcome a stranger, and visit a prisoner.  In doing this, we show the world that the cycle of sin, death, and destruction is over.  There is a new way to live, and there is new way for us to live and love in relationship to God and each other.  There is one blood that was sufficient for all.  His name is Jesus.