Justice has been served and I am especially thankful that our forces executed it. President Obama delivered a near perfect speech. He made us remember the evil of 9/11 and its cost, both nationally and individually. He reminded us of the terrible cost of pursuing bin Laden. He made it clear we are not at war with Islam, that bin Laden was a mass murderer. I only wish he would have acknowledged President Bush’s efforts to bring bin Laden to justice. But overall, a superb speech from the President. Unlike the crowds I am watching celebrating, I am in a more somber mood. Justice executed is always a terrible thing–even when it is executed on a mass murderer.
The war is not over–far from it. And make no mistake, we are at war. But this is an historical development and we must prayerfully ask God to change the hearts and minds of those extremists who are covered in the darkness of their hatred, even as we pray that those perpetrators who remain free are brought to justice as bin Laden was. Neither do we dare become smug about this. We are all fallen and in need of God’s radical love and forgiveness, in one form or another. I am not advancing the tired old (and biblically unsound) argument of moral equivalency. I am simply stating that none of us can stand on our own in God’s holy presence. May our enemies experience God’s gracious offer to us to live in Jesus Christ.