The nation has been mourning this past week over the murders of the thirty-two students and teachers at Virginia Tech. It is one of those tragedies that will not be soon forgotten. The messages left by the killer stunned people because of the intense hatred communicated by his words and tone. NBC News president, Steve Capus, in an interview on NBC's "Today," spoke about the decision to air some of the contents of the videos left by the killer: "Ever since we heard the first reports about what happened on that campus, we all wanted to know — and I’m not sure we’ll ever fully understand — why this happened, but I do think this is as close as we’ll come to having a glimpse inside the mind of a killer." The one question that seemed to be going through everyone's minds was, "What could drive a person to do such a thing?"
It is horrific that someone would choose to plan an attack and open fire on a university campus. And it is definitely a tragedy that so many lost their lives in what seems like senseless killing. Whatever the killer's intentions and motives, people seem to be taken aback by the rage and resentment through which he acted.
One thing, though, that crimes like this bring to mind is the thorough sinfulness of man. I understand that generally people strive to live in respect for one another. Kindness is taught as a virtue and love is the overarching social aspiration. But there is an issue of worldview communicated in this that is contrary to what the Scriptures teach. The overall feel of society is that people are generally good and deserve good things. So when a student decides to kill his fellow classmates, people react in horror and shock.
What eludes most people is the reality that every human being has the same propensity to hatred. Thank God it is not manifested in the same way or applied with the same intensity, but nonetheless, it remains in the human heart. Why would someone harbor so much hatred to the point they would be willing to gun down 32 people? The ultimate answer is because of the utter sinfulness of his heart. It is difficult to admit that all people share this same sinfulness in light of these tragedies, but still true.
Seeing the ugliness of sin manifested in the way it was at Virginia Tech makes me look with wonder to a perfect and holy God who would forgive men for sin. This is the condition and ugliness of every human heart and so it magnifies the grace of God shown through the cross of Christ. Of course it is not to say that all men would express that sinfulness the same way, and certainly God is just to punish sinners for heinous crimes such as this, but the delusion that most people are good and that people like Seung-Hui Cho are unfortunate exceptions is misleading.
Hopefully the shootings at Virginia Tech will not cause people to reflect on how much better they are than the killer, but that the human heart in general is really capable of tremendously horrific acts. Hopefully it will open people's eyes to see their need for Jesus who alone can save and cleanse the human heart. I think most people would say in defense, "I'm nothing like that killer." Of course not all people are equally guilty in the way they demonstrate their wickedness as protrayed in the shooting. But the Bible teaches that all people have in the heart the same root problem.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment