On Turning Tables

Consider the suicide bomber. Consider the shooter that murders others before killing himself. These are but two examples of how killing mutates when the perpetrator does not desire to hold on to her or his own life. It is the ultimate frustration of capital punishment. If the loss of one’s own life does not serve as a deterrent to murder, then how is killing to be prevented? Ironically, it is this permutation that offers insight into another way of dealing with killers. If someone is out to kill me, and if the most important thing to me is to preserve my own life, then I put myself in a position of having to kill in order not to be killed. But when preserving my own life is no longer the highest priority, the scenario is profoundly transformed. Growing up in Denver afforded me the opportunity to hear the disdain participants in the National Western had for what they called “drugstore cowboys”, those who liked to get all dressed up for the show but hadn’t been within a mile of a cow pie. It is in that vein that I would refer to “drugstore Christians” as those who have never bothered to examine the faith for themselves because they were willing to accept what someone else told them being a Christian is all about. A close examination of the story as it has come to us today cannot help but reveal that the truly remarkable thing about Jesus was his willingness to give his own life rather than retaliate. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 ASV) Those are nice words until one stops to think about what they really say.