From an
early age, we humans become well accustomed to the enduring theme of good
versus evil. From the fairy tales and shows of our childhood to the books and
movies we consume as adults, we learn to root for the good guy, to rejoice when
good triumphs over evil, and to feel satisfied when the bad guy meets his
demise or gets his just punishment.
We could
spend much time diving into how this good-versus-evil dichotomy is a reflection
of the deeper reality that pervades every part of the universe, how God, who is
Goodness Himself, has defeated in an already-but-not-yet capacity the most
profane Rebel of all time, known among many other things as the Evil one. But
today, I’d like us to consider how the many fictional portrayals of the war
between good and evil, from the cosmic scale to the inner-personal, might have
trained us to think of evil people in the real world in a way that is not fully
reflective of the mentality we are called to have as followers of Jesus.
In most, if
not all, superhero tales, there is a clear and definite evil enemy. Sometimes
this creature is in the form of a non-human; other times it’s a human who has achieved
super-human abilities. These “bad guys” are clearly sensationalized, just as
the superheroes are, meant to represent an idea—the existence of evil—and it’s
not hard to exult in the destruction of a clearly fictionalized monster that
represents evil itself. But in other tales, the “bad guy” is clearly an
ordinary human—whether it’s someone who commits horrendous crimes or one who bullies,
abuses, oppresses, or neglects others—and the way many of these tales are told
is designed to make us similarly wish for the downfall of such wicked people
and to celebrate when that downfall occurs.
Certainly,
there is a biblical case to be made that we should be against wickedness in all
its forms. Paul describes love (which is to be the hallmark of a Christian) as
that which “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1
Corinthians 13:6, ESV). The Psalms are filled with pleading for and rejoicing
over the defeat of enemies. As we saw in an earlier post, the certainty
of God’s perfect justice is something we can be thankful for, and the demise of
our greatest Enemy is certainly something we can celebrate. But does it follow
that we should cheer when wicked people meet their end? We can celebrate the
carrying out of justice and the punishment of evil deeds, but is it godly to be
giddy when wicked people die?
Follow the
thought process with me for a moment… God tells us in His Word that “none is
righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have
turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even
one” (Romans 3:10-12, ESV). In other words, left to ourselves, we are all
wicked people. The only way to become good is to be given a new heart and a new
spirit, to take on the righteousness of Jesus that He freely offers to those
who accept His sacrifice and gift on their behalf. The villains of this world
are those whose wickedness is simply on display more obviously than others, and
it becomes easy for the rest of us to want these villains to pay, to be angry
and vengeful in our attitude toward them, and to be happy when they meet their
end, even though we know that dying apart from Jesus means an eternal
prolongation of the separation from God that they experienced on earth.
But what
does God say about the death of the wicked? He tells us in Ezekiel 18:23 and
32: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord
GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? […] For I have
no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live”
(ESV). So while on the one hand, we know that vengeance belongs to God (see
Romans 12:19) and that in His perfect justice He will certainly condemn the
guilty, we see that because He is also Love, He has no pleasure in doing so. He
is not vengeful without empathy. He is not wrathful without compassion. Time
and time and time again, He calls us wicked people to take the way out, to turn
from our wicked ways, put on the righteousness of Jesus, and live.
When we do
this (become followers of Jesus and good instead of evil) we are called into a
higher way of living—a way that seems counterintuitive to the world because it
goes against the culture. Instead of hating our enemies, we are called to love
them; instead of cheering for their ruin, we are commanded to pray for them
(see Matthew 5:43-44). We are called to see that “we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV). In other words, evil humans are
not actually the true villains, however heinous their crimes may be. Our fellow
humans, even the most outrageously evil among them, are evil because they, just
like we were, are enslaved by sin and the Evil one (see Romans 6; John 8:44; 1
John 3). Satan is the ultimate villain, not they. They are merely pawns in his
futile game.
The problem
with fictionalized good-vs-evil sagas is that they make us forget this truth.
They lead us to equate in our minds the concept of evil or Evil himself (Satan)
with evil people (those in bondage to him) and to therefore wish for human
perpetrators of evil to be destroyed when instead we should be praying for them
to repent. We should bear the fruit of God’s Spirit, which includes His
kindness—a kindness that we are told is meant to lead people to repentance (see
Galatians 5:22 and Romans 2:4). While we can certainly rejoice when good
triumphs over evil, we should be careful to separate in our minds evil itself
from those who are enslaved to it.
Retraining
our brains to hope and pray for the good of those who are “the worst” among us
(i.e., for them to come to faith in Jesus) rather than to hope and pray for
their present and eternal destruction can be a hard pill to swallow. But as we
are called to become more like Jesus (i.e., God), we must face the fact that
just as God’s greatest desire for those enslaved to evil is that they take the
way He has provided to break out of that bondage, becoming free to be good, so
our greatest desire for them should be the same.
May God
give us the strength to look at the perpetrators of evil and injustice in this
world not through eyes of hatred, anger, and vengeance, but with hearts of
love, empathy, and compassion, recognizing that, but for the grace of God, we
would still be in bondage just as they. And may we be able to say, as Paul said
about the unbelieving Israelites, that “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for
them is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1, ESV).
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