ALL LIVES COUNT

I have inner confusion about the death penalty; but I think I am beginning to have clarity.  It bothers me especially when young people are sentenced, like Lee Marvow, the young man who was the sniper in Maryland in 2002, Dzhokhar Tsarnrev, the young man who did the bombing in Boston, or Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in a church.  I look at those boys and all I can think is “what a waste of a life.”  Yes, they did very bad things and need to know that.  There are consequences to behavior and punishment is certainly a way to enforce those consequences outwardly.  But it sets up a weird cycle.  Because you killed, we will kill you.  The Bible can be used to justify that; but Jesus can’t.

“All Black Lives Count” is now the cry.  I say “All Lives Count”.  If I believe that, I can’t look for a way to justify taking a life; any life.  This is one of those things that makes God’s kingdom different than the world.  It is the flesh that seeks vengeance.  The Spirit seeks forgiveness, redemption, and restoration.  That is what God does for us; how can I do differently?

When someone has an inner conviction that he has done wrong, confesses that wrong, seeks God and receives forgiveness, he is a broken yet free man.  That is more powerful than pulling a switch.  Broken people who know God’s forgiveness and transformation are reborn into a life that matters.  They have a message that is real and needs to be heard.  Maybe we need to see our prisons as mission fields instead of the wastelands they are now and pray that God will give these young men that inner conviction and then be a witness to those who are around him.

It is easy to hate these young men.  Hate hides in human hearts and is often the default emotional response.  Fear hides in human hearts and is often the default emotional response.  Many feel they have the right to hate these young men.  Jesus would have had the right to hate and fear the men who tortured and killed him.  Instead, he asked his Father to forgive them. Love overcomes both hate and fear.  That makes no sense to the worldly mind.  It makes perfect sense in the kingdom of God.  That is why I continually ask God to create a clean heart within me and conform my mind to His ways.

Paul persecuted Christians and yet Jesus dealt with him in an amazing way; he converted him and transformed him.  Paul wrote most of his letters that became a large part of the Bible while he was in prison.  What if those kinds of messages were being shared today, both in prison and out in the world.

My prayer is for God to work in the lives of these young men and then give them a chance to share that message, in prison and out.