I remember it like it was yesterday. Bill Stewart was a reporter for ABC News. At a roadblock set up by government soldiers in Nicaragua he was ordered down on the ground and then shot point blank behind his ear. I remember it, however, not because I had been a fan of Bill Stewart’s. Not because I was a student of the political turmoil in Nicaragua. I remember it because ABC ran the footage over and over again. It was etched into my teenage mind.
We now live in a different world. Much of our spaces are under the coverage of CCTV cameras. Virtually every American has both a video camera in their pocket, but also access to post their video immediately, with no censors or editors to get in the way. Thus we have been witnesses in the past week to the brutal stabbing death of Iryna Zarutski and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
In one sense we have been shocked by these events. In another sense we ought not to be. We understand, at some level, some homicides. Rival gangs trying to protect their illicit businesses, crimes of passion, drug deals gone bad. With these two we have opposite horrors. With the first there is the sheer randomness of the killing. Why her? With the second it is the long string of intentional decisions that spell out malice aforethought, and that, presumably, over political differences. How could they?
While it is true that we war not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12), and that the influence of the demonic should never be overlooked, it is simply not the case that either demons or insanity are the only explanations. When everyone was asking about the Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza, “What kind of monster could do such a thing?” my answer was “The same kind I am.”
When we watch the footage and think, “There but for the grace of God go I” we should know we need to say it twice. It is because of the grace of God that we haven’t been murdered. But it is also the grace of God that we haven’t murdered. Left to our own devices, apart from His restraining hand, we are all murderers. No just unjust hatred for our brother murderers, but stabbing a stranger in the neck murderers, firing a sniper rifle from a rooftop murderers.
Is it horrifying? Yes. Is it evil? Yes. Is it damnable? Yes. Whether we mean by “it” the murders, or our hearts apart from His grace.
Praying for those who lost loved ones is the right response. As is mourning. The fruit of our sin is bitter indeed. But we should not be surprised. We do what we do because we are what we are. Which means we ought to give thanks, not only for the grace that called Charlie home, not only for the grace that kept us safe through the night, but for the grace that keeps us from making headlines through murdering a stranger, or a political foe. There but for the grace of God go we all.
