Tragedy in Newtown

There is hardly any way that we can understand such a horrible tragedy as that which occurred in Newtown, Connecticut this week where a 20-year-old young man killed 20 children and 6 adults. The magnitude of the event overwhelms our minds and causes us to struggle with absorbing such an act of evil.
 

Nothing we say can lessen the pain and the horror that these families are going through as they attempt to cope with the loss of their children, some as young as five years old, some not able even to tie their own shoes. There is no use in trying to overcome such extreme guilt with religious or even Christian platitudes about the love of God. The minds and hearts of the people who are so impacted by this tragedy must have time to go through the grieving process before they can deal with such questions as the reason why.

There will of course be those who immediately attempt to place blame: poor security at the school, missed signs in the shooter’s previous behavior, the failure to legislate stronger gun-control laws, etc. As with all tragedies, some will ultimately put the blame on God, asking, “Where was God while these innocent children were being murdered?”

In my last blog entry, I began dealing with the question of God and evil. The belief of many, if not most, people is that, if He could have, then a good and loving God should prevent such evil as this massacre from ever happening. If God is unable to prevent it, then He is not all-powerful and not worthy of our worship. We should expect such reasoning from a world which has, for all intents and purposes, turned its heart away from God already.

Yet these thoughts should never trouble the hearts and minds of those who are believers. God is sovereign in the Universe and in control of all things. That means that nothing is “out of control” in the Universe, not even Satan and evil. All of these things must be under God’s control or He is not sovereign. God does not cause someone like this shooter to intentionally go to a school and murder little children and their teachers, but God does know about it – in fact, knew about it before it happened and could have prevented it had He so desired, but He was willing to allow it to happen anyway.

Now the question that we immediately shout is “Why?!”

But the question of why goes to motive. It is the same question that we ask about why this young man committed this crime. In our hearts we struggle to understand something like this and feel that if we just knew why he did it, we could more easily cope with the outcome of his decision and actions. Yet the reality is that, even if we understood perfectly why he committed this crime, the tragedy would be no less horrible and the same number of children and adults would be dead, and our hearts would be just as torn apart as they are when we do not understand his motives.

The fact that we do not understand why God created man in the first place or why God works the way He does or why He allows evil to exist in the world has no bearing on the fact that He does. This is simply the way things are, and our understanding of God’s motives would not change the way things are. We would still cry at weddings and funerals and laugh at comics and love our families and hate our enemies. God’s motives and the question of “Why?” have no real bearing on the outcome.

During the Christmas season, our attention is focused on the birth of Jesus and the events which surrounded it. You may recall that the gospel of Matthew tells of the response of Herod when he learned that a child had been born who would one day become King of the Jews, threatening Herod’s claim to that title.

To protect his own interests, Herod sent his forces to kill all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under. Here was mass murder of innocent children on a scale that we cannot conceive – a savage slaughter at the hands of their own ruler.

We have no record of how many children died during that slaughter, but Matthew used a prophecy from the prophet Jeremiah to give us an idea of the extent as well as the effects of the tragedy: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more” (Matt. 2:18).

Yet we also need to be reminded that as this slaughter took place, there was one child who was rescued and carried to safety far from the point of danger. This child not only survived the killings, but grew into the man Jesus who epitomizes love and mercy and brought the grace of God into the world of men in the form of flesh. By His life and ministry, His death and resurrection, we have hope.

Those of us who know Him as Savior are keenly aware of the fact that the only answer to such tragedies as we witnessed this week in Connecticut is Christ. By His sacrifice the sins of man are forgiven and we are reconciled to God. His is our hope and salvation and there is salvation in no other name given under Heaven but that of Jesus Christ.

It is the black background of such horrors as the evil that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut that bring into sharp relief the light and life of the newborn Child of Bethlehem, born to Mary and laid in a manger over two thousand years ago. He is our only hope for peace.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.