by Christine Berglund
Jesus Saves Us
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
Today is April 20, 2023. On April 20, 1999, I was teaching high school English in Colorado Springs when it felt as though the ground shifted. The shocking news came out that a mass shooting had taken place uncomfortably close to us, just an hour away at Columbine High School. Our school community was horrified, confused, and paralyzed with fear. How and why did this happen? Was it going to happen to us too?
Over the next few days, as more information came out about the attack and who was responsible for it, my students showed me a newspaper article with pictures of the perpetrators. My students were genuinely astonished and said to me, “Miss Berglund, they look normal.” They didn’t understand how the people who had committed such heinous acts could look like regular people. This led to a profound discussion.
What do we expect? Do we really think we can tell the character of a person by looking at him or her? Sadly, we often try. Scripture says that man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Do we expect bad people to have horns or fangs or red eyes? If there was an obvious physical trait for evil, it would be so much easier, wouldn’t it? If the evil people all had horns, for example, we would know who to stay away from, lock up, or isolate from the rest of us. The truth is, many of us would need to be locked up, wouldn’t we? That’s an ugly thought. Surely that’s not true. Not I.
Thankfully, most of us have never gone on a killing spree or committed a crime punishable with a prison sentence, but God’s word says that,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 English Standard Version
We like to comfort ourselves with ideas such as, “Well, I’ve never committed murder” or “at least I don’t do _____ (fill in the blank).” We judge ourselves as separate from or better than. We like to think of evil as something that some monstrous others do, not normal, regular us. According to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, however, we are held accountable not just to the letter of the law such as “thou shall not kill” but to the spirit of the law in which even being angry without cause is a sin. He goes on to say,
“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48 English Standard Version
That is an impossible standard, but there is good news. Jesus died for our sins. All of them. For all of us. If we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Help us, Lord.
Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
beautiful my said, Christine! I, too, shall always remember that day and how startled my Woodland Park 8th graders were, but God’s grace shows us that we cannot predict evil by outside appearances so we must each try to show the good inside us.
Thanks, Jan! We have to do better at loving each other too.
Good post, Christine
It’s easy to hate the villains, while forgetting our own villainy.
But for God, we’re all lost.
I also remember that day vividly. I had a student who looked exactly like one of the shooters and I had struggled with his behavior. I remember being so afraid watching the news. Then I came to the realization that if I stayed afraid, I’d never go back to the classroom.
Thank you for your response. It means a great deal to me.