The DC Shootings and the Search for Reason Within Evil

Twelve people woke up yesterday in Washington DC not knowing they would never return home. They kissed their loved ones goodbye for the last time, maybe got their morning coffee, and headed into an unexpected shootout in the DC Navy Yard. That is because yesterday morning, 34 year old Aaron Alexis so allowed Satan to darken his heart that he thought nothing of walking into that Naval Yard armed with three weapons, opening fire, and randomly killing at least 12 people whose only mistake yesterday was to go to work. Alexis himself was eventually shot and killed in the exchange as well, but the wake of his death toll is the highest for the DC area since a plane slammed into the Pentagon on 9-11.

This morning we wake up and discover that the only thing missing is motive. The families of the dead have been notified. The talking heads and pundits are gearing up for 24-7 coverage. Just like Newtown. Just like Aurora. Just like Cleveland. Just like every horrific story of death and destruction that captures the nation's psyche as we weep and ask the same question over and over again. Why? Why would a man in the prime of his life walk into that Naval Yard and just start murdering people he did not even know? Why would Adam Lanza walk into an elementary school and kill 20 children and seven adults? Why would James Holmes walk into an Aurora Colorado theater and open fire on people he did not know, killing 12 people? Why would Ariel Castro abduct and keep captive for years three different women, amassing 937 different counts of rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder? Mind you this is just recent history. We could keep traveling back in time and land on 9-11, or Columbine, or Oklahoma City. The answer always sought the most is why?

Perhaps we need to know why so that we can make some sense of it all. The same reason we label these perpetrators as crazy of mentally ill. It is not so much that we really want to know why as much as we want to be able to go to sleep at night believing that we are different. That there was something wrong with these individuals that we do not possess. That we remain the good to their bad. That we remain right to their wrong. Then we can go back to our own depraved lives. We can return to the grind and file away this day of horror with the rest of them. Nothing to see here. Move along. But then there was that one interview yesterday that transcended the usual reactions. The Medical Director of the facility that treated the wounded, Janet Orlowsky, said, "There is something evil in society today that we as Americans must work together to eradicate." Bravo Dr. Orlowsky. Finally someone willing to at least call evil what it is - evil. Of course the notion that we can band together and eradicate it absent God is silly but at least it is a step in the right direction. I do not necessarily expect someone living in the world to acknowledge the true need for God. They cannot see the need for a God they do not believe in. They can stare evil in the face like yesterday and somehow still not see the need. They have been blinded.

But as we start to watch this story unfold and the constant coverage continues to seek to find reason within evil let us as Christians not lose sight of the fact that we already know the answer to the question why. The answer is not one that makes us feel better about ourselves, which is rapidly becoming a staple in modern Christianity. The answer will remind us of our desperate need for God. The answer is the key verse today and it has three distinct parts. The first truth for us to hold onto today is that the human heart is deceitful above all things. Not the heart of Aaron Alexis or Adam Lanza. Your heart. My heart. The human heart. Even in our saved state the natural tendency for the human heart is towards evil. We live in a society that not only minimizes sin but mocks the mere notion of it. Where humanists, atheists, and agnostics alike fancy themselves enlightened because they do not challenge what anyone believes. Where Christians seem more concerned about acquiring wealth then wisdom and riches rather than righteousness. Why? Because the heart is deceitful above all things. That means that there is nothing more deceitful beloved, then the human heart we share.

Secondly, the human heart is desperately wicked. It is not mildly malcontent. Beloved I say these things not to bring people down but to build up Christ in us. He is our righteousness to overcome our wickedness. Unfortunately it has become chic in modern Christendom to downplay God and play up man. To speak about finding relevance within this world instead of coming out of her. We are supposed to have no fellowship with darkness. Between the compromises of the seeker friendly-bless me theologies of church growth and the destructive heresies of prosperity doctrine, the church looks just like the world. When we leave the moral compass up to each individual desperately wicked heart - that is how we come to stories like the one that unfolded yesterday at the DC Naval Dockyard. We need to counteract the wickedness of the human heart with the goodness of Almighty God. The merciless nature of human nature with the mercy of God. The unforgiving nature of man with the grace of God. But you cannot do that if your religion is focused on you instead of God.

The final portion from the key verse is a rhetorical question - who can know it? The television pundits will try to categorize it today as they start their coverage of Aaron Alexis. Just like they tried with Adam Lanza before him and Ariel Castro before that. They will try and pretend to know the human heart and assign the evil portion just to this one man. Or maybe assign a nice, convenient excuse to make us all fell better when we go to sleep tonight. Maybe we will find out that Alexis suffered from mental illness. Maybe we will find out that he was denied treatment somewhere or that he was abused as a child. Maybe we will find out that his girlfriend left him for a Naval Dockyard worker. Something, anything to make us feel as if we can quantify and qualify that human heart. That we can answer the question - who can know it? Anything to avoid the cold hard reality that the human heart is the most deceitful thing on this planet and desperately wicked above all things. I do not mean to pop the churchianity bubble that tells you there are seven steps to a better you. I mean to destroy it. Because there is only one step and that is to Christ. It is because I recognize the complete depravity within my own heart that I realize how badly I need my Savior. Not just when I gave my life but every single waking moment after. My righteousness is but filthy rags before a holy God. I have no illusions. As sad as the story is from yesterday it is merely the end result of a society that no longer values life and openly mocks God. It is merely the end result of an impotent church that is more concerned about their comfort in Sodom than they are with bringing the lost to the foot of the cross. It is merely the end result of the human heart.