My Thoughts on Newtown, Connecticut

My Thoughts on Newtown, Connecticut
by Romans


On Friday, December 14th, 2012, 20 First Graders and 6 women who worked at an Elementary School, were gunned down by a young man armed with an assault weapon and several handguns. The gunman also killed his own mother before going to the school, and then himself when he heard approaching sirens. Not since the days following 9/11 has any one News Story had such an impact on me. Every night since then, those 20 children and their families are in my prayers, and are in my last thoughts before I drift off to sleep, and every morning they are in my first thoughts when I wake up. And the reason is that I felt that Christmas morning was going to be so difficult for those families.

Perhaps some of you are thinking that at this Festive Time of year, this is not the right time to be posting this in the Forum. I respectfully disagree. This [i]is[/i] the right time and the [i]best time[/i] to be posting this: It is Christmas Eve, 2012. Tomorrow, dozens of families will be waking up to what was supposed to be the happiest day of the year, especially for their children. But for the parents and families of the children who were slain, for the families of the teachers and school staff, and for the families of the first responders, Christmas Morning will not be what they were all eagerly looking forward to before the shootings… [i]far[/i] from it.

       Also on the News that night, there was a film of an FBI SWAT Team arriving at the scene of the crime. The very image of these men walking by the school sign that included the words, “Visitors Welcome,” while wearing Flak Jackets, and carrying their own assault weapons struck me as being so monstrously incongruous, and so outrageously unacceptable. Here was an FBI SWAT Team, armed and outfitted for combat... [i]in a First Grade Classroom![/i] What is happening in America that the word “Massacre” can appear in the [i]same[/i] headline as the words “Elementary School”? When I think about it I feel numb and emotionally wounded, as I said in the introduction, that I have not felt since 9/11, but [i]far more[/i] intensely, now.

       It is simply not possible to try to make sense of this nightmare. And we can't just wake up from it, as much as we may wish that it were just a horrible dream. But we [i]can[/i] try to see the bigger picture. We [i]can[/i] try to see this from a Biblical perspective in an effort to lessen the confusion, and console the grief.

           As I continued to think of these events, and [i]when[/i] they took place, it occurred to me that within the account of the birth of Jesus, in Matthew's Gospel, there is the account of another massacre that took place, also involving children: all of the boys who were two years old and younger were killed by soldiers sent by King Herod to Bethlehem to secure his own throne and dynasty.  We read in Matthew 2:18: "In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” That portion of the nativity story, that we so hastily read over, has, for me, taken on a far greater significance and meaning this year than it ever has before. That is why writing this, now, is so important. That same Little Town of Bethlehem that we sing about every year at Christmastime also experienced the murder of the their children. But for those families, armed soldiers from the deranged King Herod stormed into their homes with swords drawn, seized their little boys and slew them right in front of their eyes. And then they left that horrific scene to repeat the carnage in every other house in Bethlehem where they found a little boy who was living with his family.

Jesus was spared from that same fate. We read in Matthew 2:13: “… the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” Joseph did as he was instructed, and Jesus was not in Bethlehem when Herod’s soldiers arrived. Mary was speared the grief of watching her Son die in front of her eyes… but only when He was a young boy. When Joseph and Mary presented Jesus in the Temple, after blessing Jesus, Simeon said to Mary in Luke 2:34:   “… a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.” Mary did not lose Him when He was two years old. She lived to watch Him grow through adolescence and into a righteous and powerful man of God. Nonetheless, Simeon’s prophecy came true: Mary did watch Him die: she was present at Calvary, and witnessed the death of her mercilessly scourged and crucified Son. Some thirty years later, as the mothers of Bethlehem and Newtown, Mary also experienced the horror and grief of her own innocent son being violently murdered.  

           As I continued to think on what happened in Newtown, it occurred to me that my first thoughts were [i]wrong.[/i] I thought that I could willingly give anything I own, even my own life if it could spare all of the lives that were taken, spare those families this anguish, spare all of the children of Newtown, both the victims and all of the surviving children who did not even attend the Sandy Hook Elementary School. But I realize, now, that I was wrong: There [i]is[/i] one thing for which I would have to say “No... I can't do that. I cannot give my own son.”  I would have gladly given up [i]anything[/i] else, but not my son.

           When I came to that realization, I was brought full circle back to the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. None of those parents sent their children to school that morning to die...  but Jesus [i]was sent[/i] by His Father, with [b]that[/b] very intent and purpose in mind. The Father sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins in our place, because He so loved us. If Jesus were not sent to die for us, all of humanity would have to pay the death penalty for our own sins. Without Jesus' death on the cross, we could have no forgiveness of sin... no Eternal Life... no hope of Salvation. As innocent and undeserving of death each of those little boys were in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, and each of those 12 girls and 8 boys were in Newtown two weeks ago, Jesus Christ, being  without sin, and being the perfect and unblemished Lamb of God, was more innocent, and more undeserving of the violent death He suffered. But He willingly laid His Life (John 10:17) and obeyed His Father, even unto the death on the cross (Philippians 2:8) that we might have life (1 John 5:12).

           We must not forget that just as His death was not the end of Him, even so our deaths are not the end of us. Jesus said in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:” Mary’s inconsolable grief at Jesus’ crucifixion was turned to unspeakable joy when Jesus was raised from the dead. In like manner, those 20  children of Newtown have died a tragic and untimely death, but they are not gone forever. Because there [i]is[/i] a God, there [i]will be[/i] a glorious Resurrection. The grief-stricken parents of the slain children of Bethlehem and Newtown, [i]will see[/i] their children, again, alive and happy and healthy! And when they do see them, they will be eternally reunited with them, [i]never[/i] to be separated, again!

           We cannot begin to understand Bethlehem or Newtown or why God allows some of the things that He does. But we [i]can[/i], in Faith, look to that day when God will fulfill His Promise in Revelation 21:4: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor [i]crying[/i], neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

          Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Romans, Christmas Eve, 2012