Why Do We Kill Each Other?

Why do people, both on the political left and right, get so angry that they decide to kill political figures with whom they disagree? Why is it happening in America even more, lately? Why do people murder state lawmakers in Minneapolis, and kill Christian political activists in Utah, and nearly succeed in slaying presidential candidates—all in the past 15 months?

Sure, “sin” is a cheap answer. It’s a good Sunday School answer, but it’s still a safe and lame answer. What is causing human sinfulness to show itself in this way? It’s because we let political passions become our life. That’s very bad.

I was at work in the Attorney General’s Office when everyone’s phones buzzed with the word—Charlie Kirk had just been shot in the neck. Given the nature of the wound and the likelihood that a gunman with a rifle had done the deed, I immediately suspected Kirk would perish.

• A lady at work danced a little jig in the hallway and celebrated: “Charlie Kirk was shot!” she sang.
• Another shook her head grimly. “Poetic justice,” she murmured.
• I have a dear friend whose brother-in-law, upon hearing the news, immediately descended into his basement and began cleaning his rifle, eyes glued to Fox News, as he declared: “We’re at war!”

Each of these are twisted responses from otherwise very pleasant people. They are not good responses. And yet, how many bible-believing Christians would have similarly bad responses if they heard, right now, that Hillary Clinton had been shot? Too many Christians would react quite badly. They might even dance a little jig themselves or smile satisfied little smiles.

It’s clear that, for too many people in America—including way too many Christians—political passions have burrowed deep into our hearts … like parasites.

• We know this because a dark, satisfied nastiness bursts out of some of us (a la Aliens) when bad things happen in society.
• At best, these passions are often tied to moral issues in the political arena.
• At worst, they spring from a fierce patriotism that has gone off the rails into de facto hatred of political adversaries.
• For a Christian, passions this deep about temporal issues are very bad and very wrong.

But the bible does tell us the right way to think about evil, and the evil things people do, in this world.

The Wheat and the Weeds

This is one of the few parables where Jesus identifies the true referent for every character in the story; you have (1) a farmer, (2) an enemy, (3) a wheat crop, and (4) a bunch of weeds. The setup is simple; a farmer sows seed but it turns out bad!

That sucks, obviously. Something must be done. The field was supposed to be one thing, but now it’s a hot mess. The servants think they should go clean it up—why not go and rip out the weeds (Mt 13:27-28)?

What does Jesus think?

He says no. He says the field will never be cleansed until the harvest—Jesus will give orders to sort it all out then. But, for now, just leave it alone—let the weeds and the wheat all grow together. If they try to pick out the weeds now, they’ll just rip out a whole bunch of wheat. Better to leave it (Mt 13:29-30).

This is an intriguing story, so much so that the disciples wanted to hear Jesus explain it once they had a chance to speak to Him alone (Mt 13:36-39).

He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels,” (Mt 13:37-39).

Jesus has now explained all the referents:

Pay particular attention to the field—what is it? Jesus says it’s the world, and this “field” boasts two crops which are growing side by side—the “people of the kingdom” and “people of the evil one.” This battlespace is simple—two opposing kingdoms, each with its own commanding officer, each with its own followers, inhabiting the same territory. This war will resolve when the “harvesters” arrive, whom Jesus identifies as angels.

He explains:

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear (Mt 13:36-43).

This “field” that is our world will remain a mess until “the end of the age.” The harvesters will fix the field when Jesus sends them. But notice that Jesus now calls the “field” the “kingdom”—He says the angels “will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.” The field is both the world and the kingdom.

• This suggests Jesus sees the world—this present battlespace—as transitioning into His kingdom at the decisive moment in the future when He intervenes.
• It’s as if “this world” is the territory at issue throughout history, and Jesus views it as already His, and judgment is (in part) Him sweeping evil out of His lands forever.

“Then,” He promises, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43). Why? Because the “weeds” will be gone, and the “wheat” will finally be free to flourish in the field (i.e., “the kingdom of their Father”) without an invasive species choking them.

Jesus’ kingdom is here, right now. It’s in this world in the form of a dispersed community in exile in a hostile land. This situation will remain that way until the end of the age (cf. the parable of the net at Mt 13:47-50)—it’s why Jesus said this whole parable, the entire state of affairs it sketched, “is like” the kingdom of heaven. As one early Christian discipleship manual said, “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways” (Didache, 1.1).

This suggests:

• The world is a messed up place.
• It will continue to be a messed up place until the end.
• No politician, influencer, or movement will ever fix that.

So, be interested in politics if you want. But, you’re making a terrible mistake if you give yourself to it—if you spend your life, passions, and energy trying to put lipstick on the pig that is this world via a utopian moral revolution or political victory. In other words, Christians who do that are trying to do this:

They’re trying to, as it were, “rip up the weeds” and purify the field that is this hot mess of a world.

• It won’t work.
• You’re wasting your time.
• The angels will handle that bit.
• Leave them to it.
• This present evil age will not end until “Babylon” is destroyed and Jesus returns (Rev 18:21-24).

History teaches us that so-called “victories” in the political realm rarely last—even when their champions are Christians and Christian-adjacent ideologues. Think of William F. Buckley, Jr.

• Perhaps more than anyone else, he created the ideological network that re-birthed the political conservative movement in America through his National Review magazine and his long-running interview show Firing Line.
• From Herbert Hoover’s disgrace until the election of Ronald Reagan (excepting Nixon, who was not exactly a shining light for the cause), “true” conservatism was shut out of the White House … until it wasn’t.
• Buckley did that.

Yet how many young people today know his name, his achievements, or have watched just one of his 1500-ish Firing Line interviews?

• Not so many, because the cycle has begun again.
• Old victories are forgotten.
• Lessons learned have faded.
• Once more the country is at risk “as never before.”
• And so it goes—the song remains the same.

Solomon asks us: “Is there anything of which one might say, ‘See this, it is new’? It has already existed for ages which were before us” (Ecc 1:10).

• Buckley did not fix America.
• Reagan did not fix America.
• Charlie Kirk would not have fixed America, had he lived.
• Trump will not fix America.
• America has no future in eternity.

Many of the things political conservatives and Christians are angry about will not be fixed until Babylon falls. The apostle John shows us a vision of a sexy call-girl as the public face of the “beast” which is the fearsome monster that is Satan’s kingdom (Rev 17). She offers herself to everyone—to take her is to accept the Satan’s deception, his values, his kingdom (Rev 17:2).

• Jesus tells us that, until the angels pull up to the curb to reap the harvest, the prostitute will still be there, offering drinks to everyone, and most people will continue taking it.
• If you let yourself descend into a hellhole of anger about politics and news—whether you’re on the left or the right—then you’re taking drinks from the Babylonian prostitute, too.
• Satan wants you to lose perspective, to focus on the “now,” to be angry, to speak of “war,” to hate “the other side.”
• He wants you to be more passionate about America and domestic politics than about Jesus—because those are two very different things.
• Screwtape has probably written many letters on the subject to his young nephew!

The church in America has one primary mission—and it isn’t to save America or to keep polishing brass on a sinking ship. If we give ourselves to that, if we forget Jesus’ lesson in our parable, if we define true “success” in Christian mission as executive orders, legislation, and judicial rulings, then we’re wasting our time—because the cycle will always repeat.

• There will always be another “battle.”
• Another “hero” to celebrate and follow.
• Another new and “exciting” movement to effect “change.”
• More political fodder for more political outrage. We live in a sinful world—who would have thought?

And nobody will remember the last cycle (again, see Buckley). But it won’t matter, because the new cycle is beginning!

And so it goes.

The church’s job is to tell people about Jesus, and to show him to the world by our changed lives.

• We’re here to get people to defect and walk away from Babylon and join the Jesus family.
• We’re here to represent Jesus, and Jesus isn’t about America.
• He has his own kingdom that’s coming, and it’s a whole lot better than this one.