What John has to say about the Oklahoma thrill killers

Last month three Oklahoma teens targeted a random male jogger to murder. One of the teens explained, "We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody." Boys out for a taste of adventure.

Their explanation is terrifying because we cannot do anything to protect ourselves from similar horrors. It's one thing when we hear of a scorned spouse murdering their unfaithful partner's paramour in the heat of passion or a mafioso murdering the man who ratted out his boss, but it's quite another when a murderer's given motive is boredom. I can avoid extramarital affairs and organized crime, but I cannot prevent someone from feeling bored. As Alfred explained to Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight, "...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

But what if these teens were looking for something logical?

This murder reveals several things that these young men believe to be true about themselves and the world around them. Things like:
Human life has no inherent value or worth.
Their own lives have no inherent value or worth.

There is no eternal, omnipotent, perfect God who will one day judge the earth and set everything right.
No one loves them.
No one cares about their own pain.
No one has an explanation for their own pain.
No one needs them.
They have no purpose.
They have no future.

It is easy to believe these things when all that you see and experience lines up with them. I can only imagine the ways in which these lies have been reinforced in the lives of these young men over the years. These men are villains to be sure, deserving of the law's wrath. But they are also victims. 

The lies are not a human invention, they are peddled by an Enemy of God to a world that is desperately sick and to our own rebellious and ignorant hearts. They are designed to undo and end us. And they are effective. Apart from God's grace, we cannot even tell good from evil anymore. As John tells us in his Gospel, "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made theough him, yet the world did not know him." 

But God, rightful King over all creation, was not content to sit back and watch what would be the epic tragedy of human history unfold. No, John tells us, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth....And from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace." 

God ripped through the fabric of this world in order to rescue his people and vanquish the Enemy. And since that time, he has captained a rebel force at work in the world - an underground movement - to depose the Enemy and see the rightful King return to his throne. This King is gathering people to himself and mounting his attack against the imposter, the one who enslaves mankind in order to commit grave evil like this senseless murder.

So where is he? Has the movement failed? Has the rightful King fallen? Or fallen asleep? 

He is always at work, though often unseen. John was given a sneak preview of the coming victory, and he tells us what those united with the true King will one day experience. This is what he saw:

"I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away...I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' 

And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"