A man has died!

Amazingly, when I listened to the BBC radio news yesterday morning, I was not regaled with further irrelevant minutiae concerning a young couple who had entered the holy state of matrimony on Friday of last week!  Rather, it was the news that Usama bin Laden had been killed by a team of US Navy SEALS, and hastily (although with all due respect, in Islamic tradition, for the body) buried at sea, in order to ensure that there would not be any shrine - any focus for the faithful to venerate.

A couple of thoughts came to mind.  First of all, I realised that a man had died - and millions were rejoicing at the news.  Now I am not for one moment, condoning the atrocities behind which bin Laden is alleged to have been the master-mind.  Nor am I saying that he did not 'deserve to die'.  However, as the mother of a Scotsman who died in the World Trade Centre pointed out, bin Laden's death doesn't bring her son back to her.  Indeed, the manner of his death - without even the show trial that was afforded to Saddam Hussein - does raise important questions that I hope others will ask (and to which, I hope, they will find honest answers!) in the coming months! 

The other thing that caused me to think was the constant reference to 'evil'.  I find it interesting that the world's media, which seldom seems to have any time for spiritual matters, should jump so quickly on to a rolling band-waggon and use a term that is spiritual in its meaning.  But what is evil?  Surely, just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good.  By that measure, which of us can claim to be totally untainted by evil?  Evil is, in Biblical terms, the result of sin.  The Good News is that sin has been dealt with on the cross at Calvary.  There, Paul tells us, Father God "... made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (II Cor 5:21; RSV).  Through that atoning sacrifice, we may be reconciled to God, and the work of making us more like Jesus may begin.

The sad thing about Usama bin Laden is that it appears that either no-one ever told him about the salvation that is readily available to all who will confess their sinfulness, and place their trust in Him; or that, having been told, he rejected that amazing message.