Today, we lost a truly remarkable and inspirational man, Charlie Kirk. To say that I am deeply saddened by his tragic murder is an understatement. Charlie was a devout Christian, who was unapologetic about his faith in Jesus Christ, and about his love for his country, the United States of America. Today, Charlie was taken from this life at the hands of a murderer, shot from a distance by a complete coward. Today, Charlie's family of a wife and two kids, lost their husband and father, because of the actions of this sick and disgusting individual. My prayers are with his family during this devastating time, and with the community that he built and inspired on a daily basis. I also hope and pray that the individual that did this is found and brought to swift justice, and that they repent of this wicked act and turn to Jesus, the only one who can save them.
As of this post, as far as I can see they still have not caught the perpetrator who did this unspeakable act of murder. We don't need to know the identity of this person to recognize this act for what it truly is at it's core: evil. Make no mistake, whether this is politically motivated or not, the true underlying cause of the battle we're witnessing is spiritually driven and not seen by human eyes, it is good versus evil. This battle has been raging on this planet since almost the very beginning, back when sin first entered into the world, when mankind decided to rebel against God and go their own way, instead of walking with Him and following His plan for creation.
Charlie was very outspoken about his Christian faith, and I believe it's the main reason he had a target on his back. The bible tells us that this is how it is in fact, if we listen to the words of Jesus himself:
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me," -John 15:18-21.
Jesus eluded to the hardships that went along with a life lived in service to him many times, yet it can be easy to forget that if we are not regularly in His word spending time with Him. It is not easy to carry the cross that Christ himself carried, yet we are called to that sort of life indeed, as he describes again in the gospel of Matthew:
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?'" -Matthew 16:24-26.
We don't follow Jesus because it's easy or glamorous, we follow Him because he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). God is real, Jesus Christ is the son of God, who was fully God and fully man, was born of a virgin, died on a Roman cross, and rose from the dead three days later, proving He was who He said he was. This life is not all that there is, we all have an eternal soul that will go on to either live with God for all eternity, or to live in eternal separation away from God, depending on what we decide by the choices we make in this life. Charlie Kirk knew the gospel was true, and he lived his life in a way that was inspirational to believers across the world. Today, he got to go home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
A temptation we can face as we struggle with the injustice of Charlie's death, is to allow ourselves to get caught up in hate, and to be guilty of the very thing that this person who killed Charlie was clearly guilty of: not seeing the worth of every human being because they are created in the image of God. Despite the difficulty, we are still called to share the gospel and love all people that are within our reach. Political and religious (among others) divisions cause people to dehumanize each other and lose sight of the fact that we are all human beings who are in need of a savior. We need to root ourselves in the message of the gospel, that Jesus gave His life to demonstrate to the world, and share the love of Christ with them, whether they deserve it or not in our opinion.
I can think of no better example of what this looks like than the parable of the good Samaritan, as shared by Jesus himself in the gospel of Luke. In this story an expert of religious law was asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life, to which Jesus asked him in return what the law said about his question, and the man essentially said in return: "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself." After Jesus tells him he is correct, the man asks Jesus in return, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus tells him the following story to illustrate the type of life that reflects love for God and love for neighbor:
"In reply Jesus said: 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him,'" -Luke 10:30-34 NIV.
The story goes on with a little more detail and with Jesus asking the expert of the law which man in the story was a neighbor to the man who was robbed, and the expert correctly answers that it was the Samaritan man, the one who showed mercy. It's easy to read this and miss a cultural point that makes all the difference, that Jews and Samaritans hated each other, they were mortal enemies due to longstanding religious and political conflict. Don't you see the parallels to our own time? Jesus is saying that despite the differences we all have if we don't have the same beliefs and worldview, we are still called to love each other. And here is what love should look like:
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends," -John 15:12-13.
Tensions continue to increase in our culture as political divisions increase and the potential for hate increases all the more. Hate is the work of Satan, as he hates everything that represents God, and he will stop at nothing to try to destroy those that follow Jesus. If you are following Christ and you have an easy life, maybe you should examine yourself and see if you are living too comfortably and not being public about your faith. If you are facing persecution, then you should consider that you might be increasing in your effectiveness for Christ's kingdom, which means you are a threat to the enemy. We don't have to fear death in this life, because this life is not all that there is, that is why Jesus told us so much about this subject. This is meant to give us hope for what is to come, so we will not be held back in our sharing of the gospel with the world. Now is not the time to retreat and back down from sharing the truth, now is the time to double-down and share your faith all the more. The world is hurting, because the world needs Jesus, and we are called to point to Him with our lives.
Thank you Charlie Kirk for how you lived your faith out loud, you were truly an inspiration, and although you are gone from us for now, we know we will see you again someday. May we continue to draw inspiration from the life you lived and be as bold as you were in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the world.
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