Today’s Scripture Reading (May 14,
2015): Job 29
I am
struggling with the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston
Marathon bomber. Admittedly, I have no horses in this race. I am not from
Boston and have no connection with the city (other than my love for the Bruins,
probably a left over consequence of my childhood dislike of the Montreal
Canadiens.) I personally don’t know of anyone who was killed or even hurt from
the blast that Tsarnaev caused. I have heard their testimonies. There is no way
that this should have happened. And the bombing that took place at the Boston
Marathon in 2013 was nothing more than the work of pure evil.
But having said that, I look at pictures of Dzhokhar
and I see a kid, a child who should have so much of life in front of him. The
reality seems fairly simple. He was nineteen at the time of the bombings. By
law he was an adult. But he wasn’t really. Our brains don’t mature until we are
in the twenty-five to thirty range. The evidence seems to point toward the fact
that Dzhokhar’s brother and mother had radicalized. We don’t seem to understand
why, but we know that it happened. The older brother was on the cusp of
maturity, the extent of influence that mom had on what happened at this point
is unknown - and I am not saying that mom helped plan the bombing, but it is
beginning to look like mom may have set up the conditions that allowed for the
planning of the bombing. And Dzhokhar’s brain was not yet mature enough to see
any other way. He was idealized and in the process of being radicalized. The
teaching he had received had taught him that the people he was about to hurt
deserved no mercy. And the temptation is to give to him what he gave to others.
But that temptation is not necessarily right.
Job’s defense of his own actions might simply be summed
up by saying that he was a man of mercy. He extended mercy to the poor and to
those without power. Christianity, since its inception 2000 years ago, has been
as a faith built around the idea of mercy. Jesus teachings seem to lead us
toward this kind of response. Job was exalted because he believed in mercy, as
were the early believers in Christ. Mercy became an identifying feature of this
group called Christians. But the mark seems to be fading.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not extend mercy to his victims.
It appears that he may have been taught very clearly by both his mother and his
brother that those who did not believe as he did were not deserving of mercy.
But at this point his brother is dead and his mother has fled the country and
continues to accuse the United States of stealing her children from her. Maybe
she needs to look inside her own belief systems to understand the fate that her
children have suffered. The truth is that it did not have to be this way. But
it is.
Dzhokhar is still young. But no matter what the
decision of this trial is, and the result of the countless appeals that will be
made by his lawyers in an effort to keep him off of death row, his life is
over. And that is tragic. But maybe it is time for us to take a page from Job’s
defense and decide to be the ones who will extend mercy – even to those who
refuse to extend mercy to us. The truth is that execution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
has no upside. At some point, the killing simply has to stop. And maybe this is
the point. Dzhokhar is not asking for our mercy. It may be that he has no way
inside of his mind to frame that kind of request. But it is evident that he has
become the poor and fatherless in our midst. Whether or not he deserves mercy,
maybe we need to give it if for no other reason than to prove to ourselves that
we are not the same as our enemy. We have the ability to stand with Job and be marked
by our mercy and our compassion.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 30
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