QUESTIONS VIRGINIA TECH
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By Rev. Paul Siems
he shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, sent a chill through many souls throughout the world. A similar chill was felt on September 11, 2001. While shocking, September 11 was easily explained: terrorism, but the Virginia Tech shooter’s motives were a mystery.
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Because of the events at Virginia Tech, the question “Why?” remains unanswered for many. The questions begin with “Why did this happen?” and “How could this happen?” and go on to “Why does God let such evil things happen?” and “How or where can we ever find safety?” On school and college campuses throughout the world, no one goes to class expecting a mass shooting. When such things occur, they serve as stark reminders that no one is safe in this world. Here is where our comfort begins. God took care of all of our needs even before our needs existed. He encountered evil and overcame it even from eternity. As Revelation 13:8 declares, the Lamb was slain for us to secure our names in the book of life even from the foundation of the world. We experience discomfort and illness and pain and suffering and death, and we count these as evil. Yet the Lord our God works good through all these things. In Acts 5:41, we read that having been imprisoned, beaten, and commanded to speak no more in the name of Jesus, the apostles “left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (ESV). The Lord doesn’t give us specific answers about Virginia Tech shootings, but He gives us something better. All the questions of “Why?” are answered by the Lord’s suffering and death on the cross. There
the never-ending mercy of the Lord is lifted up for all to see. There His limitless patience is shown as Jesus offers Himself as the sinner of sinners and prays for His enemies to be forgiven. There we understand why God does not simply wipe out evil and those who do evil. As the Lord Jesus Himself declared to Nicodemus in John 3:16–17, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (ESV). The Lord is not like the gods of this world, the gods that we create in our image. The Lord created man is His image. God created man in Christ. When man turned aside from trusting in Christ and thereby lost God’s grace, the Lord stepped in with the Gospel to restore His gracious image to man. Throughout history, God has been patiently working to bring about the promise of the Gospel. Rather than wiping out all who opposed Him and His good and gracious will (remember the definition of evil), the Lord set forth to restore His good and gracious will through the Lamb of God who takes the sin of the world. Had God wiped out our evil ancestors, we would not be born to hear the Gospel and receive the regeneration of Baptism and the Holy Communion that God has planned for us from the beginning.
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