Christ on Campus: Questions fromVirginia Tech

The 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.

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.

In all things, even though we become distracted by our lack of faith so that we forget, God does not forget His good and gracious will, and He continues to work patiently and steadfastly to bring it to reality for us. It is as St. Paul so wonderfully and boldly declared in Romans 8:28–32, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (ESV).

Through the most evil thing imaginable, the torture and murder of the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the one true hope of the world, God secured for all mankind the safety that we all long to know. Through the hands of evil men, as St. Peter declared in Acts 2:22–24, God determined from the foundation of the world that Jesus would suffer and die to save God’s enemies. God allowed evil to be done in order to defeat all evil forever. He’s joined you to that victory in your Baptism and feeds you His body and blood to keep you in it. In Christ, you’re safe forever, no matter what evil things you may encounter in the world.

Rev. Paul Siems is the pastor of Bride of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church and husband of Stephanie. His e-mail address is pastor@brideofchristelc.com.