A Scandalous Grace

Yasser Arafat has died.

I've got to start by saying that Yasser Arafat was a villain who ushered modern terrorism into our world. He ordered suicide bombers in the form of men, women, and even children. In 1974 he had terrorists take 100 children hostage in a school, where they later murdered 21 of them with grenades and random gunfire. Yasser Arafat has died and the United States, among many other nations, will be sending a diplomat to the funeral. There would be no hangings as with the Nazi leaders. There would be no reminiscing of his crimes as if Osama Bin Laden had died. There will be a funeral and people will mourn. Countries will act political and send condolences.


With that in mind. . . .I stumbled onto this article, posted by Jeff Jacoby, a Boston Globe Columnist on November 11, 2004.

"In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity."

That last sentence rings in my ears. Mainly because if I take the Bible as actual truth, then I know Yasser Arafat and I are exactly the same. It's not an easy thing to say now is it? It's unfair and unjust for God to look on us all as equals in the pool of sin. But the scandalous truth is just that. When God talks of a covering grace he isn't just talking about the good people. In fact, he's not talking about good people at all. He's talking about the darkest parts of you and me. God sees and knows that part. He's been there. And yet he remains to give pardon and peace.

I'm sure I've mowed over people in my life who are certain that "God....will damn him for eternity." I'm sure those words may have even been spoken aloud about me.
Praise God for scandalous grace.