Chris Benoit was one of my favorite wrestlers. Other than The Undertaker and Kurt Angle, there was no one else I enjoyed seeing in the ring more than Benoit. When I heard the news last night of the death of he and his wife and son, I was shocked and saddened. As I watched the WWE's tribute to him last night, I had no idea what the cause of the deaths were. My sadness only grew throughout the night as I watched his peers talk about how he was such a stand-up guy, one they could trust, and how he loved his son so much. My thoughts were that we truly lost one of the best, inside and outside the ring.
As I'm learning more details about the circumstances of the death, that in all likelihood Benoit murdered his wife and kid and then hung himself, I'm struggling with waning sympathy. The ironic thing is that this is all happening as I'm working on a sermon about refraining from judging people. No doubt what Benoit has done is terrible, and I wouldn't at all try to say it's okay. But it's important to remember in a situation like this that only God is fit to judge. Our knowledge is extremely limited, but God knows people's hearts. Let's leave judgment to Him. It's not our place.
There's a part in the Gospels where Jesus looks out over a huge crowd of people and it says he had compassion on them because to him they were "like sheep without a shepherd." There were probably some thieves in that crowd. Probably some adulterers, too, and maybe even some murderers. And Jesus knew. Just like the Samaritan woman at the well, he knew all about those people. But it did not invoke judgment, but rather compassion. Let us be more like Jesus. It's hard, I know, but condemnation helps no one.
1 comment:
Good stuff.
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