Christchurch Mosque Attacks

The massacre on Friday, has deeply affected New Zealand. 

On the killer’s guns and ammunition magazines, he had listed a number of conflicts dating back several hundred years before the crusades between Christian and Muslim societies.

Historically many Christians and Muslims have considered themselves enemies of the other. 

Hundreds of verses of the Koran incite its followers to violence against those who refuse to acknowledge Islam as the only one true religion.

Today the majority of terrorist attacks reported in the Western world are carried out by Muslim extremists.  

Consequently Muslims have often been stereotyped  as untrustworthy, vulnerable to being radicalised  and potentially dangerous.

On the other hand, few Islamic believers know what the Koran says because it is written in Arabic, most are unaware of its incitements to violence and genuinely believe that Islam is a religion of grace, kindness and compassion.  

Even amongst many that do know of them, there are efforts to spiritualize them as allegories and metaphors, to discard them as commandments meant to be literally obeyed.  

Let’s read from Matthew 5:39,

Do not resist the one who wrongs you.

But if anyone who slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

You have heard it said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.

So to summarize:

If the person is an enemy, Jesus said to love him (Matt. 5:44). 

If he persecutes you, you are to pray for him (v. 44). 

If she publicly humiliates you, you are not to retaliate (v. 39). 

If someone takes advantage of you, you are to give even more than he asks (v. 41). 

The world preaches “Assert yourself.” Jesus taught, “Deny yourself.” 

The world warns that you will be constantly exploited.

Jesus' concern was not that His disciples be treated fairly but that they show unconditional love to others regardless of how they were treated. 

Can you sense the crisis of belief as you consider the practicalities of following these commandments?

These words seem absurd even to our ears today.

Jesus says love those who wrong you.

Brenton Tarrant thought he was exacting revenge on those who had wronged Christians and Western Civilisation for centuries. 

Remember, few Islamic believers know what the Koran says because it is written in Arabic, most are unaware of its incitements to violence and genuinely believe that Islam is a religion of grace, kindness and compassion. 

Men spat upon Jesus and nailed Him to a cross. His response was our model: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

With that in mind, how then should we live?

In Matthew 5, Jesus re-affirms the commandment to love our neighbour without saying who that neighbour is, because our neighbour is all around us.

The bible is replete with examples of Jesus crossing lines of prejudice and intolerance to carry out the will of God.

Some prominent examples include the healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman, the healing of the centurion’s child, and the conversation with the Samaritan woman come to mind.

This theme is carried on by God as he reveals his, to the Jewish mind, radical, plans to bring salvation to us “dirty” Gentiles. 

Though we may be separated by language, culture, belief, worldview, ethics and history from our neighbours, we are still called to love as we would love ourselves.

Therefore what Tarrant has done is not just a crime against a mosque, nor a crime against the Islamic community, nor just a crime against Christchurch, nor a crime against the people of New Zealand, nor a crime against humanity but a crime against God.