As I reflect on Trayvon Martin’s tragic death, I can’t help but view it through the lens of a father, pastor, and drum major for social justice. If you haven’t read the first installment, you can READ IT HERE. Today, we’ll take a look at Trayvon’s death through the lens of a pastor and resident theologian.
Personally, I don’t believe Trayvon was gunned down because he wore a hoodie (Sorry Geraldo Rivera – you’re dead wrong). We live in a broken world where people do evil things. Mr. Zimmerman allowed his prejudices, assumptions, and suspicions to cloud his ability to just walk away.
“Why did God allow Trayvon’s tragic death” is the #1 question people ask when they discover I’m a pastor. In dealing with the problem of evil in the world, we run into many problems like this one.
Could God have prevented Trayvon’s death? Yes, He could have.
God could also have prevented the Middle Passage and the enslavement of Africans, the Spanish Inquisition’s torture of dissidents, and Nero’s reign of terror. In each case, God allowed evil men to exercise a certain amount of power for a short period of time.
Ultimately, we do not know the reasons for what God allows. His ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). His sovereign plan takes in the whole scope of history, past, present, and future, encompassing every possible course of action, every cause and effect, every potentiality, and every contingency.
By faith, we trust that His plan is the best plan possible for restoring fallen humanity and a cursed world to righteousness and blessing.
But we can understand this: God’s permission is not the same as His approval.
God permitted Adam to eat of the forbidden tree, but He did not approve of the action. In the same way, God’s allowing Trayvon’s death in no way suggests His approval of it. God is grieved by the sinfulness of man and the hardness of his heart (Genesis 6:6; Mark 3:5).
We also know that God has done everything possible to redeem us from the sin, which would destroy us. He gave His only Son, who sacrificed His life for our sin and took our penalty. All who turn to Jesus Christ in faith are saved. The sin in this world, and horrors such as Trayvon’s death, are a direct result of mankind’s continued rebellion against God.
The question is not so much “Why did God allow Trayvon’s death?” God gives mankind freedom of choice. We can choose to follow Him and take a stand for righteousness, or we can rebel against Him and pursue evil.
The problem resides in the heart of man. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Until man’s heart turns to God, the world will continue to witness “racially motivated” shootings and black-on-black crime.
What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree?
