The Face of Evil

You may remember last year in Norway, Anders Breivik murdered 77 people including 69 young people at a youth camp.  This week he got his day in court.  Breivik justified his crime by saying that he was fighting against the multiculturalism and open immigration that his country had embraced.  As he read from a 13 page document that he had written while in custody, he claimed he was a freedom fighter, fighting for the racial purity of his nation.

One reporter, Trygve Sorvaag, tweeted from the courtroom, “for many people, it was surprising to hear how soft, almost nasal, his voice was.  He didn't appear dangerous in any way.  It was very hard to see that this softly spoken man is actually the person who murdered 77 people."

 Why is it that we all have a mental picture of evil as being a raving lunatic?  Why is it difficult to envision evil as  soft spoken almost gentle in nature?  When we think of evil, it is easy to picture the ravings of Adolph Hitler or the glee of Osama Bin Laden on 911.  We want to paint evil as something completely separate and different from us.  So it is surprising to us to hear evil as sounding, well, normal. 

The truth of the matter is that what Anders did was sin, and sin resides in each of our hearts.   That does not mean that we will all commit mass murder, we all live in God’s common grace which includes internal restraints like our conscience and external restraints like laws which keep us from being as sinful as we could be.  Yet the seed of evil resides in our hearts.  We won’t commit murder, but we don’t have to take a life to break the spirit of that law.  Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”  Matthew 5:21-22 (ESV) 

Evil is not different from us, sin resides in our hearts.  There is only one hope for us.  Paul says in Romans 7:24-25, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Think about it.