Verity Christian Fellowship

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.

Proverbs 25:21-22

Last week the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, took the decision to release from prison Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person who has been convicted of the 747 aircraft bombing over Lockerbie. The release was on compassionate grounds as al-Megrahi is dying of cancer and is expected to have only a few months to live. The result of this has been an international political storm with claims of all sorts of underhand deals being done. There are also doubts expressed about whether al-Megrahi was even guilty in the first place.

I cannot comment about whether he is guilty or not or whether anyone has taken or will take advantage of the situation to make deals. I do not know enough about the case to state categorically what went on and give an opinion, and knowing a little about human nature I expect there will always be people who officially or unofficially will try to gain an advantage in any situation.

The question that does interest me though, is ‘was the Justice Secretary right to release the prisoner on compassionate grounds?’

From reading the various comments from people on the news websites, the main argument against releasing him was ‘the Lockerbie bomber showed no compassion to his victims, so why should we show compassion to him?’ This is a very natural and understandable reaction. However is it the one that God would have us make?

The quote from Proverbs 25 above can be simplified as ‘Show compassion to your enemies and they will feel shame for what they do’. I don’t know that Libya was Scotland’s enemy or that they feel shame for what happened at Lockerbie. But from the waving of Scottish flags at al-Magrahi’s return it is obvious that they now feel more respect than they probably did.

Also it is true that terrorists show no compassion. That is the futility of what they do. It is why terrorism will never achieve anything. Indiscriminate killing just hardens people’s hearts and their resolve to get revenge and not give in. And by showing no compassion in return we are becoming just like them. We may not instigate the spilling of innocent blood but we are certainly doing nothing to prevent it. We need to prove we are better than them. That we have higher ideals, higher values.

Jesus instructed us that if an enemy strikes us, we should turn the other cheek. This is not simply doing nothing and giving in, but is showing resistance. By releasing al-Megrahi we have proved that we will not be brought down by terrorists, but that we will stand by our principles and stand proud.

Jesus showed compassion on those who crucified him when he said ‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do’. These words marked his victory.

I therefore think that Mr MacAskill’s actions were not a submission as some would say but in fact a victory. A victory cry we should all take up.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 9:50 am and is filed under Weekly Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.