Trayvon Martin was killed twice.
Once at the hands of one stranger with a gun, in a Florida street.
Then, by the words of millions of strangers, in blogs and Tweets and Facebook posts.
The second shots have come like a flood in recent days:
“He was wearing a hoodie.”
“He wasn’t as clean-cut as that photo the media is circulating makes him appear.”
“He cussed on his Facebook page, you know.”
“He’s run into trouble before.”
“He’d used marijuana.”
My response to these comments: So what?
I’ve been a youth pastor for 14 years, and I can tell you that I have met literally hundreds of young men (and women) who fit all the above categories; with hoodies and bad habits and turbulent pasts and tough personas And you know what, not one of them deserved to die on a street, alone. Not one of them would have had a bullet coming to them.
I’ve been frustrated, saddened, shocked and downright sickened as I’ve watched and listened to people of all ages (many Christians), straining and digging and clawing, in an effort to pile-up a list of reasons why Trayvon Martin deserved what he got that night.
I’m afraid the pile may never be high enough for me to pull the trigger again.
I’m not sure what the Christian response should be to this tragedy. (And make no mistake, it is a tragedy all the way around).
What I do know is this:
Christ-followers affirm life, and not just in the womb. We abhor death.
We grieve with those who grieve, and we mourn with those who mourn.
Christ-followers see the parents of a teenager forced to defend their son as they bury him, and are moved to compassion.
We see a man whose life and family have been turned upside-down by his own actions and feel pity and sadness.
Christ-followers don’t believe a person’s dress or language or shameful past or present failures define them.
We are a people of mercy and forgiveness and of grace.
Christ-followers do not seek justification, but justice, in the face of tragedy.
Our Christian lives are the very stories of unworthy, unloveable, irredeemable people, receiving much more than we deserve and being rescued from ourselves. Our lives do not just speak, “There but for the Grace of God go I”, but, “Here and with the Grace of God am I.”
We cannot afford to be stingy with Grace.
Thankfully for me, I wasn’t there the evening Trayvon Martin died at the age of seventeen. I’m fairly certain you weren’t either.
But as someone who spends hundreds of hours each year with students just like Trayvon, I know that one of the greatest wastes in this world, is seeing a life taken so young; whether that life was spotless or tainted or flat-out polluted.
My faith in Jesus tells me that all people matter to God, and they should matter to us.
Regardless of every detail of that night (some we may never truly know), we do know that Trayvon Martin, a very young man was tragically killed.
My prayer, is that we who follow Christ will do all that we can, not to continue killing him.
