My take on the Aurora shootings

Today I woke up to a live news broadcast of James Holmes, the suspect in the Aurora shooting, attending his first court hearing. 

My paralegal side sorta nerded out and I was making mental notes to myself like: Ok, the defense is sitting on this side, the prosecution is sitting on this side, Oh hey! There's the court reporter! Hahaha! I was also thinking about how there were so many different pleading, orders, and motions each side could file. One was to extend the 72 hour deadline for presenting formal charges to Holmes. I was thinking, "Oh man... This is going to be one thick file for this guy already!" 

It would be much easier to be a paralegal for the DA than for the public defender for this case.  It would be a good feeling to collect evidence to put him away for injuring and killing so many people. It would be harder to interview him as a defense and still think of him as innocent. Yet that's what we all need to realize. He has already in some senses been tried in the court of public opinion and been found guilty. 

We want justice so badly for the people injured and killed in the shooting. His arrest made him the scapegoat of our anger. Of course, if he is found guilty, he will be punished by the state. But we want to see it now. We want his trial to be on the next business day and we want the judge to read (triumphantly): The jury finds this man GUILTY of ALL CHARGES! We want to say, "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS NOW!!" 

It is harder to pray for the guy. It is harder to see him as innocent until proven guilty. It is easier just to be mad. We should be mad though. Mad that this world is broken. But instead of trying someone in the court of public opinion, I have to remember to remember that God has tried the world and found it guilty of sin. Our sins deserve the death penalty. We can't post bail. We can't ask for a retrial or appeal. We need Jesus to pay that death penalty for us. Those of us that walk free solely on the blood of Christ should be grateful. We can still be mad and sad that the world is broken. But we use the anger we feel to say, "God, please come back soon! Please make this world new."