Reggie Weems Blog

I wish I had more time to write about Benazir Bhutto’s death and its Middle East ramifications but time won’t permit such a luxury.  Immediately after her assasination, Jay Smith sent an e-mail from London with a picture of himself and the former Prime Minister.  By God’s gracious intervention, he had debated her at Oxford in 2002 and she responded with an invitation to tea and further conversation about their upbringing, he as a Christian in India and she as a Muslim in Pakistan.  Oh, how Christians can and should tie the daily news with prayer and a heart for global missions. 

Benazir knew it was only a matter of time before she would lay her life down for the people of Pakistan; it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ at all, but simply, ‘when.’  And yet, in October of last year, her passion for her own nation moved her to return from exile and join the Pakistani people in their quest for freedom.  After her return she was asked about her possible death and replied that her life was not her own but belonged to the millions of Pakistani people whom she served.  How noble to die for your friends. 

 When I heard about her death my thoughts immediately went to the hymn that asks,

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

Immediately after her assasination, Pakistan eruped into a series of violent protests throughout the country.  In the aftermath, many people will die as a result of her death (26 already).  And Benazir, herself a Muslim, and countless others will step into a Christless eternity where, in spite of any good accomplished on this earth, people are judged solely on the basis of their relationship to Jesus Christ, Who is the centerpiece and cornerstone of God’s redemptive plan amongst humanity and the Judge of all the earth.  Each of us can remember when we were burdened down by our sins and held captive to sin. 

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

Unlike Benazir’s death, many will live because of Christ’s death.  What wondrous love was God’s, that Jesus Christ, died, not for His friends as Benazir did, but for His enemies.  Paul asserted that many people might die for their friends just as some people would die for other people whose lies merited saving (from a human perspective).  The incredible thing about Jesus’ death is that He died for His enemies (Romans 5:8); for a people whose lives only merited eternal damnation.  It would be as though Benazir died for Al Qaeda, the very people now being blamed for her death.  Amazingly, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus did.  He died for the very people who hung Him on the cross, as Peter later verified (Acts 2:23) in his Pentcost Day sermon.

Is it any wonder then that our hearts are lost in awe as we contemplate the cross?  Here we are, just days after Christmas Day and we are once again, reminded through history’s events, that what Jesus did was singuarly exceptional (as I preached on Sunday morning before Christmas).  Our response is awe…and action - to love God with our hearts, minds, souls and strength (Deut 6). 

Let us pray for the people of Pakistan who will spend and even expend their lives for temporal freedom while Jesus offers eternal freedom.  He does for us what no government or President or Monarch could ever accomplish.  May these events spur us to greater love for our Savior and greater service to a world in need of our Savior.  As we pray and work, let us also sing a song of triumph to the Lamb. 

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb Who is the great “I Am”;
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

May millions of those voices be Pakistani!