Whoever Hates His Brother Is Still In Darkness

According to media accounts, Matthew Murray was home schooled by faithful parents, briefly attended a missions training program and has a brother at Oral Roberts University where he himself considered recently applying to, but then, last weekend, Matthew Murray took the lives of four followers of Christ in Colorado because, according to Fox News, "he hated Christians."

Why did Matthew Murray walk in darkness and reach out from it to rob good families of their loved ones and his own family of their reputation and, most importantly, their child?

Murray either quit or was thrown out of the missions training institute where he killed two young people and then, apparently still filled with rage, drove 65 miles to Colorado Springs to the campus of New Life Church, which has already had a turbulent few years, and took two more lives before being gunned down by a volunteer security guard.

Murray's parents are said to be in shock. Who can blame them? Of course, the media will comb through their trash for "warning signs" but what parent looks into the eyes of their own child and sees "a killer"?

There are no real answers to be found here--only the reality of the darkness.

The great pulpiteer Fred Craddock tells the story of a Native American woman who once wrote a weekly column in broken English for a newspaper in Oklahoma. After the assassination of President Kennedy she wrote, "I have no words today. I have no words to say. I walk around the house all day saying (painful sigh)." Craddock said that it is a sin to put words into the mouths of those deeply aching and he was right but, regardless, all I can think of is:

"How long, O Lord? How long?"

May God wrap these families in comfort until the trumpet sounds and time and tears are no more.