How does it make you feel to read that Saudi Arabia executed 81 people last Saturday?
Sick to your stomach?
Sad for the state of humanity?
Desperate for the kingdom of God?
Concerned for their eternal destiny?
Do you wonder who they were and what they’d done?
Whether or not their trials were fair? If their confessions only came from torture?
Maybe you shake your head and think, “Those Muslim barbarians!”
Or, “They probably got what they deserved.”
Maybe you wonder like me, “Why kill them all on the same day?” I suppose the answer to that is to make a point. “See this? See what we can do? Don’t cross us.”
I question if this situation differs only in quantity, but not in principle, from the eleven people executed in the US last year or the 17 the year before?
I also wonder how many Christians will use this mass execution as an additional data point in their decision to despise Muslims. And what might we do to help them think otherwise?
Finally, in this situation, as often happens, innocent people will pay a great price for the policies of the powerful: Since many of the men executed were Shia Muslims, Iran (Team Shia) canceled ongoing talks with Saudi Arabia (Team Sunni) regarding maybe easing up their proxy battle in Yemen (still the soccer ball).
God have mercy on these countries and their people, the good, the bad and the desperate. And you and me, too.