Classroom Shooting

Warning: Intended for Mature Readers. Content may not be suitable for all age groups.

31 frightened, shivering students huddled together at the back of the classroom that is designed for 32. The teacher, known by his normally jovial bunch of kids as Mr. K, stepped over the thirty-second student. Mr. K took this step carefully, as to not slip in the blood that now covered the once white tile floor. He made his way toward the remaining students with his Kimber Custom II ACP .45 in hand, 7 shots left. The kids looked at the blood splattered mess of a teacher walking towards them and one of the girls screamed. He kept walking, ignoring the high pitched sound. Mr. K was standing above them now. With 7 rounds left in his gun, it would only take 8 student heroes at most to make this problem go away but no one was volunteering. He looked back to his desk of 18 years and the body on the floor; also 18 years old. Billy, gone. The remnant of trembling kids could not comprehend their formerly lovable teacher's actions. What happened? Divorce? Pay cut? Termination? They did not have to ponder any longer. "Freeze! Drop the weapon!" shouted the savior in blue with his state issued 9mm aimed at Mr. K's head. It was finished.

18 months later...

"How do you plea Mr. Khmelnitski?", asked the judge. A stunned crowd, judge, and jury looked in amazement as the chain bound ex-teacher boldly proclaimed, "not guilty!" Judge Grunnell leaned forward as his demeanor transitioned from amazement and shock to interest and curiosity. "The hallway camera caught the event on tape through the square shaped door window. You had traces of Billy Medeiros' DNA and blood on you at the time of arrest. There were 31 witnesses of the shooting and on top of all that a well established officer of the law found you at the scene with the murder weapon in hand. Can you explain this ridiculous plea to me please?", the judge of 27 years sarcastically inquired. The courtroom artist was completely incapable of capturing the look on the faces of the people present after what Mr. K replied. He said,"Well sir, I did more good than bad on that day. True I did kill one boy. But after that I did not kill 31. I had the means to do so. I had four 8 round clips with me that day. Not only that, before I went to the school that morning, I made arrangements to pay for two of my previous student's college education since I have no children. I have no plans to do anything wrong from this day forward. I would say my good outweighs my bad your honor and I am truly sorry."

Present day....

Please don't worry about Billy or Mr. K. They are fictional characters. The truly sad part is that there are real people out there who respond like Mr. K in regards to being guilty to the Law of God, the 10 commandments. So many of the people that I talk to out on the streets feel that they are good people and that their good deeds outweigh their bad. Some people think that repentance is just stopping sinful acts and that doing the right things from this point forward will be sufficient in the sight of a Holy God. It's a tough battle for people who are born again and who have the Holy Spirit as their guide and Christ as the Lord to walk a narrow path. To think that in an unregenerate state you can just all of the sudden do "good" for the rest of your life is absurd. The reality is, just like in the story above, doing good doesn't make up for being bad. Did it matter to the judge that the teacher in the story didn't kill 31 kids? Absolutely not! It only mattered that he did kill one. Mr. K could have paid every student's way through college, fed the homeless every day, contributed to charities, adopted kids, bought girl scout cookies outside every market in town, walked old ladies across streets, whatever. These good deeds would not have erased Billy's death in this case.

Now, back to God's Law. Apart from repentance and faith in Christ, God's wrath abides on unregenerate sinners. All have either lied, stolen or wanted something that did not belong to them, fornicated, adulterated, blasphemed, idolized, murdered(including hatred), or worse yet not put God first in their lives. To think that they would be able to stand before God on Judgment day with all of that against them and say, "but look at all the good I've done!" is woefully laughable. The Law was broken. It doesn't matter what good you do from that point on. So if just doing good from now on isn't good enough to get us into Heaven yet God want's us to go there, then there has to be something else. It would seem that all would be headed for Hell. Think of the story again. If Judge Grunnell in the tale is a good judge and has to punish Mr. K for his wrongdoing despite all of his "good" acts, just imagine our Judge on Judgment day. He is not only a good judge. He is a great, wonderful awesome, and amazing Judge! So with knowing all of that, if God is indeed a good Judge, He MUST punish sinners for their crimes against His Law. All of the good deeds in the world are not going to be taken into account in any way. So justice must be served...and it was. Jesus Christ. Fully God. Fully Man. He never sinned. He took the penalty for our sins. The justice that should have been taken out on us was taken out on Him on that cross that He died on all those years ago. He rose from the dead three days later, defeating sin and death. If we repent and trust in Him for salvation alone we can escape the punishment due to us in Hell. We broke God's Law, Jesus paid the fine. That means that God can throw our case out because justice has been served for our crimes against Him.

For my fellow street evangelists out there, this analogy of killing one student but not the rest has been effective for me when speaking with the lost. It really helps them see that their good won't undo the fact that they are already guilty. If you are not saved and are reading this, please realize your true state before a righteous and Holy God. Listen to your conscience. It bears witness of your guilt. Apart from repentance and faith in Christ you are daily storing up wrath for yourselves on the day of wrath and any attempts to do "good" from here on out are only attempts to bribe the great Judge. Today is the day of salvation. Ask, plead, beg God for salvation. Repent and believe the gospel. Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. Then read your bible daily and obey it.

2 Corinthians 5:21

English Standard Version (ESV)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.