Who shot JFK?

“It is highly convenient to believe in the infinite mercy of God when you feel the need of mercy, but remember also His infinite justice.”

B. R. Haydon

On this day on November 24, 1963 in the basement of the Dallas police station, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President Kennedy, was shot to death by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. Oswald had been brought to the basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his way to a more secure county jail. A crowd of police and press with live TV cameras rolling gathered to witness his departure. As Oswald entered the room, Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and fatally wounded him with a single shot from a concealed .38 revolver. Some called Jack Ruby a hero, but he was still charged with first-degree murder.

  Did Oswald assassinate Kennedy? It appears so. Because Jack Ruby took justice into his own hands, we’ll never know for sure. It’s why there are so many Kennedy-assassination theories. Questions like: Was Oswald guilty? Did he act alone? Was there a conspiracy to assassinate the President? will probably never be fully answered. Jack Ruby impeded justice.  

  God is always just and the ultimate standard of righteousness, “For the LORD is a God of justice” (Is. 30:18). The justice of God is another way of speaking of God’s righteousness. Scripture teaches that God Himself is the ultimate standard of what is right (Ps. 119:137). God then defines what is right and what is wrong. Something is right because God says it is right, and something is wrong because God says it is wrong. God stands as the final measure of righteousness, not personal experiences/feelings, popular opinions, political majorities or any system of this world.

  Injustice is perpetuated in this world. It’s tempting to point fingers, yet even Christ-followers can be complicit in spreading injustice. It’s heinous that someone can be accused, tried and convicted in the media or the lunchroom before entering a courtroom. “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

  In the early 1990’s Steven Cook accused Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of sexually abusing him during the 1970s. Later, Cook withdrew those charges after concluding his memories of the alleged incident which were evoked during hypnosis were “unreliable.” Though innocent with the charges withdrawn, some will no doubt always wonder if perhaps Bernardin was guilty. His name was dragged through the mud for months as he was presumed guilty by the media, the public, and even many of his parishioners. Only after a year of this abuse did the truth come out. His accuser admitted, as he lay dying from Aids, that he’d fabricated the story. Cardinal Bernardin visited Steven Cook and forgave him. A friend though of the late Cardinal shared that “the agony of having to endure those humiliating charges changed him forever.”

  Proverbs 18:13 warns, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” If you’ve ever been a victim of a false accusation, you know how painful it is. Yet, our sinful nature is quick to believe the worst. Often we’ll gossip and spread the rumors. It’s sin! At work or in the neighborhood and even at church, we believe the worst but don’t know all of the facts. We must show others the grace that we’d want shown to us.

  The disadvantaged often are the greatest victims of injustice. The Old Testament ethic consistently defended the “quartet of the vulnerable,” (widows, orphans, immigrants and the poor). Scripture understands that these groups are disproportionately disadvantaged. They’re vulnerable, at least more so and more often than other groups because they often have little social power, influence or financial resources.

  God’s Word repeatedly commands special protection and treatment for these vulnerable groups because of their inherent disadvantages. If anyone must speak up and defend the “quartet of the vulnerable,” it should be us, as Bible-believers. This isn’t political, it’s biblical.

  Injustice is a threat to justice everywhere. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made that observation in his famed work from a Birmingham Jail. Looking around the world we see those who are oppressed—who lack spiritual and religious freedom, who’ve never heard the gospel or have a knowledge of Jesus. It’s an injustice. We must stand up against injustice, boldly proclaiming that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

  We must share the only hope for justice – God’s mercy. The Bible confronts us with the reality that only God is righteous and we’re not, “there is none righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10). Our condition of sin renders us separated from God, deserving of His justice and punishment.

  Wonderfully, it’s not the last word! God sent His Son, Jesus to pay the penalty for all of our sin. 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.” The good news of the gospel is that God, because the penalty is paid can be just and forgive us if we but repent and commit our lives to the Savior. God can justly forgive sin and restore that person to a right relationship with Him, crediting to that person Christ’s righteousness (Rom 3:21-26; 2 Cor 5:21).

  We who have been forgiven must be committed to justice and righteousness. We’re to “practice righteousness” and not “practice sin” (1 Jn 3:4-10). Amazingly, what God commands us to do He also enables us to do. Moral obedience doesn’t stem from some mustering up of human strength or ability. It’s God’s Spirit who dwells within every believer that empowers us to do what is holy, just and righteous (Rom 8:13). We’re freed from the penalty of sin and freed of its power to live righteously.

  Our God is a God of justice. Those who know Him must be His emissaries of justice in an evil, unjust world. Are you?   

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