This was followed by a more tempered pause.  Many people - many of them Christians - began to second guess their initial jubilation.  Is it right for a Christian to celebrate the death of someone who has directly caused the deaths of so many others?  It's been interesting to see Facebook friends and others sparring back and forth on this issue, citing various Scripture verses in defense of celebrating the death of an evil person, as opposed to verses that exhort us to take a decidedly less vindictive line.  

Frankly, all of this is missing the point - particularly in terms of Christian responses.  The question is not whether or not it is appropriate to celebrate the death of a Bad Person.  This question implies that we're free to take a certain satisfaction so long as we don't allow that satisfaction or jubilee to express itself to others.  The emphasis becomes the outward actions, rather than the inward state of mind and heart.  As Matthew 5 points out repeatedly though, this is an erroneous distinction.  The fact that I don't murder someone does not mean I have fulfilled the spirit of the fifth commandment.  How I think and feel about someone determines whether I am keeping the law properly or not every bit as much as whether I pull a trigger.  How we think and feel about our enemies - very real, very bad, very mean and vicious enemies at that - is a measure of our fulfillment of the commandments every bit as much as whether or not we throw a party or tweet a virtual high five to the world when one of those very real, very bad, very mean and vicious enemies suffers death or some other fate.

We can get into the Scriptural exegesis that sorts out the proper context of verses calling for the blood of our enemies vs. those that exhort us to pray for them and turn the other cheek.  These verses do not contradict one another in any way, but we need to be careful where we fall out in our application of them.  There will indeed be very real judgment and condemnation for those who persist in rejection of God and Jesus Christ and who inflict suffering and death on His children.  That is God's job - not the job of Christians as Christians.

  

Living in a broken and sinful world may require Christians to conduct ourselves in certain ways to fulfill our vocational roles (hunting down a mass murderer to bring them to justice or prevent them from continuing their killing spree).  We do not engage in these vocations as Christians, per se.  Meaning, I don't say Because I am a Christian it is my duty to hunt down a terrorist or a criminal.  That is not my vocation as a Christian.   I may fulfill a professional vocation as a law enforcement official or a member of a special forces military unit that does require me to hunt down a criminal or a terrorist.  My duty in that situation would be to carry out the law to the best of my ability, as a professional.  As a Christian law enforcement officer or special forces military member, I am called upon to fulfill my vocational duties to enforce justice while at the same time praying for the person that I am called upon to track down and, if necessary, even kill.   I'm not praying that they escape justice, but that the Holy Spirit break through their heart and mind, to point them clearly to Jesus Christ as their Savior.  So that whether they live or die, they belong to Christ.  

My vocation as a Christian is to pray for my enemies, while recognizing that they still need to be brought to account for their actions.  Jesus did not teleport the thief on the cross off of the cross and to safety once he confessed his faith in Jesus.  The thief suffered the punishment he was due.  But he suffered it in the knowledge of his Savior, and in the assurance that when justice had been carried out on his body, his soul (and ultimately body) would be safe in Christ.  

And as I pray for my enemies, I also pray Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  I pray for the justice of God that will consign evil to it's appropriate fate.  I do not seek to compromise the righteousness of God by redefining love or mercy or any number of other terms.  I pray that those who truly deserve eternal separation from God receive it.  But I pray at the same time that the number of people in that category be constantly shrinking, and that, God-willing, all would come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.  Even if it's hanging on a cross, dying.  Or in a prison cell.  Or an office.  Or strapped to the guerney or the electric chair.  Or even staring down the barrel of an assault rifle in a dusty compound on the other side of the world.  

It's another one of those balancing acts that Christians are constantly called to in Scripture, another example of the tension that we bear within us as citizens of this world as well as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.  One day, the tension will be resolved.  In the meantime, it's probably good to constantly be second-guessing our first reactions to things.  Chances are, our first reactions probably aren't the appropriate ones.