Apparently, we’ve reached the point where a man can be murdered in front of the world and somebody figures there’s a punchline in there somewhere. Dave Chappelle found a punchline in Charlie Kirk’s murder.
In May 2022, a man rushed the stage at the Hollywood Bowl and attacked Chappelle. When prosecutors declined to bring felony charges, Charlie Kirk spoke out. He warned that treating the attack lightly encouraged violence against public speakers. Three years later, Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a university in Utah.
Last weekend, Chappelle stood before an audience at Madison Square Garden and said he felt better since Kirk was murdered. Some laughed. In another clip, he joked about Kirk “looking up at us,” apparently suggesting he was in hell. Some people laughed. This one wasn’t funny.
For heaven’s sake, the man had a wife and two little children. Erika Kirk has spoken of what her husband’s murder means for her and their two children. They will live with that loss every day for the rest of their lives. A crowd can move on to the next joke, but those children will grow up without their father.
What has happened to us when another person’s sorrow becomes something to enjoy? Romans 12 gives an answer and it reaches much deeper than the words of a comedian.
In the Bible there are two things. First is doctrine, which tells us what to believe. The second is duty, which tells us how to behave. For eleven chapters Paul has been explaining the gospel, telling us how people condemned by God may get right with God through Christ. We are justified in Christ, adopted in Christ and one day we will be glorified in Christ. All through sheer mercy and grace and kindness.
God has been exceptionally and everlastingly kind to me, although I was His enemy. I loved my sins and my pleasures more than I loved God. Nonetheless, despite me, God saved me and brought me to be His child. Now I’m faced with a problem. How do I respond to such amazing love as this?
Paul says to present your body as a living sacrifice. You don’t give a sacrifice. Be a sacrifice. Give yourself entirely to pleasing God. The world around us will try to squeeze us into its mold. It will teach us to hate the people it hates, to laugh when they fall, to treat contempt as though it were courage. The Christian has another ruling principle: Him I will please. Thy will, not mine, be done.
So Paul moves from doctrine into the daily character of a Christian. It’s not enough to have a godly gift unless it’s matched by a godly character. Love must be genuine. We are to abhor evil and cleave to what is good. We can speak clearly against wickedness and still show kindness to those who practice it. Then comes this simple command: “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15).
Here’s someone who’s had a great joy, so rejoice with them. Here’s someone who’s had a great sorrow, so weep with them. Our hearts should never become so attached to a political cause that we lose the ability to recognize a grieving family.
There’s something else worth knowing about Dave Chappelle. He’s a Muslim. He converted to Islam when he was seventeen and has spoken publicly about his faith. He doesn’t profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ. However, if you are a Christian…Paul’s words have a way of turning toward us. Have I ever been pleased to see someone I disliked humiliated? Have I secretly enjoyed watching an enemy suffer? If someone does evil to you and you do evil back, evil has been doubled. Think about that. We answer cruelty with cruelty and imagine we have made the world better. The evil has simply spread from one heart to another.
Paul says, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him drink. Shame those who persecute you by showing them kindness, the sort our Lord Jesus showed when He prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). I don’t know whether Chappelle will ever regret his words. I pray he does. I also pray the Lord keeps my own heart tender enough to weep when someone suffers, even someone I don’t particularly like.
Because Jesus loved me when I was His enemy. I ought to remember that before I decide who deserves my mercy.
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