The George Zimmerman murder trial has finally concluded. Many people are frustrated by the outcome. The verdict is disappointing to me from a legal and Christian perspective in that even though the criminal justice system is not perfect it does not appear it was properly utilized and fairly applied to its fullest extent to begin with. The whole ordeal smacks of a local community in the South that probably resented the national outrage and pressure to prosecute Zimmerman later after they had already closed the investigation out. So the case was doomed from the beginning.
The authorities from the very start of this case did not appear to have conducted a very thorough investigation into the shooting death of a young unarmed black man. State witnesses were neglected and unprepared to testify at trial, which undermined their credibility. The fact that one of the detectives (a state witness) testified he thought the defendant was believable is unheard of and sums up my point about bias undertones. And so because of an incomplete and sloppy version of the facts presented at trial one of the jurors was later quoted saying that Trayvon Martin “played a huge role” in his own death. It seems pretty clear by all accounts that George Zimmerman went out of his way to escalate the situation and ended up pulling a gun when he was losing.
He’s the only person alive on this planet who truly knows exactly what happened on that day and he isn’t talking, which is his right under the law. At this point what he did on that night is between him and God. I suppose if the whole truth had been made known it’s possible he acted in self-defense but whether he acted justifiably or with criminal intent will never be known for sure.
That’s why I’m reminded of the fact that even though it’s well known in our court system that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, a “not guilty” verdict does not necessarily mean a person is innocent. Just because Zimmerman was found not guilty doesn’t mean he acted innocently during that violent altercation with Martin. There just wasn’t enough evidence to convict him.
This frustrates me in that in our American society we rely on the trial court system to mete out justice (although designating a judge to settle disputes among people has Old Testament origins). Compared to God’s sovereign judgment our trials may be a crude blunt tool but nevertheless the criminal justice system usually satisfies our sense of justice and fair play and is designed to do just that. Ultimately we’re all subject to God’s judgment but until that day we have come to expect people to be held accountable for their human actions while here on earth. But in this case it does not appear the whole truth was ever revealed making it impossible to prove the case, and thus, justice did not play out. That alone should be disturbing to all of us.
At least these types of polarizing cases where justice seems twisted don’t occur often. But this is not the first instance where an infamous case results in a controversial verdict. I guess it’s just another reminder of how imperfect and limited we are as humans when it comes to true justice, certainly when compared to God. sigh.

From Pastor Mark’s Heart
July 21, 2013

On the second day of our stay in Rome, we got up super early, ate a hearty breakfast, put on comfortable shoes, and got on the subway headed for Vatican City with a tour book in tow. We were confident we would surely beat the crowd with an early start.  In addition, we were smart enough to plan our visit to this tourist-magnet in October, not in the middle of the busy summer months, so we figured we wouldn’t have to spend a lot of our precious time waiting in lines.  We had even purchased tickets online, and we felt good about ourselves!
But as soon as we arrived at the metro station closest to Vatican City, we realized that a whole lot of other people had the same plan!  As if we were competing in a speed-walking event, the three of us walked as fast as our short legs could carry us to get ahead of the mob of people headed in the same direction. Even with all that advance planning, however, we still ended up waiting in line for the security check and to rent an English audioguide for the Vatican Museums tour. You indeed need a lot of stamina and patience to visit the Vatican City.
They say you haven’t seen Rome unless you have been to the Vatican Museums so we were determined to take the time to explore every gallery.  However, we soon realized that doing this might take a whole week or more! The galleries were filled with so many amazing, breathtaking, magnificent (I need more adjectives to do them justice) works of art - paintings, sculptures, tapestries, etc. - that after a while my mind couldn’t handle any more.  It was definitely a case of too much of a good thing, an awesomeness overload!  But we had no choice but to move slowly with the mob in order to reach the pinnacle, the Sistine Chapel, with its famous painted ceiling depiction of the creation account by Michaelangelo.  Incidentally, the Sistine Chapel is also important in that the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is elected there.
While I was glad to see the most famous ceiling image, “The Creation of Adam,” I was more impressed with and touched by the huge painting on the wall titled “The Last Judgment,” done by Michaelangelo some 25 years after painting the ceiling.  The older Michaelangelo depicts the second coming of Christ and the ensuing judgment.  With Christ in the center, the damned who are being pulled down to hell to be tortured by demons are to His left while the blessed who rise from their graves to enter heaven are to His right.  In addition, Christ is surrounded by important figures in church history, including many martyrs who suffered particularly painful deaths. One particular image that is still vivid in my mind is that of Saint Bartholomew, holding a knife in one hand and his own skin in his other hand.  He is known to have been martyred by being skinned alive.  What a painful and slow death he must have suffered for the sake of Christ!  As great as that suffering must have been, however, it is still nothing compared to being tortured by demons, as the painter seems to convey.
What really struck me was how many of those tens of thousands of daily tourists will just walk away from that painting, considering it as a depiction of a fairy tale or the artist’s wild imagination.  Many may even be shaken by the disturbing nature of the painting, but within a few minutes of leaving the chapel, will forget about it.  I too would have been one of those passerby tourists had it not been for Jesus Christ who saved me out of millions.  Why me and not them? I may never know, but I am eternally grateful for His amazing grace.  How about you?

From Pastor Sara’s Heart
October 28, 2012