THE CHRIST RESPONSE: when an Ayatollah is assasinated
Colossians 3:1-2 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
When the news broke on Sunday morning that the Supreme leader of Shia Islam, Ayatollah Khamenei, has been killed in a joint USA-Israel bomb attack, one of the first Christian responses I read was by a prominent American Christian journalist/author from ALLISRAELNEWS. He responded as follows:
Psalm 37 is one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures. It begins as follows: “Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.”
What a great section of the Bible to meditate on today. Why?
Because the most wicked leader in the world is dead. Khamenei was finally assassinated on Saturday in a joint operation by the United States and Israel.
“He is now burning in the fires of eternal Hell, and rightly so.”
My heart broke. Setting my mind on the things above, I could only imagine our Redeemer in heaven weeping at the thought that another beneficiary of the cross left earth without accepting His outstretched hands of grace. I could not accept that the Spirit of Christ could live in a heart so full of hatred that he could rejoice in the eternal punishment of a lost soul. I understood anew that even though the Journalist had a Christian response, it was not the Christ response. I could not reconcile Jesus echoing the words in heaven: “He is now burning in the fires of eternal Hell, and rightly so.” And if my Christ would not utter those words, neither should I.
The question therefore becomes deeper than simply a Christian response when someone we perceive as evil dies. The question shifts to the Christ response. How would Christ respond?
It is, however, always of value to understand the context of the principle before we explore the spirit of the principle. So, before exploring the Christ response to the war in Iran and the death of the Ayatollah Khamenei, it would be of value to understand the Shia context and the mindset that shapes the war and the killing of their Supreme Leader
THE SHIA CONTEXT
In an article written by White Rose on March 1, 2026, the following context is provided.
“When bombs fall on sovereign capitals, when a head of state is targeted and killed, when air defences light up the sky over cities already strained by sanctions and internal dissent, we have crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed. When you kill a political and religious authority at the centre of a theologically infused state, you are not just removing a man. You are entering sacred narrative. And in Iran, sacred narrative is not a side detail. It is the bloodstream.
They (USA/ Israel) think they have crushed dissent. They have created a martyr.
They think they have restored order. They have authored a myth.
If the recent killing of Iran’s supreme leader is internalized through that lens, then this is not regime collapse. It is regime consolidation through sanctification.
A leader killed by foreign force will be recast as a modern martyr. A flawed ruler becomes a symbol of resistance. You do not weaken a religiously structured power system by feeding it martyrdom. You give it oxygen. And once martyrdom enters the bloodstream, retaliation is no longer optional politics. It becomes sacred duty. Patience becomes dishonour. Escalation becomes redemptive.
When you strike a figure who occupies theological space, you are not just altering military balance. You are rearranging time. You are pulling the present into a sacred past and telling a population that it is now living its own holy season. That is combustible. You do not end a story like this with a strike. You begin one.”
#WhiteRose #NoWar #KarbalaEffect #StopTheEscalation #PeaceOverPower #MartyrsAndMissiles #DiplomacyNotBombs #EndTheWar #HistoryMatters #Accountability
In this context of divine retribution and sacred revenge we turn to the Christ response.
THE CHRIST RESPONSE
The way Christians respond will either feed the martyr mentality or break the cycle. We will either speak words that give life or words that drain life. There will be no neutral exchange. Rejoicing over people burning in hell is simply Christianizing an Islamic Jihad and asking God to do the killing
The first question that therefor arises in a season marked by hatred is this: How should Christians respond to evil—wherever it appears and whoever we perceive to be evil?
The Christ response is crystal clear. Scripture does not leave us unchallenged.
“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
It is as simple and as difficult as that. The Christian witness is not measured by the creeds we recite but by the contours of our response. Our calling is not carved in the stone of retribution but written in the gentle script of reconciliation. True strength is not the clenched fist but the open hand—love standing its ground against the rising tide of hatred. Redemption, not revenge, is the horizon we walk toward, the song we choose to sing when the world demands a darker tune.
Our calling as Christians is, and was, never in any doubt. “Fight, yes! Overcome evil, by all means. But use the weapon of goodness”
Our witness, then, is found not in overcoming evil through acts of retaliation but in radical acts of goodness. By responding differently than the world expects, our lives testify to the God who relentlessly pursues and saves.
If we mirror the world’s patterns of reacting with hatred and suspicion, we reveal that our hearts may still belong to it. Rejoicing in a soul entering hell exposes an untransformed heart. Forgiveness and hatred cannot co-exist in the same heart. Hatred and love are incompatible in the same spirit. Once we choose the one, the other departs.
The second question is more delicate: How should we respond when a figure such as the Ayatollah is killed? Should his passing stir celebration, or mourning? The answer is not found in triumphalism but in sober reflection. Death reminds us of eternity, judgment, and the mercy of God. Our response should be shaped not by political passions but by the gospel’s call to love even our enemies, to grieve the lost, and to entrust justice to the Lord.
Ezekiel 18:23 declares, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.’”
This reveals that God does not delight in the death of the wicked. But why? Why wouldn’t a holy and just God rejoice when evil people receive the punishment they deserve? The answer lies in God’s awareness of their eternal destiny, and, above all, God seeks that ALL be saved and come to a full knowledge of His grace.
Similarly, 2 Peter 3:9 affirms that God is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” From this perspective, Christians should not rejoice in the eternal ruin of the wicked. Hell is so utterly dreadful that no one’s condemnation there should ever be a cause for celebration.
As Christians we embrace a different worldview. We follow different guidelines. Once we lose the ability to weep over souls that are lost, regardless how cruel we think they might have been, we nullify the cross. Once we rejoice over souls burning in hell, we betray the Christ that we confess to serve – the one who wept over His persecutors and a God that wants ALL to be saved.
If we seek the destruction of our enemies and death of our opponents, we are no better than the ones we despise. Christ came with an opposite spirit.
SO, HOW DO WE RESPOND?
By setting our minds on the things above even while our feet stand in the rubble
“Set your minds on the things above” is not an invitation to escape the world’s evil, suffering and pain but a summons to see it truthfully, through the cruciform lens of Christ. And in moments like the widening war in Iran—where missiles, militias, and political vengeance are reshaping the Middle East—our witness is revealed not by what we confess but by how we respond.
In moments like these, the Christ question is not: What side are we on?
But rather: What kind of people are we becoming?
The Christian witness is not primarily doctrinal accuracy—it is cruciform fidelity. It is the shape of our response when the world is on fire.
- We respond with truth, not propaganda
The fog of war is thick and always open to prejudice and interpretation. Competing narratives even turn fellow believers into enemies. Christians must resist the temptation to baptize any nation’s military ambitions. Our allegiance is not to empires but to the Lamb who was slain.
- We respond with lament, not indifference
More than 200 people have been killed in Iran alone since the first wave of strikes. Families in Dubai, Qatar, Lebanon, Israel, and the West Bank are sheltering from missiles. Lament is not weakness—it is love refusing to look away.
- We respond with intercession, not outrage
Outrage is cheap. Intercession is costly.
The early church prayed for emperors who persecuted them—not because they approved of them, but because they believed God’s mercy could break cycles of violence.
- We respond with solidarity, not tribalism
The Body of Christ spans Iran, Israel, Lebanon, the Gulf, and the global diaspora. When one part suffers, all suffer. This war is not “their” crisis—it is ours.
- We respond with peace-making, not by being partisan
Peace-making is not neutrality. It is active, creative, Spirit-empowered resistance to the logic of vengeance.
It means advocating for ceasefires, humanitarian corridors, and the protection of civilians—especially the vulnerable.
THE CROSS AS OUR INTERPRETIVE LENS
The cross teaches us that God enters violence not with superior force but with self-giving love.
The resurrection teaches us that violence does not have the final word.
So, when nations trade missiles, when leaders speak of “force never seen before,” when militias mobilize and civilians flee, the Christian imagination must be anchored in a different kingdom.
A kingdom where:
- enemies are prayed for
- strangers are welcomed
- the poor are protected
- truth is spoken
- peace is pursued
- and every human life bears the image of God
This is not naïve idealism. It is resurrection realism. This is the Christ response
This is how we “set our minds on things above” while living faithfully on earth.