Osama bin Laden is the world’s most wanted man. He may in fact be the most wanted fugitive in world history. He is the prime suspect in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks (which he has called “blessed”), and there is currently a $50 million bounty on his head.

What Western authorities know about bin Laden is that he is tall and lanky; at six-foot-four-inches, he may suffer from a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. He is one of 54 known children of Mohammed bin Laden – the only son of his father’s tenth wife. He himself has been married four times, and has fathered as many as two dozen children. He has been publicly disowned by his family, and his Saudi Arabian citizenship has been revoked. For more than a decade he has managed to stay under the radar of the world’s most sophisticated intelligence agencies. He is a man without a country or a safe bed.

Bin Laden is known to be exceedingly wealthy. He is also exceedingly committed to a radical interpretation of the Islamic principle of jihad, or holy war. Whereas mainstream Muslims have traditionally understood jihad to be a command to defend their faith (with force, if necessary), bin Laden declared in a 1998 fatwa (or binding edict) that it is a “duty” for Muslims to kill Americans and their allies, including civilians, women, and children, “in any country in which it is possible to do it.”

Through his formation of the radical Islamic group Al-Qaeda, bin Laden has endeavored to do just that. In addition to 9/11, he allegedly masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center; the slaughter of German tourists in EgyptU.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998; and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole that same year. in 1997; the bombing of the

Why is Osama so angry? Why does he picture the United States as the epicenter of evil?

Like many fundamentalist Muslims, he is outraged at the decadence of Western culture. He decries our continuing support of the nation of Israel. He is a committed opponent of Christian attempts to evangelize Muslim nations, and uses the language of war to describe what he calls Western imperialist incursions into the Middle East in order to secure oil.

It’s safe to say that the most frequently asked question concerning Osama bin Laden is the one that keeps the lights on at CIA Headquarters at night: Where is he right now? Let’s briefly consider, however, another question – one that ought to compel us to think long and hard: What would Jesus say to Osama bin Laden?

We must obviously approach such a question with great humility. Unlike God, we cannot claim to know the breadth or depth of anyone’s true circumstances or motives. Nor should we respond in a flip or cynical manner, as if Jesus would say the kinds of words we tolerate on irreverent T-shirts. But our response need not be sheer guesswork. In the New Testament’s four biographies of Jesus, which are known as gospels, we gain a wealth of insight into the mind of the one who claimed to be God’s Son.

If we imagine Jesus speaking four words to Osama bin Laden, they might be these:

Stop! Jesus made it clear that “all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Violence is not the pathway to justice or peace, even though it has been a reflexive response of generals and presidents and gang leaders and terrorists for thousands of years. When given the chance to fight for his kingdom, Jesus chose sacrificial death instead – and thus released a power that continues to change human lives not by compulsion, but from the inside out.

Think! Is there a shred of evidence that revenge actually works? Bin Laden has said, “We treat others like they treat us… Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and their innocent, until they stop doing so.” But only in countries like South Africa, where the cycles of payback have been broken by miraculous gifts of forgiveness, has the killing ever stopped. Jesus provided this counter-intuitive counsel: “Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets.”

Learn! Love is more powerful than hatred. Jesus did more than merely speak such words. He demonstrated that laying down one’s own life is more transforming than taking another’s, or sending suicide bombers into crowded markets or embassies or jetliners. We cannot embrace evil and serve God at the same time.

Surrender! We may find it impossible or even repugnant to imagine, but God loves Osama bin Laden. It’s never too late…even for hardened murderers. The world’s first global emissary for the Christian message, the apostle Paul, was originally a zealous exterminator of Jesus’ followers. Paul never got over the fact that God overwhelmed him with mercy and grace, putting him on an entirely different path.

In truth, we don’t know precisely what Jesus might say to Osama bin Laden. But we do know what Jesus is saying to us about the world’s most wanted man: We must pray for him. We must ask God to open the eyes of one of history’s darkest and most twisted individuals…even as we thank God for graciously opening ours.