“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” These were Sonya Massey’s last words before a sheriff’s deputy shot her dead in her home on July 6 in Springfield, Ill. 

Who was Massey rebuking? Sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson was the one pointing a gun at her. But the phrase “in the name of Jesus” suggests she was rebuking Satan.

This awful incident made me think of 2 Peter 2:4-16, a passage of scripture that the charismatic friends of my teen years considered a biblical mandate for rebuking Satan. 

It is a stretch to interpret the passage this way, but it does refer to the Lord rescuing the godly from trial before launching into a condemnation of false prophets, who are so depraved that they could be agents of Satan.

More direct references to rebuking Satan include the temptation of Jesus in the desert, Jesus casting out demons and Jesus laying hands on a woman whose sickness was the result of a demon’s habitation in her body.

Noncharismatics have been known to say that while Jesus gave his disciples the power to rebuke Satan, there’s no biblical mandate for us to rebuke Satan today. Regardless, it is still practiced in some congregations. 

Massey came from such a church in the Black Church tradition. Massey suffered from schizophrenia, and many have denounced her statement as the musings of someone who was mentally unwell. 

But I do not dismiss her words. In fact, I take them seriously.

Some of the most powerful things ever said to me were spoken by people who were mentally ill. 

When I worked as a case manager in Washington, D.C., a mentally ill man gave me a hug the day after the 2016 election when I was crestfallen. 

A man in active addiction talked to me about the writings of Josephus, the first-century Roman-Jewish historian. 

A sex worker who struggled with depression affirmed the spirit I brought to our visits together. 

I believe the words Massey spoke were engrained in her when dealing with evil spirits. I believe she sensed that the deputy sought to harm her. (He claimed she sought to harm him with a pot of boiling water.) I believe she sensed this encounter was not going well for her, and she was right. 

I understand why Mennonites are uncomfortable with resisting evil, even in self-defense. Our belief in nonviolence is often expressed with the term “nonresistance,” based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:39, “Do not resist an evildoer.”

In the same verse, Jesus commands his followers not to retaliate: “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” In Romans 12:19, the Apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:35 to emphasize that God alone has the authority to take vengeance. 

We know God is just, but God’s justice may not look like ours. 

I also know Sonya Massey was a child of God. I believe that forces I don’t understand led the sheriff’s deputy to shoot her. I attribute his actions to arrogance, racism, a negative reaction to being rebuked and a sense of impunity. I can understand why Massey said what she said. 

While a court of law will decide the deputy’s fate, 2 Peter 2:12-13 says false prophets will be paid back for what they’ve given out. It says they blaspheme in matters they don’t understand. 

I make this connection because the deputy reacted so strongly to Massey’s rebuke in the name of Jesus. He committed a sinful act in a situation he did not fully understand. Or he understood and had a murderous spirit. 

While justice belongs in God’s hands, we have work to do to ensure that murder-by-police doesn’t happen again. While stalled in governmental bureaucracy, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act aims to have a national registry where police officers would be flagged for excessive use of force. 

Advocates for more humane law enforcement are calling for police officers to be trained in mental health. This falls short of my desire for licensed social workers to be available during mental health crises. But there is progress: My town of Goshen, Ind., has trained a retired police officer how to deescalate situations involving people with mental-health issues. The car he drives is discretely marked and has no flashing lights. If mental-health issues are detected in a call to police, he accompanies the visit. 

Sonya Massey saw evil and rebuked it in the name of Jesus. Her death was tragic and avoidable. People of faith are called to rebuke evil where we see it and to counter it with nonviolent justice, leaving ultimate justice in God’s hands.