Why I Oppose the Death Penalty: "The Talking Place: Discussing the
Death Penalty" Forum on the Death Penalty, Fairbanks Alaska
[NOTE: I was invited to participate in a
statewide dialogue on the Death Penalty in Alaska, where capital punishment is off the
law books. The issue was heating
up, sadly because of Evangelicals in that state. I, representative of Mennonite Central
Committee Canada Victim Offender Ministries at the time, was asked to
“debate” the issue on biblical grounds with Dr. Richard Land (read
about him at: http://www.erlc.com/CC_Content_Page/0,,PTID314166|CHID600674|CIID,00.html),
then as now President
of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist
Convention. I said I would not take
part unless the event was changed to a “dialogue” where winners are
not declared like a gladiatorial contest, but participants are honoured in
honest dialogue. Below is the text
I first spoke from in that dialogue, held at the University
of Alaska Fairbanks, and
teleconferenced throughout Alaska, including
to the Juneau
legislature. I reflect on this,
including inserting a letter I wrote Dr. Land years later in seeing that his
support of the death penalty (he is after all a sixth-generation Texan, where
Texas is the most killing jurisdiction in the Western world) had grown to
support for U.S. Empire worldwide capital punishment (of vast numbers of
innocents) in its War on Terror.
You may read these reflections at: http://www.clarion-journal.ca/article.php?story=20040721064535388. A professional video was done at the
time, which one may borrow from me.
The initial presentation is divided into Parts One and Two. There is also Part Three where I adduced responses to specific biblical texts
usually (wrongly, I argue) adduced in support of the Death Panalty.]
Why I Oppose the Death Penalty: “The Talking Place: Discussing the
Death Penalty” Forum on the Death Penalty, Fairbanks Alaska,
March 22, 1997 – Part One]
Part I
A. Introduction
I have come to
participate in this forum today with some reluctance. On principle I am opposed to
“debates”, since they already presuppose a winner and a loser. As I understand the Bible, Jesus draws a
circle, and invites us to do the same, large enough to invite everyone into it,
no exceptions, no losers. Even when
he was at his harshest in condemnation of the Pharisees, Jesus still had a
Nicodemus and a Joseph of Arimathea knowing he was nonetheless reaching out to
them. I am pleased therefore
that this is preferably called a “dialogue” today. Yet it cannot help but be set up as two
opposing sides kind of “going after each other”.
I guess that is
unavoidable on any issue that has such life and death implications as the death
penalty.
B. Biblical Hermeneutics and the Picture
of God
I was raised in the
Church. My parents both came from
other denominational backgrounds into the “denomination” in which I
was raised, the Plymouth
Brethren. If you know anything
about that tradition, the Bible was kind of drilled into us. One Church historian refers to my
tradition as “quintessentially fundamentalist”, in part because of
its emphasis upon the Bible as the “Supreme Authority”. Some refer to this approach to the Bible
as believing in a “paper Pope”.
Will Campbell, a
Southern Baptist preacher and writer, tells the humourous story of a man who
came to his door one day to share his faith. Campbell
let him go on for a time, not revealing that he was a Christian pastor, and a
Southern Baptist like his visitor.
The man at the door mentioned that he believed in the Bible, 100%. Campbell
quizzed him closely on that to be sure he had heard correctly. When he repeated his statement, Campbell ceremoniously
walked over to his coatrack, picked up his coat, and said to the man: “Sir, I’ve been just looking
for someone like you! Come along
with me right now! Let’s
go! For doesn’t Jesus say
somewhere in that Bible of yours that he has come to set the prisoners free? Well sir, there is a prison just a few
miles from here, and I want you to come with me right now to knock on the front
gates, and in the name of Jesus declare with me: ‘We have come to set your
prisoners free!’ “
The man was
horrified and said back to Campbell: “When Jesus said that, he meant
spiritually not physically….”
“Don’t
you go doin’ any fancy exegetin’ on me!”, Campbell shot back with a twinkle in his
eye. “You say you take the
Bible to be literally true. The
Bible says that Jesus came to set the prisoners free, and I say that we ought
to act on it right now!
Further, I understand there are at least 15 million Southern Baptists
like you in America
who believe in taking Jesus and the Bible literally. I want you to help me mount a campaign
all across America
to ‘set our prisoners free!….’“
That would-be
door-to-door evangelist that day got more than he had bargained for.
The point of the
story according to Campbell
is: we all interpret our Bibles.
And we are therefore in an immediate dilemma about how to
understand them. The fancy word for
the “how” is hermeneutics.
1. Story of the Photographer and the
Dark Blotches
An unusual picture
was once circulated around our Church when I was a kid. I remember it well. The brief notation below the picture
explained that a man had been travelling along the highway after a pristine
snowfall sparkled its brightness everywhere under a glorious sun. At one point he stopped, and noticed an
unusual play of shadow against the backdrop of the freshly fallen snow. Being an amateur photographer with his
own dark room, he took out his camera and snapped a few pictures of the strange
phenomenon. He was astounded when,
upon developing them, one in particular displayed an amazing likeness to the
traditional artists’ depictions of the face of Jesus. We all were invited to see what he saw.
What I saw first
however, as did most, were dark blotches against a snow-white background. There was no face of any kind to
see. Except there was!
It took some doing,
some adjusting, but finally I got it!
I saw the face too!
Then, what was
fascinating after that was, no matter how I looked at the picture, sidewards
glance, upside down, back to front even when held against a clear window, I
never failed immediately to recognize the face of Jesus in that photo.
We all know this
phenomenon.
But some never did
see the face. Their eyes simply
never adjusted. They even doubted
that we who saw really “saw”.
Theology means literally, a word, or words about
God. What theology really is
concerning is creating for us, the believer, an accurate word-picture of
God’s face. Now I’m not
an artist, unfortunately. Still, my
task at the outset is to draw a picture of God’s face for you, to ask if
this fits Scripture, tradition, and your experience.
Unfortunately, there
are no artists’ drawings of the real face of Jesus that have come down to
us. So we have to discover the face
of Jesus, and thereby the face of God, we Christians say, somehow in the written
word – the Bible. The data of
Scripture, in ongoing dialogue with Christians’ interpretations through
the ages and our faith community’s understandings today all help us
throughout our lives to form an ever sharper image of God.
Once an editor (in
his 50’s) of a theological piece I had written and was publishing said to
me as the task was completed:
“I have never been able to shake a picture of God I have had since
my childhood. That picture is one
of a God who is stern, harsh, totally demanding, punitive, a
‘Hangin’ Judge’ ready to condemn me severely for anything I
do wrong, and likely to relegate me to hellfire should I ever so slightly step
out of line.” He was a
Christian, to be sure, and a faithful church-goer, he acknowledged, but he
wasn’t entirely sure that spending an eternity with such a
“god” would not be more like his understanding of hell!
The dilemma we are
in can be put as an analogy. The
Bible is like a monstrous jigsaw puzzle, with a vast number of individual
pieces to it. It’s in fact
the Ultimate Cosmic Jigsaw Puzzle, we Christians believe! I have seen once in my life the kind of
jigsaw puzzle I am comparing the Bible to: one with identically shaped
pieces. In the puzzle I saw, they
were all squares. Now, it was a
daunting enough task to put the
puzzle together that I saw with the original box and the picture on it. Try doing an identically shaped pieces
jigsaw puzzle sometime! But what if
there were rival box cover pictures, and debate about which was the authentic
one?
I am suggesting that
the biblical data is precisely like that kind of jigsaw puzzle with identically
shaped pieces. I’m suggesting
further that we would have no hope of putting it together at all were it not
for the face of Jesus we discover in the New Testament revelation, which
becomes for us the ultimate picture of the face of God. I am suggesting that all other box
covers than that of Jesus as seen in the New Testament revelation, are
inadequate or wrong. But I’m
suggesting further that it is nonetheless difficult to see the face of Jesus
properly. For some they
“see”, but all that is seen are dark blotches. And I think that one in that case does
not really “see”. Piece
together the jigsaw puzzle when one only sees dark blotches, and one’s
picture of God will turn out entirely differently from doing it with the face
of Jesus seen aright!
What do the biblical
texts say:?
I Jn 1:1-7
1 That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched– this we proclaim
concerning the Word of life.
2 The
life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the
eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
3 We
proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have
fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ.
4 We
write this to make our joy complete.
5 This
is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him
there is no darkness at all.
6 If
we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do
not live by the truth.
7 But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (NIV)
The biblical text
allows that we may in fact only see dark blotches – “walk in
darkness” – even when we profess Christ.
John 1:1-5
1 In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He
was with God in the beginning.
3 Through
him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In
him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5 The
light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (NIV)
Again, however, we
may look, but only see darkness, dark blotches.
…….
John 1:14-18
14 The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John
testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I
said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before
me.’“
16 From
the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
17 For
the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No
one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s
side, has made him known. (NIV)
Jesus is the face of
God to us.
Heb 1:1-3
1 In
the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in
various ways,
2 but
in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of
all things, and through whom he made the universe.
3 The
Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his
being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided
purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
(NIV)
God spoke in various
ways once, but definitively in Jesus.
Heb 12:1-2
1 Therefore,
since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run
with perseverance the race marked out for us.
2 Let
us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the
joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. (NIV)
Jesus is the Centre
of our faith. No one, nothing,
else!
What do all these
texts say? A few key points:
1. Faith is all about “seeing”
Jesus aright. No dark blotches on
white, for we are called out of darkness into the light.
2. The Ultimate Picture of God is none
other than the face of Jesus. To
fill that out: when Jesus teaches something, exemplifies it in the Gospel
texts, then at least one New Testament writer seems to reflect that theological
understanding (remember, theology is all about a word-picture of
God), we ought to sit up, take notice, and work on living out the truth of
it. Now I was raised that way, as
were many of you. And I still am
trying to live out my Christian life according to that understanding.
3. If Jesus is the final, the ultimate
picture of God, we need to be especially attentive to how that picture appears. We also need to be prepared to put the
highly complex biblical jigsaw picture together according to the picture of
Jesus as he teaches us about the picture of God. For that is what the whole enterprise of
Bible interpretation is finally about: seeing the face of God. That’s what we want to see emerge
everytime we approach our Bibles.
And, (Matt 5:8) “ Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (NIV)
But what then if we
put the pieces together incorrectly?
How are we to know? By
looking again at the face of Jesus.
And what if in our dealing with all the data of the Bible we see at
times other pictures of God seemingly in tension, perhaps in contradiction of
the picture of God in Jesus, what
are we to do? We are to look again
at the face of Jesus. And what if,
in putting that jigsaw puzzle together, we discover that the image of God
emerging challenges our long-held beliefs – even Christian beliefs – about how
God is, and how we are to act in light of how we think God is? We are to look again at the face of
Jesus, and still follow him, even when no one else will, and we perhaps walk
alone/
For we are Christians,
not mosaic lawyers. We are Christians
of the New Covenant, not God’s people of the Old Covenant. We are Christians, who take our
cue from following Jesus when he said repeatedly in the Sermon on the
Mount: “You have heard it
said… but I say unto you.”, and of whom our text says: “The Law
was given through Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ (John
1:17)”.
My dad was a lay
preacher in our Plymouth Brethren tradition and a longstanding elder in our
home assembly. Do you know what his
favourite Bible verse was? It was
of course in the King James version, and it went like this:
1 Sam 15:22
Behold, to obey is
better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. (KJV)
In the New
International version, it reads:
1 Sam 15:22
To obey is better
than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. (NIV)
Do you know what the
context of that favourite verse is?
It comes from I Samuel chapter 15.
Samuel, the man of God, the prophet of Israel, says to King Saul in verses
two and three:
1 Sam 15:2-3
2 This
is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what
they did to Israel when they
waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. [One could add, several centuries earlier!]
3 Now
go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them.
Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and
sheep, camels and donkeys.’“ (NIV)
We have two words
for that policy today: “genocide” and “scorched
earth”. Now the text
throughout I Samuel makes it very clear that Samuel is the prophet of God, and
as such, speaks the word of God to the people of Israel. There is no hint in this text that there
is any problem with Samuel’s repeated declarations, “This is what
the LORD Almighty says:…”
So the text goes on
with the story:
1 Sam 15:8-11
8 [Saul]
took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed
with the sword.
9 But
Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat
calves and lambs– everything that was good. These they were unwilling to
destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally
destroyed.
10 Then
the word of the LORD came to Samuel:
11 “I
am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and
has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was troubled, and he cried
out to the LORD all that night. (NIV)
Now listen to the dénouement
of the rest of the story:
1 Sam 15:13-35
13 When
Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out
the LORD’s instructions.”
14 But
Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is
this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
15 Saul
answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the
best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally
destroyed the rest.”
16 “Stop!”
Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last
night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied.
17 Samuel
said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become
the head of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king over Israel.
18 And
he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked
people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’
19 Why
did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the
eyes of the LORD?”
20 “But
I did obey the LORD,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the LORD
assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their
king.
21 The
soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted
to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”
22 But
Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For
rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of
idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you
as king.”
24 Then
Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command
and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.
25 Now I
beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the
LORD.”
26 But
Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the
word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!”
27 As
Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore.
28 Samuel
said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel
from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors– to one better than
you.
29 He
who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a
man, that he should change his mind.”
30 Saul
replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my
people and before Israel;
come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.”
31 So
Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD.
32 Then
Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to
him confidently, thinking, “Surely the bitterness of death is
past.”
33 But
Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother
be childless among women.” And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD
at Gilgal.
34 Then
Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul.
35 Until
the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for
him. And the LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel. (NIV)
The NIV text says:
“And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal.” Those translators were a bit
squeamish. The KJV rightly reflects
the Hebrew verb used here when it reads: (1 Sam 15:33) “And Samuel hewed
Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.”
So the context for
my father’s favourite verse about how important it is to obey the LORD at
all costs is a story of genocide, unforgiveness (of Saul and King Agag), pure
revenge of the kind Lamech boasted about in Gen. 4 when he said: (Gen 4:23-24):
“… listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man
for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then
Lamech seventy-seven times.” (NIV) – all in the name of the LORD, and a
savage slaughter of a King, when Samuel, the man of God, hacks Agag into little
bits, gloating over him as he does about avenging for all the mothers Agag has
rendered childless.
A simple question:
Does the picture of God that emerges here or in other parts of the books of
Samuel jive with the picture of God in Jesus, who wept over a whole people for
their sinning, who said: “Father forgive them” about the people
killing him wrongly, who absolutely forbade all revenge, and who healed the ear
of a servant helping to arrest and kill him when a sword hacked that body piece
off!? So what do you do with this
text and many other, what one author dubs “texts of terror”,
throughout the Old Testament?
Now I ask: when my
father read that favourite verse in context, what kind of scissors-and-paste
exercise do you suppose he was going through to square that text with his
Christian understanding? For
my father was a forgiving, caring, compassionate man, who believed he was that
way out of allegiance to Jesus.
I suggest that my
father had, all through his life, the right intuitive sense about
putting the revelation of Jesus first, while he had an inadequate theology of
revelation that treated the Bible as a flat book into which one could
dip anywhere, and come up with an accurate picture of God. Whatever else, I suggest to you that the
picture of God in I Samuel is a flawed picture, though no less part of
God’s revelation. And I
suggest that Jesus alone can supply the corrective to all images of God that
are incomplete, flawed, or are simply dark blotches against the white of the
full revelation of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What does the Apostle Paul say about our
seeing Jesus’ face properly?:
2 Cor 4:4-6
4 The
god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For
we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your
servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For
God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light
shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ. (NIV)
I suggest then, that
there is only one way to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God”, and that is “in the face of Christ.” While I affirm that (2 Tim 3:16-17)
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of
God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”, we also must know
how to “[handle correctly] the word of truth (II Tim. 2:15)”. How to do that, I am suggesting, is for
us so to gaze into the face of Jesus (the text says in Heb 12:2 “Let us
fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God.”), that we will ultimately see God the
clearest we can ever hope to see this side of death.
I suggest that the
longer we gaze at Jesus, the better we will understand all Scripture,
“and so, somehow, … attain to the resurrection from the dead (Phil
3:11) .” – somehow learn to
see God aright. What does Jesus
say?: (Matt 5:8) “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see
God.” How do we achieve
purity of heart? By staring into
the face of Jesus. What does that
mean, “gazing at Jesus”?
Paul offers a succinct distillation of how to “gaze at
Jesus” in the ethical section of his letter to the Romans when he says:
Rom 12:9-21
9 Love
must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
10 Be
devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
11 Never
be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
12 Be
joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
13 Share
with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless
those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice
with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
16 Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with
people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17 Do
not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of
everybody.
18 If it
is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
19 Do
not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is
written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
20 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.”
21 Do
not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Now beware in
reading this text! There is a
centuries old view that we can somehow take Jesus seriously on the personal
level, and for instance, not seek revenge, but then there is another level,
that of the state, where we may do so after all! Let me say with all the force I can
muster:
That is not a
biblical view! There is simply
nowhere in the teachings of Jesus where a signal ever is given that there is
one ethic for the individual and another for the state! Nowhere! Nor for that matter, will such a
differentiation be found anywhere in the Old Testament. The view is, nonetheless a pernicious,
persistent, and heretical (meaning
a “false choice”) notion that the Church has had for centuries
which has no warrant anywhere in the Bible whatsoever! It is as much a non-Biblical notion as
the idea that what Eve actually ate was an apple, or that the central view of
justice (more to the point) of the Bible is “an eye for an eye”,
tit-for-tat retaliatory justice.
Yet there is a widespread notion that the Genesis story tells of
Eve’s eating an apple, and theologians for centuries indicated that
“eye for eye” was the central biblical view of justice. Nonsense!
You do know, do you
not, that no specific fruit is mentioned that Eve ate? You do know, do you not, that “eye
for eye” is found only four times in the biblical texts, and then only
with reference to physical injury, and then only with the meaning of
compensation: the value of an eye for an eye, etc.? Put bluntly: nowhere does the Old
Testament text call us to an exercise in retaliatory dentistry! You do know that alternatively, the word shalom and
related words, meaning peacemaking, restoration, wholeness is associated with a
response to wrongdoing over 300 times in the Old Testament, and that Jesus
specifically contradicted the “eye for eye” interpretation in the
Sermon on the Mount? We’ll
get to that later.
So why is it that such
a non-Biblical view should have been foisted on the churches and for
centuries? Because the Church has
always found it too difficult, as have most humans who have ever lived, to live
out a consistent ethic of enemy love.
So it has chosen a classic sleight-of-hand hermeneutical trick worthy of
the best of magicians, enabling it to reintsitute for the state to do what
Jesus definitively said was not to be done: any kind of retaliation towards
the enemy. So John Stott can
say that a Judge whose wife is murdered may legitimately do what the Judge as a
private citizen is disallowed to do: sentence the murderer to death – i.e.
bring down revenge upon the murderer’s head. And I say, balderdash! That is casuistry! Casuistry is defined as: “false
application of principles esp. with regard to morals or law”. This is, to use the analogy, to say one
is gazing intently at the face of Jesus, when after all, all one is doing is
looking at a bunch of ugly blotches on the page! And there is nothing uglier than deliberately
doing an end-run around Jesus’ breathtaking teaching of love of enemies
to allow us to do through the state after all what Jesus has disallowed us to
do categorically: destroy our enemies.
For as the Rom.
13:10 text says tersely (after most interpret it a few verses earlier to be a
call or a permission to destroy the enemy): “Love does no harm to its
neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” And Jesus taught nothing if he did not
teach that love of enemies is the specific extreme test case of love of
neighbour. Now that succinct
summary, in 15 English words, of the law dismantles all legitimization of the
death penalty.
So in light of the
case I’m presenting about how we are to interpret our Bibles, how can one
justify beginning anywhere other than with Jesus? How can we begin, for instance, with any
portion of mosaic Law, or with Genesis 9, or any other portion of the Bible
that is before the revelation of Christ? That is not where we will find
God’s face most fully shown.
Let’s turn now
to a passage which supplies us with the fuller version of Paul’s teaching
in Rom. 12 & 13. Let us look
into the face of God when we read:
Matt 5:38-48
38 “You
have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’
39 But I
tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And
if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as
well.
41 If
someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
42 Give
to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow
from you.
43 “You
have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.’
44 But I
tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 that you
may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46 If
you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax
collectors doing that?
47 And
if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not
even pagans do that?
48 Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (NIV)
And again, the Lukan
version:
Luke 6:27-38
27 “But
I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless
those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
29 If
someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes
your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.
30 Give
to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not
demand it back.
31 Do to
others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If
you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even
‘sinners’ love those who love them.
33 And
if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even
‘sinners’ do that.
34 And
if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to
you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be
repaid in full.
35 But
love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get
anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most
High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
36 Be
merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 “Do
not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be
condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
38 Give,
and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and
running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it
will be measured to you.” (NIV)
I think we are not
human, nor honest, if we do not admit to the temptation to take scissors and
paste to these teachings of Jesus!
Ouch! we all say. No wonder
the Church has hidden for centuries behind a biblically unfounded two-tiered
ethics that discerns one ethic for the individual and another for the
state. How conveniently an end-run
can be done around Jesus to allow us to resort to all the violence we want
under the guise of the state! So
Jesus himself would say: (Matt 23:23)
“But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–
justice, mercy and faithfulness.” (NIV) And again: (Matt 23:31-32)
“So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those
who murdered the prophets. Fill up,
then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!” (NIV) Pharisaism turns, ultimately, upon a
justification of violence. Jesus
says no to violence, instructing Peter, for instance to put up his sword,
whereby, Church Father Tertullian indicates, Jesus disarmed the Church
forever. Except the Church did
not accept Jesus’ ethics, and instead it picked up, or at minimum,
blessed the sword, and so in the main, an anti-Christian ethic has dominated
the Christian Church since the era of Constantine.
Finally, let us see
the face of God in the story of the woman caught in adultery, and of the
Prodigal (recklessly extravagant) Son which should really be entitled “
The Prodigal Father” – for in the end the father is more recklessly
extravagant in his mercy than his son is in his folly. God’s face in Jesus
forgives the woman with the challenge to sin no more. God’s face in the Prodigal Father
story Jesus tells does not even let the Son get his “I’m
sorry” speech out before he is overwhelmingly embraced and welcomed back
to the family!
Remember what I said
earlier about the rule of thumb that if Jesus taught something, exemplified it,
and at least one New Testament author theologized about it, we ought to sit up
and take notice?
Alright, here goes:
1. Jesus taught love of enemies in Matt. 5
and Luke 6
2. Jesus stated from the cross:
“Father forgive them… (Luke 23:34)”, and Paul universalized this
in Romans (3:25-26) thus: “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of
atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice,
because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand
unpunished–he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to
be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (NIV)
3. Paul in Romans 5:6 – 11 says that God in
Christ showed love to us his enemies, offering reconciliation; and again in
Ephesians 5:1 & 2 we are told that we are to imitate God by living a life
of love as Christ offered himself in love to us his enemies.
Now I will ask you,
does the picture on the box of the jigsaw puzzle called God’s Word show
the face of a God who in Jesus supports destruction of enemies called murderers,
or does the picture on the box called the Bible show the face of a God who
reaches out even to the murderers to bring them into his circle of friends?
So when Sister Helen
Prejean, foremost Christian advocate against the death penalty, and author of
the book, Dead Man Walking
(1993), and advisor to the movie by the same title, says: “Most Christians in support of the
death penalty have a wrong picture of God. They see him as an angry, punitive
Judge, rather than as a loving heavenly Father.”, do you disagree?
If I ask you how
many times it was on Jesus’ lips to refer to God as Judge, and how many
times he referred to God as (loving, heavenly) Father – the picture of a father
Jesus painted in the story of the “Prodigal Father” – do you know the
answer? To the first question the
answer is: never! To
the second question, the answer is: 171 times! – with the idea of God as
“daddy”, Abba, or “nurturing mother” like a mother hen,
always hovering just in the background.
Can you see why I
say that our picture of God in the end determines our view of the death
penalty? What loving parent demands
the killing of her or his own children and remains a loving parent? If you say that is precisely what God
did to his own Son, then I say your picture of God and of the atonement is
wrong, and that we must turn to that the next time.
References
Agnew, Mary Barbara. “A
Transformation of Sacrifice: An Application of Rene Girard’s Theory of Culture
and Religion.”, Worship 61 (1987): 493-509.
Bailie, Gil, Violence
Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads, New York: Crossroad, 1995.
Hamerton-Kelly,
Robert G., ed., Violent Origins, Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1987.
Prejean, Helen Dead Man
Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. New York: Random House, 1993.
[NOTE: Please see Part Two.]