Punishment or Pardon?

One of the first things that stands out to me that I have trouble reconciling with the life and teachings of Jesus is Yahweh's (the LORD in our English translations) use of the threat of death to motivate obedience.

Numerous laws in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT), specifically state that anyone who breaks certain laws will be put to death. For example: In Leviticus 24:10–16 we read of a man who in the midst of a fight "blasphemed the Name in a curse." Yahweh's command was to "Take the blasphemer outside the camp...and let the whole congregation stone him." The law then was stated as, "One who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall be put to death, the whole congregations shall stone the blasphemer. Aliens as well as citizens, when they blaspheme the Name, shall be put to death."  See also Deuteronomy 13:10; 17:5; 21:21; 22:21, 24. Note especially Deut 21:18:–21, where the parents of a disobedient (stubborn, rebellious, glutton, drunkard) son are to bring him to the elders of the town who then shall stone him! As with other law codes (e.g., Hammurabi's Law Code) scholars question whether these laws were actually binding and/or practiced. Whether the Israelites followed through on these (and other) capital offences with actual executions is not the point here. The point is that this is what Yahweh commanded according to the Pentateuch, and faithfulness to Yahweh was to be demonstrated by obedience.


As Joshua is about to lead the Israelites in to conquer the Promised Land, Yahweh speaks to him saying (Joshua 1:7), "Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go." And then Yahweh says (Joshua 1:18), "Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."  Did Joshua actually follow through on this? According to chapter 7, he did! Achan had taken some of plunder for himself and hid it in his tent. All the plunder was to be devoted to Yahweh. Yahweh's anger "burned against the Israelites" (v. 1), and thus in attacking Ai, the Israelites were defeated (because Yahweh was angry with them) and thirty-six of them were killed (v. 5). Yahweh then helped Joshua identify the culprit, prior to which he said (v. 15), "And the one who is taken as having the devoted things shall be burned with fire, together with all that he has, for having transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and for having done an outrageous thing in Israel." Then Joshua carried out Yahweh's command (vv. 25–26): "Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord is bringing trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him to death; they burned them with fire, cast stones on them, and raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place to this day is called the Valley of Achor." But it wasn't just Achan who was executed, so were "his sons and daughters, his oxen, donkeys, and sheep" (v. 24).

As Jesus hung on a cross, having been wrongly arrested, falsely judged, beaten and sentenced to execution, he prayed, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." 

Later, when Peter confronted thousand of Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, he is reputed to have said this: 

"Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 

And the author of Acts reports: "So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:36–42, emphasis mine).

If Achan and his family were the only example, maybe I could rationalize or ignore it. But the picture in the Hebrew Bible of the threat and practice of capital punishment is abundant and gruesome. How can we rationalize this when we read of Jesus' prayer on the cross and see Peter's grace-filled promise to those who actually did and/or supported Jesus' execution? In my next blog post, I will review some of the main rationalizations that I have read (and at times used) for Yahweh's commands to execute people for certain crimes and why I now have trouble accepting those explanations.
  

Trying to Make Sense of the Violence in the Hebrew Bible - My Personal Journey

Along with six others, I set a goal to read through the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in 2018. In order to stay on track throughout the entire year, and to get the most out of our reading, we all agreed to meet twice a month online to share, ask questions and discuss. Now, almost four months in, we are through the second book of Kings. I decided that I was going to do this reading from a more academic perspective; i.e., a critical reading of the text. The other people in the group have their own reasons and goals for reading the entire texts of the Bible in a year.

Regardless of our individual reasons, very early into the book of Exodus, a question arose, for all of us: How are we supposed to understand all of the incredible violence recorded in Israel's origin story? Of special concern to us are those acts of violence that were reputedly commanded and/or approved by Yahweh, the God of Israel. Families, clans, villages and whole regions of people (men, women and children), were wiped out. In order to bring the Hebrews into the Promised Land, Yahweh commanded a complete extermination of the Canaanites. That is, Yahweh commanded genocide. According to the accounts of Joshua and Judges, with hints in Samuel and Kings, the Israelites did not completely succeed in this ethnic cleansing. Yet, in the process, according to the accounts, countless thousands of military men were killed in battle and then countless thousands more civilians (men, women and children) were either executed or taken into slavery/forced labour by the conquering Israelite tribes.

How does someone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God reconcile this picture of an angry, vengeful and vindictive God with the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Most of the time we just ignore, rationalize or justify these violent acts of judgment. Yet, our children grow up, and the sanitized Bible stories they heard in Sunday School or from their parents at bedtime, seem like lies as they read and reflect on the actual details of the stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. This could precipitate a real crisis of faith that will result in our loved ones joining the ranks of the skeptics/critics of the Bible, rather than the ranks of the faithful followers of Jesus.

I confess, as a full-time minister of the gospel for more than thirty-five years, I chose to ignore or rationalize the most violent actions of the Israelites and hoped no one would ask me to explain how a God who is love could condone, much less command, such atrocities. The reality is, I could not explain these actions satisfactorily even for myself. The "pat" answers that involved believing that God was exercising his right as Judge, using the Hebrews/Israelites as his instrument, never did sit well with me. Later, Yahweh used other nations' armies as his instrument to bring judgment upon the nations of Israel (via the Assyrians in 722 BCE) and then Judah (via the Babylonians in 586 BCE). According to the biblical accounts, countless thousands of his own people were killed, executed, tortured and/or taken away into captivity. The prophets make it very clear, that these atrocities were the result of Israel's and Judah's sin of idolatry and their unwillingness to repent. 

So, I'm on a spiritual journey. I want to come to a place of understanding for myself, and thus a way to explain to others,  how to read these atrocities of planned violence in the context of faith in a God who is righteous and loving - "slow to anger and abounding in love." In this effort, not only am I reading through these unpleasant and even painful accounts, but I am reading some secondary sources that are focused on trying to make sense of it all. Two books that are providing a different perspective for my consideration are listed below. At various points along this journey, I will offer my own pertinent and persistence reflections, via future blog posts, for anyone who is interested in delving into, and personally resolving, this most difficult topic.

Enns, Peter. The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It.

Flood, Derek. Disarming Scripture: Cherry-Picking Liberals, Violence-Loving Conservatives, and Why We All Need to Learn to Read the Bible Like Jesus Did.

"Do This In Remembrance of Me"

On May 2, 2018 it will be exactly 41 years from the day that I, a former atheist, was baptized into Christ. There were three main reasons why I decided to follow Jesus and why I am still striving, as imperfectly as I do, to put his teachings into practice in my life:

First of all, I was drawn to Jesus by the authentic lives of love I witnessed among his followers in that Port Coquitlam group in 1977. John 13:34–35 reads, “A new commandment I give to you, so that you would love one another. Just as I loved you, so you would love another. In this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love among each other.” 41 years ago, as a 21 year-old who had been newly introduced to Christianity, I thought that those people must be true followers of Jesus.

Secondly, I was inspired by Jesus' simple challenge to follow HIM. At that time I knew that was what being a Christian was all about – loyalty to him alone, loyalty to him personally. I wasn’t called to join an organization, become part of a denomination, but to simply and only be his disciple. I was baptized into Christ. It was to him that I committed my life-long devotion. Mark 1:17–18 reads, "And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fish for people.' And immediately they left their nets and followed him."

But the main reason I asked Roy (who shared the good news with me), "When can I be baptized?" was that I was totally astonished and amazed by the words, actions and character of Jesus. I had grown up with a very different image of Jesus than the one I had been reading about in the Gospel accounts. I decided that if any person was and is the One and Only Son of God, surely Jesus was and is. Mark 15:39 reads, “Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’”

Prior to his death, Jesus instituted a ritual Christians call “the communion” or “the Lord’s Supper” in which Jesus said his disciples were to remember him. 1 Corinthians 11:24–25 reads, "This is my bothy that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me...This cup is the new covenant in my blood. do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." 

On Saturday April 21, 2018 there was a memorial for my dear friend, Scott. There were hundreds of people there, all of whom had been impacted by his life and his words. The focus of those attending the memorial was not on the weather, or sports or politics or even about how their weeks had gone. Nor did many sit in silence and in their own little worlds. Rather they remembered Scott by sharing their memories of him and what were the things that Scott said and did that so impacted their lives and caused them all to love and respect him so much.That’s what people do at times of memorial – they remember the person. That's what the communion/Lord's Supper is supposed to be all about -- remembering Jesus.

The Gospel accounts record that one of the most consistent responses that people had to Jesus was amazement! They were amazed or astonished by his word, his actions and his character. If, indeed, he was and is the Son of God, that only makes sense, because there has never been anyone like Jesus. I believe one of the ways Christians can remember Jesus by means of the communion is to remind each other how amazing, how absolutely and utterly astonishing, Jesus was and is.

Normally when Christians eat the bread an drink the cup in a "church" setting, they do so very privately, in silent reflection or prayer. Maybe they sing a song or listen as someone plays or sings a song. But I would like to suggest a different approach might better fulfill the purpose of remembering Jesus. What about this? As we share in the communion think about what it is about Jesus – his words, his actions and his character – that astonishes and amazes each one of us, and thus why we were drawn to him in the first place and continue to follow him today. As we pass and share the bread, which reminds us that God became flesh and lived among us, and the fruit of the vine, which reminds us that God in the flesh died on the cross to save us from our sins, why not share with some people around us, what it is we remember about Jesus that has most amazed and astonished this past week.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians that the reason Christian are to do whatever they do when they assemble together is to "build up" the church (the "called out ones"). Let's not keep our remembrances of Jesus' amazing life and deeds to ourselves when we participate in future communions, but let us share those thoughts and thus "spur one another on to love and good deeds" by reflecting together on the awesomeness of the one we confess as "Lord."

Here are some passages from the Gospel of Mark to help spur on your remembrance:

Mark 1:27. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

Mark 2:12. And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Mark 10:32. They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.

Mark 12:17. Jesus said to them, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.

Mark 15:4-5.Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.