Persecution Complex

The scriptures referred to are 1 Peter 3:13-22.

There is something certain Christians in America do that really bothers me. They act as if they are persecuted by society at large. And that's an insult to our fellow Christians who live in countries where they really are persecuted, like North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iran. In Eritrea, Christians have been arrested and detained for lengthy periods, sometimes in shipping containers. In Pakistan, strict blasphemy laws are used to imprison and execute Christians. In China, Christians can be arrested and detained for meeting in unauthorized gatherings or for not hewing to the state-sanctioned ideology. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to convert from Islam to another faith, resulting in detention and deportation. From 2014 to 2017, ISIS militants were literally crucifying Christians. While in this country we cry persecution if someone asks us to make a gay wedding cake or says, “Happy holidays.”

The first Christians really were persecuted. Last week we read about Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The book of Acts also reports the execution of James, the brother of John, as well as the many imprisonments of Peter and Paul. In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul gives us a brutal list of how he has suffered for the faith, which includes being given 39 lashes on 5 occasions, being beaten with a rod 3 times and being stoned once. (2 Corinthians 11:24-25) That stoning ended with him being left for dead. (Acts 14:19-20) Now none of these were empire-wide persecutions. There were local persecutions, sometimes by government officials and sometimes by mobs.

Though the emperor Claudius expelled all Christians and Jews from the city of Rome around 49 AD, the first official persecution of Christians alone took place under Nero. In 64 AD a great fire burned 10 of Rome's 14 districts, about 2/3s of the city. Citizens were suspicious because the fire spared Nero's property, as well as that of a friend. And while half the population of Rome were left homeless, the emperor went and built on the ruins a huge personal residence called the Domus Aurea or Golden House. Because of the rumors that Nero started the fire, he chose to make scapegoats of the Christians. Some were torn apart by dogs for the entertainment of spectators, some were crucified and some were set on fire to illuminate Nero's gardens. According to tradition, Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded. Peter was crucified upside down.

Our next documented persecution happened about 110 AD. Pliny the Younger, the governor of Bithynia and Pontus, wrote to the emperor Trajan for advice on what to do with Christians. He said he had been trying suspected Christians on the basis of anonymous accusations. He gave the accused 3 opportunities to renounce the Christian faith, pray to the Roman gods instead, offer wine and incense to the images of Trajan and the gods and finally curse Christ. If they didn't recant, they were executed. He also had 2 female slaves who were deacons tortured for information.

Pliny saw the Christians as just another fraternity or club which Trajan had banned as centers of discontent. Yet Pliny does give us some insight into Christian practice. He says they meet on a certain day before dawn and sing hymns to Christ as to a god. They bind themselves with an oath not to commit crimes like fraud, theft or adultery. Then they share a meal of “ordinary and innocent food.” Nevertheless, he sees Christianity as a “depraved, excessive superstition” which is spreading not only in the cities but in rural villages. Trajan basically approved of Pliny's measures but said that Pliny should not seek out Christians to try and that he should not consider anonymous accusations.

Still this was a local matter. It wasn't until around 250 AD that the emperor Decius began an empire-wide persecution of Christians. He issued an edict that all inhabitants of the empire were required to make sacrifices to the Roman gods and get a certificate saying that they complied. Anyone who refused to do so by a specified date risked being tortured and executed. Bishops and church members were targeted. The bishop of Rome at the time, Pope Fabian, was one of those who refused to comply and was killed. The persecution lasted 18 months, until Decius died in battle.

The last great persecution of Christians by a Roman emperor took place under Diocletian in 303 AD. Originally Diocetian simply wanted to forbid Christians from entering the government bureaucracy and the military. His co-emperor Galerius argued for extermination. Diocletian gave in and then ordered that all copies of Christian scriptures be burned, their places of worship be destroyed and their assemblies be forbidden. He had the tongue removed from a deacon in his court and another Christian in his palace was scourged, had salt and vinegar poured into his wounds and then was boiled alive. This persecution lasted 10 years until his successor Constantine became emperor and Christianity was declared legal.

So no matter how bad someone thinks Christians have it in this country, things are not that terrible. We still have the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress not only from establishing any religion as the official one but also forbids preventing people from practicing their own religions. In fact, what we really seem to be seeing is Christians getting ostracized by other so-called Christians, usually over their political views. David French, a constitutional lawyer, professor, columnist, and veteran, who is by no means a liberal, has nevertheless left his Presbyterian church due to intense personal attacks and hostility by his congregation for his stand against Christian Nationalism. He is not the only Evangelical Christian to find himself effectively excommunicated by other Evangelicals, not for theological heresy, but for insufficient loyalty to certain political policies and politicians. Fortunately, there are churches that do not act this way. Yet, even on the left, there are issues which must not be questioned. Both sides have sacred cows that cannot be sacrificed for any reason.

So how should we deal with this state of affairs, where being a Christian is not yet a capital offense but not being a specific type of Christian can cause you problems?

Today's passage from 1 Peter is very instructive. While addressed to the Christians in Bithynia and Pontus, this letter was written before they were governed by Pliny the Younger. Yet the social cost of being a Christian was high enough that the letter is addressed to “God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout” the region. (1 Peter 1:1) This letter may have been modeled on similar ones sent to the Diaspora of Jews in the empire. Like Paul's letter to the Romans, it calls for Christians to submit to the authorities. (1 Peter 2:13-14; cf. Romans 13:1-7) So obviously these letters were written before Peter and Paul were martyred by Nero. At this point in time Christians were considered just another branch of Judaism, much like the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. To see how things looked after Christianity was recognized as a separate religion and it became dangerous to be a Christian, read the book of Revelation.

So 1 Peter tells us that we need not be worried about being harmed if we do what is good. Yet it acknowledges that it is possible to suffer for doing what is right. After all, that is what happened to Jesus. And Jesus is our model for how to behave.

So first we are told “Do not fear what they fear.” What does that mean? What do people who harm others for doing what is right fear? They fear exposure of the wrongs they have done. They fear other people taking the side of those who do right. And they might fear being seen as bullies for picking on those who do no harm. The ancient historian Tacitus, who saw Christianity as a source of abominations, nevertheless thought that what Nero did to Christians engendered a feeling of compassion for them, because it was done, as he said, not for the public good, but to satisfy one man's cruelty.

Next we are told “do not be intimidated, but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” If we believe that Jesus is the Lord of all and trust in him, we need not back down in fear. As it says in 1 John, “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) And as it says in Psalm 118, “The Lord is on my side, I am not afraid! What can people do to me?” (Psalm 118:6) Well, they can kill you. Yet the apostles, most of whom were martyred, did not let that risk stop them. They knew Jesus had conquered death. As Paul wrote from prison, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) In other words, living meant serving Jesus and dying meant Paul would be with him. If you do not fear death, you can do anything.

Then we read, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.” The Greek word for “defense” is apologia from which we get the term “apologetics.” This is the discipline of defending the faith. Unfortunately some Christians have taken it to mean things like trying to argue that Genesis 1 is a scientific account of the origin of the universe. But besides the fact that Genesis precedes anything resembling science by centuries, that isn't the purpose of the Bible. It isn't offering answers about how the universe works; it's about why we are here, why we have inherent worth and why we should trust God. The purpose of the scriptures is to help us get closer to God.

I prefer the kind of apologetics practiced by C.S. Lewis. During the Second World War, when Nazism showed what happens when folks completely disregard Jesus' teachings or twist them into a grotesque parody of Christian values, he wrote Mere Christianity. Sticking to the basics, he showed that Christianity makes sense. In fact it makes more sense than other ways of viewing the world.

I agree with Lewis that in defending the faith it behooves us to stick to the essentials, most of which are laid out in today's passage. The essentials are all about Jesus: who he is, what he has done for us, what he is doing in us and what our response should be.

Who is he? Our passage says clearly that Jesus Christ is the Lord, who is at God's right hand and that all angels, authorities and powers are subject to him.

What has he done for us? Though he is the Lord, he “suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” He died to save us from the mess we have made of ourselves and the world. But he is not merely another martyr for a cause. He didn't stay dead. The “resurrection of Jesus Christ” shows his triumph over death and validates that what he taught is true.

What is he doing in us? 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 2 says that Christians “have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ...” In other words, the Spirit is making us holy and setting us apart for God's purposes. The Spirit is making us more Christlike, more like Jesus, who is the perfect image of God, the image into which we were created. We have marred that image to the extent that it can be hard to see God in us. The Spirit, who dwells in the believer, is in the process of remedying that. God is remaking us to who he created us to be, just as he will one day create a new heaven and a new earth for his new creations in Christ, where he will dwell with us and wipe away our tears. Right now we are in the midst of that process of becoming like Jesus. It's rather like rehab or the physical therapy I had to do to learn to walk again. We are learning to walk with Jesus.

How should we respond? As it says in our passage, “Maintain a good conscience so that, when you are maligned, those who oppose you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.” This reminds me of how people leading non-violent protests, like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, showed how unreasonable and cruel their opponents were and how they essentially shamed the government into changing its policies. In the second chapter of this letter, it says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12, NIV) Doing the right thing and showing mercy will do a better job of bringing people to Jesus than being loud and obnoxious. Remember we are told to defend our hope “with gentleness and respect.” As this letter says just before our reading, “Finally, all of you, be harmonious, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate, and be humble. Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 2:8-9) In other words, if you do face opposition or even persecution, be like Jesus. In fact in everything, be like Jesus. That's the whole point of being a Christian.

Who is God?

The scriptures referred to are Acts 7:55-60 and John 14:1-14.

There are more than 31,000 verses in the Bible. And in the liturgical churches we read from a lectionary, a selection of 4 passages to be read on each Sunday of the year. It takes 3 years to go through them all. And while the Sunday readings do not include every passage in the Bible, they do include all of the essential and important ones. And yet some weeks I look at the readings, and I find nothing in them that I haven't already preached on many times in the quarter of a century that I have been doing this.

Then there are Sundays like this one. I have several juicy passages I can preach on but there are too many themes in them to make into one coherent sermon. This is especially true of our passage from John's gospel. This is Jesus' last chance to talk to his disciples before he is arrested. If you include his final prayer, his speech covers 5 chapters! It's like he is trying to remind them of everything he can think of that they will need to get through the next few horrible days of his conviction, crucifixion, burial and an awful Sabbath in which they must think of what they did and didn't do to him, and their hopes will seem as dead as their leader.

But while there are several verses on which I could preach an entire sermon, there is a theme that runs through this section of what could be thought of as Jesus' farewell address. It is this: that, as Jesus says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Later, in chapter 17, Jesus, in praying for his followers, asks “that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me.” (John 17:22-23) That is why at the beginning of today's gospel reading Jesus says, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” Because, as he says later, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus is not merely a prophet. He is not merely a godly person. He is God in human form. He is God living a human life and dying a human death. You want to know what God is really like? Look at Jesus.

You may have, like I did as a child, thought of God as Someone who is remote from human life and who is usually unhappy with us. Especially in the Old Testament, God seems to be angry a lot. Human beings are always doing the wrong things and God is always upset over this state of affairs. Then there are things like the flood, the fire and brimstone that destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the exiles of both Israel and Judah. Bad things happen to people as a consequence of their choices and actions. But sometimes good people like Job also suffer. The Bible does not shy away from the fact that life is not always pleasant. And a lot of people come away from these disturbing stories with the idea that God is not a pleasant person. In fact, surveys find that how people feel about God is a more important factor in whether they believe in God or not than any rational or scientific arguments for or against God's existence. As C.S. Lewis said of his time as an atheist, he did not believe that God existed and he was very angry with God about that. It is rare to find an atheist who has anything good to say about God.

Part of that is because so many Christians have emphasized passages about judgment more than other aspects of what God does. Yet by my personal count, the word “good” appears 720 times in the Bible while “evil” appears 613 times. The word “love” in all its forms appears 518 times, whereas “hate” only appears 184 times. “Mercy” appears 360 times, “forgive” 223 times and “healing” 139 times. The Bible is more about goodness than evil, but just like rubberneckers at a traffic accident, we are more interested in the bad stuff. For instance, if you watch the news or listen to politicians you would think that crime is on the rise. In fact it has been dropping steadily for decades. But stories of people doing horrible things are the subject of more movies, TV shows, books and podcasts than stories of people helping others. And that same morbid fascination with what frightens and angers us applies to how a lot of people look at God and the Bible.

Yes, God does not like it when we do bad things. No loving parent does. If your son hits your daughter, you do not remain neutral. If he does not show remorse, he gets punished. In fact, I found myself more sympathetic to God in parts of the Old Testament after I had kids. You love your kids but there are times when you do not like what they are doing. God is trying to raise a people who will reflect his goodness to the world but, as it says in Isaiah, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourself clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:15-17) Later in Isaiah God explains why he does not respond to their religious fasts: “On the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You can not fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.” (Isaiah 58:3-4) God is not being unreasonable. You can't do bad things to others and expect the God who made them to ignore that and do good things for you.

Still a lot of people think God is more interested in folks attending church, saying prayers, doing religious rituals and wearing or displaying symbols of their faith than in what they do in everyday life. But that's not true. There's a reason why Jesus, when asked for the greatest commandment, which is loving God, threw in a second, which is loving others. If you truly love God, you will love those he created in his image.

The Old Testament is about God trying to get his people to understand that they need to clearly reflect what kind of God he is to the other nations. They keep failing. But he doesn't give up. He will still bless the whole world through his people. In the New Testament we see God enter the world through his Anointed, which is the meaning of Christ or Messiah. Jesus shows God's people how to live according to the laws of love. He prioritizes people's needs over pious scruples. So he heals the sick on the Sabbath. He touches lepers and bleeding women and dead bodies without worrying about the fact that it renders him ritually unclean. He lets his hungry disciples pick and eat grain on the Sabbath, though that is a technical violation of the prohibition against work. He teaches women, though that was a scandalous thing to do in his day. In the Talmud, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus wrote, “The words of the Torah should be burned rather than entrusted to women.” And a lot of rabbis agreed with him that a woman's wisdom was confined to her domestic chores. But not Jesus. As Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave or free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) In Jesus we are all equal.

And if Jesus is God the Son, the perfect image of who God is, then, as he tells Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Again if you want to know what God is really like, then look at Jesus. Furthermore he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” What does he mean by that?

First of all, Jesus is not only God, he is the way to God. You don't need a magical object or rituals or words to reach God. You don't need to pray to a particular saint or go on a pilgrimage to a specific shrine or holy place. You can go directly to Jesus. As Paul writes, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and humans, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God's purpose at his appointed time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6) When you go to Jesus, you are not dealing with God's representative or a lesser being; you are dealing with God himself.

Secondly, Jesus is the truth about God. People have a lot of ideas about God. He's a cosmic killjoy, or a hanging judge, or a sadist who enjoys throwing people into hell, or a passive watcher of our antics, or the indifferent creator who made the world rather like a watchmaker might make a watch, wind it up and leave to let it run by itself until it runs down. But in Jesus we see the truth about God. Yes, he is just and does not condone sin. But he is also loving, merciful and forgiving. As he says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17) Jesus is on a rescue mission. He did not come to wipe out the bad guys like the good guys do in our pop culture. He is here to turn the bad guys into good guys.

And that includes all of us. As Paul wrote, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Why did he say that? Because he is that same Saul at whose feet people laid their cloaks before stoning the deacon Stephen. And in the sentence that follows our reading in Acts, we are told, “And Saul agreed completely with killing him.” (Acts 8:1) Two verses after that it says, “But Saul was trying to destroy the church. Entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:3) In the next chapter, we read, “Meanwhile, Saul, still breathing out threats to murder the Lord's disciples, went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.” (Acts 9:1-2) It was on that trip to kill more Christians that the risen Jesus appears to Saul and commissions him to spread the gospel and not stamp it out. Saul changes his name to Paul, which means “small,” and he does what Jesus says, often ending up in prison himself and finally dying for his faith. It is because of his murderous rampage before his conversion that Paul says that he is the worst of sinners. And because Jesus transformed him from a warrior to a witness of the good news, Paul realizes that it is God's grace, his undeserved and unreserved goodness to us, that saves us. Paul saw that the truth about God is found in Jesus, namely, that “He is the image of the invisible God...” and that “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son.” (Colossians 1:15, 19)

Thirdly, Jesus is the life God gives. As the living Word of God, he was in the beginning when God created life. (John 1:1-2) In the 1^st chapter of John's gospel we are told, “All things were created by him and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:3-4) Yet when he came to earth as one of us, what did we do? As Peter says, “You killed the Originator of life...” (Acts 3:15) We are the ones who are bloodthirsty, who want to eliminate those who upset the status quo, not God. But Peter reminds us that God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is still the source of life. But now it is his life, eternal life, that he gives to all who come to him, trusting in his goodness and in his word. And when we come to God through Jesus, it is forever. He will never leave or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5) Even death cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39)

Jesus is the way to God, the truth about God and the life of God. Which means that when we are in him and he is in us, we are the body of Christ on earth. And so Jesus says, “the one who trusts in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these...” How is that possible? Because there are many of us. Christians live all over the earth, in every nation, even those where it is dangerous to be a follower of Jesus. Christians have built schools and hospitals. They have brought knowledge and healing to every corner of the world. They have made peace between peoples. They run food pantries and homeless shelters. They have stood up for the oppressed. They hid Jews during the Holocaust. They helped people escape slavery through the Underground Railroad. They advocated for the end of slavery. As the body of Christ on earth, they have taken up Jesus' mission which he stated in the words of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

And to help us do that Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son.” He will give us whatever we need to fulfill his mission to spread the good news of the God who is love, not only with our lips but with our lives. Notice that Jesus does not say he will give us whatever we desire but what we ask in his name so that God will be glorified. The chief thing that Jesus did to glorify God was to lay down his life for us. (John 17:1) We glorify him by bearing much fruit. (John 15:8) And that fruit is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) We glorify God by being like Jesus. And we can only be like him by having his Spirit in us and doing the things Jesus would do: help, not harm; teach truth, not lies; feed the hungry, not cut them off; visit the prisoners, not write them off; heal the sick, not neglect them; welcome the stranger, not imprison him; save lives, not take them; make peace, not war.

If people have gotten the wrong ideas about God, it's because we have been displaying a distorted image of him. We need to look at Jesus and adjust the image of God in our minds so that it reflects him. And then we need to use our lives to reflect that image to others, so that they will turn to Jesus and find him to be the way, the truth and the life.

Job Description of a Shepherd

The scriptures referred to are Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25 and John 10:1-10.

In 43 BC the ancient Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro wrote “dog does not eat dog.” So when did that sentiment get reversed into “It's a dog eat dog world”? Apparently in 1735 when a newspaper commented on a case of a lawyer getting thrown into prison for robbing a fellow lawyer. The Grub-Street Journal remarked, “What! Dog eat dog!” Within a few decades, the phrase was used to describe ruthless business practices. And it has come to mean the merciless competition we see in many aspects of society. “Dog eat dog” is a popular way of describing a world that seems devoid of compassion.

Ironically, the world in which the Roman scholar observed the fact that dogs do not cannibalize each other was a world in short supply of compassion and mercy, at least towards those who were not well-off, like the poor, the enslaved, and the disabled. It was a world that celebrated the fortunate and victorious. It was a world which historian Robert Garfield describes as being without a social conscience.

It is into this cruel world that the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ was introduced. And we see in our passage from the book of Acts that the community of followers of Jesus looked quite different from the empire it was part of. Now, to be sure, Jewish values were also different from those of the Romans. God has always been especially concerned with the poor, the disabled, the resident alien, the widow and the fatherless. They are mentioned literally hundreds of times in the Bible. The prophets pointed to the injustices inflicted on the unfortunate as the reason for God's judgment on his people. Synagogues had a position for folks who would collect money weekly to distribute to the poor in the congregation. These may very well have been the forerunners of Christian deacons, which, according to Acts 6, were originally ordained to make sure the widows in the church were treated fairly in the daily distribution of food.

Today we read that “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:44-45) Small wonder that they had “the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (v.47)

So one of the earliest Christian practices, right up there with “devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and the prayers,” was helping one another, especially those who were in need. Showing compassion for others was not a weird side-effect but an essential expression of following Jesus, the God who is Divine Love Incarnate. It is disturbing, therefore, that today there are churches who think that helping the poor, the sick, the imprisoned or the foreigner are not core concerns for the Christian nation that they proclaim we are. Yet this passage comes right after Pentecost, the birthday of the church. It is not a late or aberrant development in the history of Christianity. It is a feature, not a bug, of following Jesus.

This is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The other readings explicitly mention God and Jesus as our shepherd. Why was this passage from Acts included? Because shepherd is not merely a title but a job with specific functions, which are spelled out in our psalm and our gospel reading. And as Christians, we are supposed to be in the process of becoming Christlike. So let's look at the things a good shepherd does.

In Psalm 23, we are told right off the bat that because the Lord is our shepherd, we do not want for anything. He supplies our needs. By the way, in English the word “lord” comes from an Old English word meaning “loaf-ward” or “bread-keeper.” And “lady” came from the word for “loaf-kneader” or “bread-maker.” It is interesting that when the Bible was translated into English, they decided to translate kurios, the Greek word for “master,” as “lord,” the person who guards and gives people their bread. Perhaps they did so because the Lord God provides for his people. As stewards of his gifts, so should we. (1 Peter 4:10)

The next verses show how the “Lord makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.” Sheep eat green grass and need water that is not rushing and will not sweep them downstream. A spring or pond is best. In other words, God gives us rest, food and water. Again, as his disciples, we follow his example in providing these things. (Isaiah 58:7)

We are told “You restore my soul, O Lord...” The Hebrew word translated “soul” here, nephesh, also means “life” or “self.” God restores our life and restores us to ourselves. So this is about spiritual and psychological refreshment. God keeps us sane and restores us to the people he created us to be. As recipients of his grace, we convey that refreshment and restoration to others. (Proverbs 11:25)

Next we are told that the Lord guides us “along right pathways for your name's sake.” Sheep can get lost. I saw a video of one who had been lost and living on a mountain for years. When he was finally caught and brought back, his wool had grown so much he was buried under the stuff and could hardly see. After being sheared, he looked a lot happier and healthier, not to mention lighter. It would have been better for him had he followed his shepherd along the right path to good pasture and then back home where he could be properly cared for. He wouldn't have been living blind and burdened. As we follow Jesus, we should also guide the lost to the right pathways. (Psalm 51:12-13)

Then we read, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for you are with me.” In a valley you are hemmed in on both sides and there is usually one way in and one way out. It can be scary because your options for escape from danger are limited. In addition, late in the day a valley is largely in shadows and so predators might be stalking you under cover of darkness. So the presence of the shepherd is reassuring. And we need to remind people of God's reassuring presence.

“Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” The rod was a club, worn in the shepherd's belt. The staff was for walking as well as guiding and controlling the sheep, which is why it is pictured as having a curve or crook at one end. You could use it to pull a sheep out of a crevice. But it could also be used as a weapon. These things are comforting because they remind us that the shepherd protects the flock. We must remember that we are here to protect people from predators; we are not to protect predators from consequences. (Isaiah 1:17)

Obviously predators are attracted to prey and will follow them or hang around places where they are likely to be when feeding. Nevertheless, the protective shepherd is able to prepare a table, so to speak, in the presence of the flocks' enemies. They can eat safely, knowing that the shepherd is keeping watch over them.

Now at this point in the psalm a second metaphor is being brought in. It uses language that seems to describe a banquet being held to broker a peace. Treaties and covenants were often concluded with a shared meal, which is part of the meaning of the Eucharist or Communion. In the Ancient Near East, when you eat with someone it indicates that you are at peace with them. You are no longer enemies but friends. The worst thing you could do is harm someone who gave you hospitality. The most egregious example of this is Judas, who was sitting in the place of honor at the last supper and accepted a sop of bread from Jesus, only to leave and betray him to his enemies. (John 13:24-30) We too must not betray Jesus but act as peacemakers, turning enemies into friends. (Matthew 5:9)

“You anoint my head with oil...” This was done for a guest at a meal. (Luke 7:46) But oil was also used in dressing wounds (Luke 10:34), something a shepherd would do for his sheep. Every night, when bringing them back to the fold, he would act as the gate, stopping each sheep with his staff and examining them for cuts and scratches and giving them first aid. This is probably what Jesus means when he says that he is the gate. (John 10:9) As Jesus healed others, we are to help heal people who are wounded. (James 5:16)

“My cup is running over.” The Lord is a generous host. He will not let his guests and friends go thirsty. Jesus literally did this at the wedding at Cana, though he was not the host. (John 2:1-10) We are also to be generous and not close-fisted. (Deuteronomy 15:7-8)

The psalm concludes with the knowledge that God's goodness and mercy will also never run out and the psalmist wishes to never leave God's temple.

Contrast this picture of the good shepherd with the warnings Jesus makes about those who are not legitimate shepherds but thieves and bandits. They come to steal, kill and destroy. And sadly, we have seen those who have presented themselves as shepherds of God's people, only to use it as an opportunity to enrich themselves personally. We have seen them destroy the credibility of the church through their actions. In some cases, like Jim Jones and David Koresh, they have killed and caused the deaths of those they were supposedly shepherding. Destroying your flock is not part of the job.

Just because someone appears to be a shepherd it doesn't mean he or she really is. As Jesus said, “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit.” (Matthew 7:15-16) In other words, what they actually produce gives them away. Are they supplying the needs of their people? Are they providing the opportunity for rest, refreshment and restoration? Do they provide protection and peace? Do they take care of those who need help regaining their health? Or is their goodness and mercy limited instead? Would you want to live with them forever?

Raising sheep was so widespread in the Ancient Near East that kings loved to liken themselves to shepherds. It was a symbol of how they were not merely strong but also offered tender care to their people. These days it seems like some leaders are only interested in looking strong, as if that was the only requirement for leadership. Other essential qualities like wisdom and compassion are seen as weak. But when you think of Jesus, do you immediately think of might or of compassion? He did not fight his enemies. He let them look as if they were winning. To save his sheep, he was willing to lay down his life. That's what defined him as the good shepherd. (John 10:14-15) He was willing to go that far to save us from our own distorted and messed up ways of living. That's why the cross is the symbol of Christianity. Jesus loves us enough to die for us. His self-sacrificial love is what sets him apart from other leaders and other gods.

And, if as his disciples we are to be Christlike, then we must also, like him, deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow in his footsteps. (Luke 9:23) As it says in 1 John, “This is how we have come to know what love is: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for each other.” (1 John 3:16) But is that the first thing you think of when you hear the word Christians? What do you suppose is the first thing that comes to mind when the world thinks of the church? Self-sacrifice? Compassion? Helping the destitute, the despairing, the disabled and the despised, no matter what the cost is to us?

If not, why not? And what should we do about that? 

Gods and Kings

The idea that the king is a god was pretty much universal in the ancient world. Monarchs were seen either as deities, descendants of the gods, or as their divinely appointed representatives. The first Mesopotamian ruler to declare himself to be divine was Naram-Sin of Akkad. Ruling sometime in the 23^rd century BC, he referred to himself as the husband/warrior of the goddess Ishtar. Even before that, Egyptian pharaohs were seen as incarnations of either Horus, the war and sky god, or Re, the sun god. Mayan kings were supposedly possessed by gods. Kings were also regarded as sacred in Polynesia, Africa and, until the end of World War 2, even Japan.

In Jesus' day, the Roman emperor wasn't considered a god until he died. That changed with Caligula. Yet even before him, people worshiped the genius or divine spirit that accompanied the emperor from his birth to his death. The Jews refused to do this, of course, and Rome, realizing that monotheism was essential to Judaism, got them to agree to pray to Yahweh for the emperor. But elsewhere, the emperor was treated as a god for all practical purposes. The Senate could not oppose him and the Roman Republic was no more. The emperor had absolute power over everyone's lives.

That was the main reason why Christians were persecuted. By declaring Jesus Christ to be Lord of all and King of kings, Christianity was saying that neither the emperor, or any earthly ruler, had ultimate power. There was Someone over them to whom even they ought to swear allegiance. So beginning with Nero, it became dangerous to proclaim that Jesus was the unique Son of God. Because it meant he had the last word on what was right and what was wrong, regardless of what any earthly authority said was legal.

Ancient Israel, however, did not always have a king. When the tribes were attacked, God called a person, male or female, to be their leader. (Judges 4:4-6) These were called judges. But eventually the people approach the aging Samuel, then the current judge, and say, “Appoint over us a king to lead us, just like all the other nations.” (1 Samuel 8:5) Samuel is upset and prays to God. The Lord says to him, “Do everything the people request of you. For it is not you that they have rejected but it is me that they have rejected as their king. Just as they have done from the day that I brought them up from Egypt until this very day, they have rejected me and have served other gods. This is what they are also doing to you. So now do as they say. But seriously warn them and make them aware of the policies of the king who will rule over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7-9) And Samuel warns them that by giving one human being such power he will conscript their sons into his army, make their daughters work for him, and take their best fields, vineyards, servants and animals for himself and for his administrators.

God had anticipated that the people would want a king before they even entered the land of Canaan. In Deuteronomy 17, God sets some limits over how a king should act. He should not accumulate horses for himself. He must not marry many wives or acquire a lot of gold and silver. He must write down God's law, keep it with him and study it all his life. And finally he should not “exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or to the left...” (Deuteronomy 17:16-20)

That kind of king is not a god but a godly person, knowing and obeying what God requires from us all. Like not having any gods other than the Lord, not creating any images to be worshiped, not misusing God's name, setting apart the Sabbath as a holy day, honoring one's parents, not committing murder, not committing adultery, not stealing, not giving false testimony against others, and not desiring what someone else has. A ruler who breaks these 10 commandments is not a godly person. When David committed both adultery and murder, God told him through Nathan the prophet that it would bring disaster upon him and his household. (2 Samuel 12:9-10) Again the king is not a law unto himself but must follow God's law, even in his personal life.

After Christianity had become a legal religion, the problem for all the subsequent kings and emperors was that now they had to admit that there was in fact an authority higher than them. So they tried to tame Christianity. They made it the only legal religion so they could restore it to the role that religions had before Jesus: to bless the status quo. They made the church an arm of the state. Some rulers, like King James 1, claimed the divine right of kings, which meant their authority came directly from God, and thus they could not be held accountable to any earthly authority, like, say, Parliament or some other elected body of mere men. Or those clergy who preached against them.

Such rulers leaned into the part of Romans 13 that says, “Let every person be subject to the authorities over him. For there is no authority except by God, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore the one resisting the authority has resisted the arrangement of God; those resisting will now bring upon themselves judgment.” (Romans 13:1-2) But rulers ignore the verse that follows, which says, “for he is God's servant for your good.” (Romans 13:4) If they don't do that with their authority, they aren't fulfilling their purpose. Didn't God, in spelling out how kings should behave, warn the people that such a powerful person is likely to do things that are not good for them? Aren't there numerous examples of kings of Israel and Judah who did what was evil in God's sight? And didn't God's prophets point that out, even at the risk to their own lives?

What God arranged was not a person but a position of leadership. Order is preferable to chaos. But if the person in a position of leadership is not good or wise, if what he or she is doing is evil, like Queen Jezebel of Israel who killed God's prophets (1 Kings 18:4) or King Manasseh of Judah who worshiped other gods and killed innocent people, God will not support them. (2 Kings 21:1-16) King Herod Agrippa had James the brother of John executed and Peter imprisoned. When he accepted the people's praise for having the voice of a god and did not give glory to the Lord, he was struck down by a deadly illness. (Acts 12:1-4, 21-23) When the Sanhedrin, the council that had the authority over the Jews in Jerusalem, gave the apostles strict orders not to teach in Jesus' name, Peter and the Twelve replied, “We must obey God rather than people.” (Acts 5:27-29) Having authority isn't a blank check or permission to do what you will, no matter how evil. After all, we rightfully see those who disobeyed Hitler, the legally appointed chancellor of Germany, as heroes. Christians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth spoke out prophetically against the Nazis, who were the official party of the government.

In the countries where Christianity has come to be accepted, few political leaders have dared to declare themselves to be God. However, cult leaders have. And Jesus knew this would happen. He said, “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24) And, of course, it is especially dangerous if a political leader is also the leader of a cult, and accepts the title of Messiah or God. Paul foresees one whom he calls the “man of lawlessness” who will set himself up as God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) He could have been speaking about an emperor such as Nero. But as someone said, while history may not exactly repeat itself, it rhymes. The possibility of such a politician is always there.

Because there are always arrogant people, people who think they are smarter, better and more competent than anyone else. And when the arrogant are given power, the people under them suffer. As Psalm 10 says, “The wicked arrogantly chase the oppressed; the oppressed are trapped by the schemes the wicked have dreamed up. Yes, the wicked man boasts because he gets what he wants; the one who robs others curses and rejects the Lord. The wicked man is so arrogant he always thinks, 'God won't hold me accountable; he doesn't care.' He is secure at all times. He has no regard for your commands; he disdains all his enemies. He says to himself, 'I will never be upended, because I experience no calamity.' His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; his tongue injures and destroys.” (Psalm 10:2-7) Such people have always existed. And somehow they have always managed to get other people to grant them power.

Unfortunately, when leaders declare themselves to be god, it's not because they desire to be like God in terms of character but in terms of power. They want to be obeyed like God but they do not want to obey him. And they certainly do not want to emulate the only person in the Bible who is held up as the ideal king: Jesus, God Incarnate.

Jesus refused earthly and political power at his temptation in the wilderness. He did not claim it when he was arrested, when asked if he was a king by Pilate, or when the jeering crowds told him they would believe he was the king of Israel if he came down from the cross. (Matthew 4:8-10; 26:51-54; 27:42; John 18:36) Instead he said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) And he did serve others. He healed them. He fed them. He showed them God's love and forgiveness, not just in what he said but in what he did.

Jesus did not use the power God gave him to make his own life better but to make the lives of others better. And overwhelmingly they were the poor and the despised and the excluded; the people powerful folks call losers. Jesus didn't just project an image of caring and healing; he actually touched the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the dead. And he said that if we really want to serve him as our King, we need to give the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and the immigrant what they need. Because whatever we do to those whom the world counts as the least important, we do to him. If you want to see Jesus, don't look to the powerful but the powerless and to those who serve them like Jesus did. (Matthew 25:31-46)

All those ancient kings and emperors who declared themselves to be gods are dead. No one worships those psychopaths and narcissists any longer. Their power died with them. But Jesus lives and his power is still active in the world. Unlike those false god-kings, he did not leave a legacy of cold and dead monuments, doomed to crumble over time or be demolished. His legacy is the people who still trust him and follow him, who obey the commandments to love God with all they are and all they have, and to love their neighbors as they do themselves and even love their enemies. That legacy will live on until Jesus returns and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever.

Good Above All Other

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 16 and John 20:19-21.

When reading the lectionary passages for this Sunday, one phrase really stuck with me. It's the second line in Psalm 16, which goes, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.” This is a key truth about our faith. God is our good above all other good things. If you don't subscribe to that, whatever moral or ethical system you replace it with will not stand up to all the challenges of life.

This may upset some people. They think that putting God above everything else can lead to fanaticism. Which is true but only if you have a distorted view of God. If you think of him as a giant narcissist and cosmic killjoy, then, yes, prioritizing that kind of god above all other things will lead to people doing horrible things in his name. So before we even consider putting God first, we need to define what we mean by God.

There are lots of conceptions of God out there, from that of various religions to those conceived by certain philosophers. Because we are Christians, we are going to be using the Bible as our database. And right off the bat, in the first line of the first book of the Bible, we are told that God created everything. This is important because not all gods were seen as creators. In some cases, a god became the primary one by defeating a monster or serpent or other god. In some cases, the material world is not real but an illusion created by faulty thinking or a lack of connection with the divine mind. But the God of the Bible created everything and pronounced his creation good. Matter, the earth, our bodies and our minds are all good things.

Next we are told, again in the first chapter of Genesis, that God created humans in his image. (Genesis 1:27) What exactly that image is does not get spelled out. But if we look at the rest of the chapter we see that God is intelligent, creative, communicative and delights in all that he has made. And we see that humans also have, to a higher degree than all other animals, intelligence, creativity, the ability to communicate, and an ability to appreciate the goodness of creation.

In the second chapter we learn something else about humans. We are social animals. It is not good for us to be alone. (Genesis 2:18) We need other humans and we form pair-bonds. We don't merely seek out the opposite sex to mate with and then go about our ways like some animals, such as the Key deer. We don't give birth and then let the offspring fend for themselves, like sea turtles. We become families. (Genesis 2:24) We love our spouses and our children. Is this another way in which we reflect God?

In 1 John 4:8, we are told that God is love. It doesn't merely say that God is loving but that God is love. We were created in the image of an eternal love relationship. One way to make sense of the Trinity is that God is the Father loving the Son loving the Father in the unity of the Spirit of that love so that the three are essentially one in mind and will.

And the fact that God is love is essential. To put a god who is not primarily love above all else leads to the distorted versions of religion that have justified atrocities. If God is primarily a creator, he doesn't necessarily have to love his creatures. He could be like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who grew to hate his creation, Sherlock Holmes, and killed him off because he drew attention from his more “serious” books. And God certainly has a right to get mad at us for the way we have used his gifts to harm each other and the rest of his creation. But just as you may not always like your child because of what they have done (hit their brother or sister, stolen money, developed habits that are harmful to them and others) you still love them. And so God continues to love us even though he is not happy with all the things we have done.

Some see God as primarily just. But justice without love is harsh and merciless. And there are societies today where there are some rather brutal punishments, like caning for vandalism in Singapore, flogging for criticizing religion in Afghanistan, and amputation for theft and beheading for drug offenses in Saudi Arabia. And in some places simply being suspected of being illegally in the country can get you locked up in overcrowded cages and warehouses.

God's justice comes out of his love. If you have more than one kid and love them all, you don't want to play favorites. You treat them all with the same standard of fairness. Yet at times you are also merciful. If a child has given his brother a black eye and is upset at himself for doing so and is sorry and in tears, you treat him differently than if he were without remorse. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting all that you deserve.

But God is more than merciful. He is gracious. Grace is getting what you do not and could not deserve. God gives us second chances and more. Peter denied Jesus three times while his master was being tried. After his resurrection Jesus gave him three opportunities to confirm his love. (John 21:15-17) Paul persecuted the church. Jesus appeared to him and commissioned him to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. Then there is what happened at his crucifixion. The criminal on the very next cross rebuked his fellow insurrectionist for insulting Jesus. “Don't you fear God,” he said, “for you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:40-43) That man is the only person Jesus ever said that to. And there was no way that man could undo the harm he had done. But he admitted his guilt, asserted Jesus' innocence and recognized him as a king. And Jesus accepted that as faith in him and promised that they would enjoy paradise together.

So if we acknowledge that the God revealed in Jesus—loving, just, merciful, forgiving and gracious—is the true God, then he is worthy to be our good above all others.

And it follows from the fact that all humans are created in the image of this God that we must treat others with love as well. Indeed when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, he gave not one but two: “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40) He also says, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)

All Christian morality derives from these two commandments. We are to love God above all and we love our neighbors as we do ourselves. But why should we treat them as we do ourselves? Because we cut ourselves a great deal of slack. For instance, when we are in conflict with others, we blame them for the results of what they did, but we judge ourselves by our intentions. When someone breaks something important or messes up a situation, we don't accept their protests that they didn't mean to do that. But when we are the ones who are responsible for creating a problem, we quickly say, “I didn't mean to do that!” and expect to be excused. We need to be as forgiving of others as we are of ourselves. As Jesus said, “In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

But just as it is important to define what we mean by God, we also need to define what we mean by neighbor. Is it just the people next door? Is it just the people in my town, or state or country? No, says Jesus. When asked just who was our neighbor, Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan. The Jews and Samaritans had a long history of hating one another. Each regarded the other as heretics and worse. But in Jesus' parable two supposedly pious Jews, a priest and a Levite, see a man beaten and left for dead and avoid him. The Samaritan, whom Jesus' original audience thought would be the villain, turns out to be the hero. He gives the victim first aid, takes him to an inn, nurses him through the night and then pays for any further care the man needs. Jesus asks the scribe who posed the question, which of the three in the parable acted as a neighbor to the victim? The expert in religious law could not even say “The Samaritan,” but instead says, “The one who showed mercy to him.” To which Jesus replies, “Go and do the same.” (Luke 10:29-37) Our neighbor, according to Jesus, is anyone we encounter, regardless of race, creed or any other descriptor. We are to love them all.

But people still try to draw the line between who is our neighbor and who is not, and therefore whom we do not have to love. Jesus erases that line. In the Sermon on the Mount, he addresses this unwritten corollary to the commandments. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors do the same, don't they? And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do? Even the Gentiles do the same, don't they? So then, be completely good, as your heavenly Father is completely good.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

Again Jesus takes it back to God, who is “perfect” or as I translated it, “completely good.” And he gives examples of God's common grace, his goodness to all, whether or not they deserve it. He sends sun and rain on all, both good things, especially in an agricultural society. It goes beyond that. Scientists have noted that our universe is apparently fine-tuned for the existence of life. If any of several universal constants, such as gravity, the strong and electromagnetic forces, the universe's expansion rate and other conditions, were even a tiny bit different, then stars, chemistry and life would not be possible. We are here because of God's grace, his unreserved, undeserved goodness.

And it is vital that we not restrict the definition of goodness. We recognize it as selfishness when someone's personal definition of goodness is “what is good for me and to hell with everyone else.” But we often get confused when that definition of goodness is expanded to “what is good for me and mine.” Mine could be my family or my country or my race or my party. But the corollary is always “and to hell with everyone else.” Ma Barker loved her sons. It didn't matter to her that they robbed and killed other people. Hitler loved his adopted country of Germany. He loved it so much he wanted to purify it of all non-white Germans. He called them “vermin” who were contaminating his country's blood. He saw the sick and handicapped as “useless eaters” and eliminated them before moving on to Jews, Slavs, gypsies, gays, Roman Catholics and other Christians who spoke up about how the Nazis were subverting the real gospel of Jesus.

The only useful definition of goodness is “what is good for all.” And that's why we need to define goodness by referring to God and not to humans. If there is no God and if humans are not created in his image and therefore don't have inherent worth, we have no solid basis for saying we need to treat everyone fairly or with love. So as the final arbiters of morality, why not just eliminate everyone we see as bad? That's what we do in our popular entertainment. The good guys win by killing all the bad guys. Sometimes we disguise this kind of genocide by making the enemies monsters or robots or space aliens. In other words, we make our enemies non-humans. And in real world rhetoric, demagogues paint their enemies as less than human. Because deep down they realize they first have to destroy the idea that they are people made in God's image as well.

God made us to reflect his goodness: his love, his intelligence, his creativity, his justice, his mercy and his graciousness. He gave us all we needed to maintain the finely tuned world he created. We have decided to misuse, abuse and neglect these gifts because we think we know better than the one who made them and made us. Consequently it is hard to see the image of God in people at times. But then God gave us the ultimate in good gifts: his son Jesus. He told us how to live and showed us how in his life. And when we tried to snuff out that life, God raised Jesus from the dead and graciously offered his life, eternal life, to all who turn to him with trust and love. God keeps giving us chances to love him and each other, not merely with our lips but with our lives. One day all the seconds of our lives, all the second chances to change, will run out. One day all of us will see Jesus face to face. Some will do so with hatred. Some will do so with fear. Some will do so with love, saying “My Lord and my God,” as we reach out and embrace the One who is our good above all others. 

The Death of Death

The scriptures referred to are Matthew 28:1-10.

Comedian John Mulaney was performing at Graceland, and he brought his 4-year-old son. The boy is a huge Elvis fan and so he wanted to tour Elvis' house. While they were in the famous “Jungle room” his son asks if he can meet Elvis. And Mulaney realizes that he doesn't know that Elvis is dead. And all of his son's grandparents are alive and he has never had a goldfish. He has never experienced death and loss. And now Mulaney has to figure out how to tell his son that everybody dies. He opts to simply tell him that Elvis is in heaven. But like all kids, his son asks why. How do you tell a child that his hero died in the most humiliating way, from drug abuse while on the toilet? In relating the story to Stephen Colbert, Mulaney jokes that he told his son, “Well, sometimes when people are in their early 40s, and they have a job and a schedule a lot like Daddy, and some of the same issues as Daddy, they go to the bathroom and they go to heaven.”

How did you learn that everyone dies? When did you realize that you will one day die? It's not a secret, yet while we may decide it's time to tell a kid about the facts of life, we don't usually have a formal talk on the end of life. It just sort of hits you when a pet or a person you love dies. And, weirdly, while it makes sense that you become sad, it is not uncommon that it strikes you as unfair. That's why one of the stages of grief is anger.

And yet in one sense death is the fairest thing there is: it happens to everyone without exception. One can see it as unfair when a person dies young or in a terrible manner. But everyone dies. That's the moral of the oldest surviving written story, the Epic of Gilgamesh. When his best friend, Enkidu, dies, Gilgamesh goes searching for eternal life. But the answer he receives from the only man to survive the great flood is, “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands.”

Even gods die in many mythologies. The Greek god Pan dies. The Egyptian god Osiris dies and becomes king of the underworld. At Ragnarok, the Norse gods, including Odin and Thor, die.

The founders of religions die. The Buddha died in Uttar Pradesh in India some time in the 5^th century BC. Muhammad died on June 8, in the year 632 AD. Moses died before entering the promised land, possibly in the 13^th century BC. And Jesus died on a Friday in either 30 or 33 AD. But only one of them rose to life again.

Of course, the disciples all knew that the dead don't come back to life, not until the end of the present evil age when all are resurrected to face judgment. Which is why every gospel mentions them doubting when they hear the women say he is risen. Even when they encounter the risen Jesus, they think at first that he is a ghost. Which is why he has them touch him and why he eats with them. He raised others who died of natural deaths but his rising by himself after being crucified is something unprecedented.

Of course, a lot of people since then have doubted this as well. They say the disciples went to the wrong tomb, or all hallucinated the same thing, or just made it up. None of these alternate explanations hold up. The authorities could have simply produced the body.

And why would the disciples do this? To keep the movement going? But Buddhism, Judaism and Islam survived the deaths of their founders. Plus the disciples got persecuted and martyred for holding to their belief. There was no incentive to lie, not when it could get you killed. Yet not one renounced the resurrection.

Could the story have evolved over time, like the legend of King Arthur? There's not enough time. The documents show that it took hundreds of years for a battle leader possibly named Arthur to evolve into the king of all Britain in the now magical tales. But the earliest Christian writings, Paul's letters, already refer to Jesus as God's Son, “whom he raised from the dead.” (1 Thessalonians 1:10) That's in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, dated around 50 AD. So it took centuries for a warrior to simply become king but only 2 decades for Jesus, whom people still remembered, to become God's crucified and risen Son?

Plus the first description of Jesus' resurrection appearances is found in Paul's first letter to the Christians in Corinth, composed around 55 AD. He writes, “For I passed on to you as of the first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) It is gutsy for Paul to mention the 500 who saw him and remark that most are still alive. In other words, Paul is saying, “You don't have to take my word for it; ask one of them.” 

Incidentally, this explains why the gospels were written later. There was no need for the words and works of Jesus to be written down while there were living witnesses around, who could come to your church and tell you about him. The gospels were probably written because of the martyrdoms of the apostles. Mark, who worked with both Peter and Paul, wrote the first gospel in the early to mid-60s AD, when those two were executed by Nero. Matthew and Luke basically took Mark's gospel and added the stories and teachings of Jesus they had access to. John's gospel, composed in the 90s AD, 60 years after the resurrection, appears to have been written with knowledge of the other three and so skips some of the events they record and concentrates on his additional material. John's gospel lets us know that Jesus' ministry lasted at least 3 years.

The process is similar to biographies written about C.S. Lewis, who died in 1963, a little over 60 years ago. I've read most of them and each has facts the others don't. Lewis' stepson David Gresham, who is still alive, revealed things that earlier biographies, mostly written by friends and former students of Lewis, didn't have. And the most recent, written by Alister McGrath, who did not know Lewis, unearthed still more facts and even corrected a crucial date, the year Lewis became a Christian, by reading everything Lewis wrote, including his letters, in chronological order.

While some extreme skeptics try to eliminate the problem by saying Jesus never existed, he is actually better attested by ancient writers than some other historical persons, like Socrates. Bart Ehrman, a respected New Testament scholar who is not however a believer, counts at least thirty ancient independent sources that knew the man Jesus existed. Of course, he and other historians doubt the resurrection. But even historian Michael Grant admitted that without the resurrection of Jesus, it was hard to explain not only the survival of the movement but its explosive growth. But if Jesus defeated death, that would account for it.

Some people think that the idea of resurrection or even an afterlife is unnecessary. If everyone just acknowledged that death is the end, they would realize how precious life is and behave better. But we have seen that is not true. The atheistic countries of the Soviet Union, communist China, and Cambodia killed nearly twice as many people in 1 century (67 million) than are attributed to Christians in 20 centuries (36 million). If anything, belief in the God we see in Jesus restrains us from being as violent as we can be. Because it is just as easy to think that if this is the only life you get, and that there's no afterlife or judgment, then there is ultimately no justice in the universe, life is meaningless in the long run and you should just do whatever you want.

But does Christianity need the resurrection? Aren't its moral teachings enough? Thomas Jefferson cut up a couple of Bibles to paste various passages into a book he entitled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. He omitted all of the miracles including the resurrection. I wonder if he noticed that much of what Jesus taught about how to live makes no sense without the resurrection. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer. But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well.” (Matthew 5:38-39) He tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. (Matthew 5:44) Crucially he says, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must disown himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35) That's a good way to get yourself killed. It got Jesus killed. If death is the end, this is suicide. Jesus' morals would be foolish, not wise.

But what if the afterlife is just continuing in a disembodied state, free from the flesh and its limitations? That would be like being a living brain in a jar or an AI program, where you would unable to use the senses you had while in a body or use the skills you learned and the talents you honed in this life. That doesn't seem like a reward for living in this world. It seems like being imprisoned in a sensory deprivation tank. It seems like hell.

God made the world and pronounced it good. He made us as unities of body and spirit. The spiritual gives the physical meaning and the physical gives the spiritual form and agency. He made us able to sing and dance and run and climb and play and embrace and help one another through the bodies he gave us. The Gnostics thought the material universe was irredeemably bad. The Bible says that the physical universe is good, loaded with God's gifts. It is our misuse, abuse or neglect of them that creates evil. With our intelligence and our bodies we can enhance and save lives or we can harm and destroy them, the same way you can use a knife to perform surgery or commit murder.

Not only does Jesus' resurrection make sense of our embodied existence and his teachings about how to behave, it also demonstrates God's plan for us and for all of creation. Lots of people think the story of the Bible concludes with the end of the world. But it actually continues with the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. God is restoring things to the way he intended them to be, populated by folks who are new creations in Christ, who love and trust him and who love and trust each other, and who use his gifts in good and creative and helpful and healthy ways.

One characteristic of life is growth. Plants and animals grow. Our bodies and our minds grow. And we are meant to grow spiritually as well. Paul talks about how we are to “reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.” (Ephesians 4:13) But how are we finite beings ever going to be able to become completely like the one who is infinite? Only by growing forever. The afterlife is not going to be eternal stasis but eternal growth. It will be a life where our growth in understanding and wisdom and the use of our talents and gifts will not be cut off by death or limited by age. There will always be new horizons to discover. There will always be new things to learn, new things to do and new ways to do them. There will be all the time in the world to find and do good things and to share them with others.

Jesus Christ's resurrection did not just give him new life; it gives all people the opportunity to have a new life. All we have to do is give to him our messed up and limited lives and open ourselves to receive his life, eternal life, the life of the God who is love. Jesus opened up a new way of living, not just to live for ourselves but for him and for others. And he opened a new realm in which we can live, the kingdom where God reigns and his will, to give life in all its abundance, is done on a reborn earth as it is in heaven. When we enter into Christ's life, we will see not only that death is not the end of all our adventures but is the beginning of new ones we can not possibly imagine. It is not the end of all we are but the real start to achieving all that we can be. In Christ, we will find the life we were looking for, the life we were longing for, the life God made us for. He is not withholding it from us; he is holding it out to us. And it can begin now!

The Death of Violence

The scriptures referred to are Philippians 2:5-11 and Matthew 26:14-27:66.

It should surprise no one that the deadliest war ever fought was the Second World War. The death toll is estimated to be 66 million people, 20 million of whom were soldiers and 46 million of whom were civilians. According to Matthew White's book Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History, the largest number of casualties in any war are usually non-combatants. On average, he writes, 85% of the people killed in wars have been civilians. At the end of his book he analyzes what he discovered but found there were no easy answers to what caused most of them, aside from vague things like hatred, stupidity and power. As for the 20^th century as a whole, White reckons that 150 million people died in the events that stretch from the First World War—“the war to end all wars”—up to the deaths of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. This combination of all the interconnected events includes the rise of communism and subsequent civil wars in Russia and China, the rise of fascism in Europe and Nazism in Germany, both world wars, the Holocaust, the various purges and famines caused by Stalin and Mao. White calls it the Hemoclysm, from the Greek for “blood flood.” He counts 3 causes of these related mass murders or multicides: technology, ideology and the escalating cycle of violence. Or “Because they could, because they wanted to and because everybody else was doing it.”

Oh and by the way, he writes, “A friend once wondered aloud how much suffering in history has been caused by religious fanaticism, and I was able to confidently tell her 10 percent...” In other words, 90% of mass human killings were committed for reasons other than religion. For instance, economics has accounted for 3 times as many deaths as religion. The economic problems in Germany led to the rise of the Nazis.

White attributes 9 multicides to the Roman Empire, 6 of which were due to Roman conquest and resistance. The Romans conquered all the lands that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea, ruling 50 to 60 million people. The Romans were brutal and efficient. Small wonder that would-be dictators often look to the Roman emperors as models to be emulated. They ignore the fact that 60 to 75% of them died violently. Because the empire was built on violence.

For instance, Pilate was a heavy-handed prefect of Judea. He broke precedent by bringing the military standards, bearing the image of Caesar, into Jerusalem. Jews found this idolatrous and protested at Pilate's palatial estate in Caesarea Maritima. He invited them to the local stadium to discuss the matter and then had them surrounded by soldiers. He threatened to have them killed. The Jews bared their necks and dared him to do so. Declining to start his term with a massacre, he backed down and removed the standards. But he didn't learn much. We are told in Luke about an incident involving some “Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifice.” (Luke 13:1) He did something similar to some Samaritans gathered on Mt. Gerizim, their sacred site. They complained to the emperor and he was removed from office. So I don't think Pilate's treatment of Jesus was due to compassion on his part.

Joseph ben Caiaphas was the longest serving high priest during the time of the New Testament. He was appointed 8 years before Pilate was made prefect. It was a turbulent time and so Caiaphas, son-in-law of Annas, a very powerful former high priest, must have been good at working with the Romans. Notably, nothing is said about his reaction to Pilate's offensive behavior with the Roman standards. It doesn't look like he supported the protests but neither does it look like he supported Pilate. I can see therefore why Pilate would not in turn want to do Caiaphas a favor by executing a man who did not seem to be a threat to the peace but did appear to be a thorn in Caiaphas' side.

In other words, what we see in the gospels' accounts leading up to Jesus' death is a power play between a politician and a religious leader. Both were trying to win out over the other. Neither wanted a riot. Caiaphas was trying to eliminate what he saw as the problem. (John 11:47-50) The fact that the problem was a man who appeared to be sent by God to heal and to preach love and forgiveness was irrelevant to both men.

As we've seen, the last resort for humans when dealing with problems is violence. If we can't get what we want by talking, negotiating, or working together to solve a problem, we lash out. (James 4:1-2) We seek to control others by violence or threats of violence. It works—in the short term. But the problems never really go away. They come back to haunt us. Hitler tried to eliminate the Jews by killing 6 million of them. Today there are 15 to 20 million Jews worldwide. In 1953 the British and American governments engineered a coup to oust a democratically elected Prime Minister in Iran who wanted to nationalize their oil industry. They installed a brutal Shah instead. He was overthrown in 1979 by religious fundamentalists, leading to our current situation. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, we still have Nazis and fascists, trying for a do over. To paraphrase George Santayana, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

But what is the alternative to violence? Or perhaps it is more accurate to say, who is the alternative? Of all the people in our passion reading, it is pretty obvious, though it wasn't at the time. Pilate and Caiaphas seemed to have won. Caiaphas got rid of Jesus and Pilate dodged a formal complaint to the emperor. But just 3 years later both would be removed from their positions. We don't know what happened to either of them after that. In fact, if it weren't for a few mentions in Josephus and an inscription, Caiaphas and Pilate would only be known for their parts in Jesus' death. Pilate is better known than the high priest simply because his name is repeated weekly in the creeds in the phrases “suffered” or “crucified under Pontius Pilate.” I wonder if that was the nightmare Pilate's wife had: that this would be the one thing he would forever be remembered for.

Jesus taught us not to repay evil with evil and he lived that out. (Matthew 5:38-41) He did not strike back when he was hit. (Matthew 26:67; 27:30) He told his followers to put away the sword rather than fight to defend him. (Matthew 26:52) And when Pilate asked him if he was a king, Jesus said that his kingdom did not come from this world and he offered as proof the fact that his disciples were not fighting to free him. (John 18:36) The Roman Empire not only had him crucified but no less than 3 emperors tried to stamp out faith in Jesus through persecution. Yet 3 centuries after the events on Golgotha, a Roman emperor legalized Christianity. 2 millennia later, over 2.4 billion people in the world call themselves Christians, almost a third of the global population.

I wish I could say that all of those who call themselves Christian did in fact follow in his ways. But as we've seen, there are those who think that the kingdom of God is best served through violence. They do not deny themselves, take up their own cross daily and follow him. (Luke 9:23) They do not have the same mind “that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness, and being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)

As historian Tom Holland points out, the idea that God would die on a cross to save sinful humanity was radical. The Roman Empire was all about strength and glory through winning and defeating your enemies. There was no place for compassion for the underdogs. And Jesus definitely looked as a loser from their standpoint, as well as that of many today. A workman, whose only weapons were his words of good news to the poor and powerless, was executed in the most brutal way by the biggest superpower of its day. Yet today that empire is gone. Their glory is only what we can dig up and reconstruct from the remains, rubbish and ruins they left behind. That man however rose again to life. Jesus took the worst thing we could do to him and turned it into the greatest gift of all, eternal life for all who respond to him in love and faith. His kingdom outlasted the empire. Because you can't kill the Spirit of the God who is Love Incarnate. (1 John 4:8)

The Spirit of the God we see in the crucified and risen Christ lives in the hearts of his followers. Jesus is still active in the words of encouragement and forgiveness and healing, and the works of love and reconciliation that he accomplishes through his followers. They are the ones who know that, as Jesus said, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27) They know that whatever they do to those the world considers losers, they do to Jesus. (Matthew 25:31-46) They know that while we are saved by God's grace through trust in Jesus, we are saved in order to do the good works he has prepared for us. (Ephesians 2:8-10) They know that not everyone who calls Jesus “Lord” will enter God's kingdom but only those who show they really do trust him by doing God's will, despite the difficulties, despite the temptations, despite the risks. (Matthew 7:21-23)

During the bloodiest war ever, there were people who acted nonviolently and saved people at the risk of their own lives. You may have heard of them: Corrie ten Boom and her family, who were sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews; Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese vice-consul, Carl Lutz, a Swiss consul, and Aristes de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat, all of whom issued passports, transit visas, or protective letters to tens of thousands of Jews; the Lados group, who issued fake Latin American passports to 3000 people; Gilberto Bosques, a Mexican consul who helped 40,000 refugees escape Nazi-occupied France; Oscar Schindler, the German industrialist, who hired and protected Jewish workers and made defective products he sold to the Nazis; the network of priests and nuns in Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis, who hid Jews in their monasteries and cloistered nunneries; Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, who smuggled 2500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto; Miep Giese and the people who hid Anne Frank and her family and friends; the government officials who deliberately delayed the Germans instituting the Holocaust in Italy through bureaucracy; and the entire nation of Denmark, who refused to let those laws be carried out despite being conquered and even got the Nazis in charge of their country to warn them of upcoming raids. It's sad that our history books make these people less well-known than the mass murderers whom some still revere and imitate.

The names of all the people who fought for their own glory will one day fade from memory. At the end of the history of this world, the name everyone will know will be that of the Prince of Peace, “the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”