Stephen Terry, Director

 

Still Waters Ministry

 

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Tried and Crucified

Commentary for the September 21, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson

 

"Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 'Am I leading a rebellion,' said Jesus, 'that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?'" Mark 14:47-48, NIV

"Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place." John 18:36, NIV

Christianity is the dominant religion on our planet. But that is allowing for the thousands of sects and cults that nominally identify themselves as Christian to be included in that huge tent. For instance, there is a vast theological divide between Methodism and Richard Butler's Aryan Nations Church. Though both claim to be Christian, Methodism sees God's grace available to all, while the Aryan Nations say, "Whites only!" But this is only one example of extremism in Christianity. In the United States a great divide exists over the issue of guns. Some see God as advocating peace and kindness toward others, but others see God, guns, and the Bible as a holy doctrinal trinity. Among such, verses like (Psalm 144:1), "Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle," justify their desire to be armed.

Allegedly written by King David, this is an excellent example of cherry picking proof texts to support a position already come to before looking for supposed corroboration from the Bible. Those who search in the Old Testament for justification for killing others will find examples there of rivers of blood shed in God's name. When the Jews were not shedding the blood of human beings, they were shedding the blood of hundreds of thousands of sheep, goats, and oxen during the centuries that the wilderness tabernacle and then later the temple were foci of worship. It was a time when everyone, whether through ritual sacrifice or through warfare, had blood on their hands.

Ironically, those who pull such examples from the Old Testament to support their idea of what Christianity should be ignore other texts such as those that talk about diet, clothing, honoring the Sabbath, and welcoming foreigners. When quizzed closely on these discrepancies, they are apt to reply that those things no longer matter since Jesus died on the cross. In a misapplication of the text, they claim it was all nailed to the cross. (Colossians 2:14) The intent of Paul's letter was never to encourage the belief that now that one has been baptized all sins, past, present, and future were now covered by grace and could no longer be attributed to us. Those who want this to be the case refer to this as the New Covenant of Grace. There is a New Covenant of Grace, but it does not give license to sin. Instead, it is grace extended to those who repent, who change the direction of their lives and stop walking away from God and start walking toward him. What does that mean? John tells us, "God is love." (1 John 4:8) Therefore, anyone who is walking toward God should become more loving as his presence in the Christian's life becomes ever greater. Despite that, there are far too many who call themselves Christians who see Jesus as one who is ready to kill on behalf of his kingdom.

But what did Jesus say about that? As our introductory verse states, he did not see this world as it is as his kingdom. Therefore, he did not resist his arrest. Those who favor violence as a tenet of faith will cite Jesus telling his disciples to buy swords. (Luke 22:36-38) But they overlook two points. First, Jesus said two swords were enough. Enough for what? Enough to resist the power coming to arrest him? Hardly. But enough to be able to teach a lesson about bearing arms. He made the point that those choosing to take up a sword are buying into the idea of dying in the same manner themselves. (Matthew 26:52) That point got through to Peter. He had used a sword when Jesus was apprehended. Later, out of fear of reprisal, he denied his association with Jesus three times. Fear can be powerful. It can cause us to deny Jesus, just like Peter. And it can cause us to go to church or to the grocery store locked and loaded, ready to do to others what Peter did to the high priest's servant, lopping off his ear.

A second consideration is what Jesus said about how we should relate to others, even our enemies. While there is a continuing movement in the United States to post the Ten Commandments in as many public places as possible, there is no such equal movement for making the Beatitudes from Christ's Sermon on the Mount equally prominent in the public space. In another bit of irony, those who advocate for the display of the commandments, do not themselves observe them. They deny the efficacy of the Sabbath commandment, replacing it with Sunday keeping, not realizing the foundation for that change is the antisemitism practiced by the early church. In all fairness, that antisemitism did not arise in a void. It arose after decades of Christians being persecuted by the Jews, beginning with Stephen the Martyr. (Acts 6:8-7:60) While Christians originally saw themselves as a sect within Judaism, after two unsuccessful Jewish revolts against Rome, it became practical to cast off any practices that would cause the Romans to think they were just another sect of rebellious Jews. Also, because of the deaths of leading Christians in the early church at the hands of the Jews, it was not a hard leap to accuse them of the death of Christ even though it was divinely ordained. How soon this sentiment began to manifest itself can be seen in Matthew's gospel, the only gospel where the Jewish people are said to take the blame for Jesus' execution. (Matthew 27:24-25) Because of the references to the coming destruction of the temple in Matthew (Matthew 24:1-2), some place the date of composition before that event in 70 CE, giving an idea of how soon antisemitism developed among Christians..

We might be tempted to think that if the animosity were so great between the Jews and the early Christians that those believers would have become an armed camp prepared to defend themselves by all means necessary for safety of life and limb for themselves and their families. However, that is not what we find. Jesus preached that we were to love our enemies, doing good to them and turning the other cheek to their violence. (Matthew 5:38-39) Thousands went to their deaths without resistance for the sake of their faith in Jesus as the Messiah. They did not raise armies and arm themselves to resist the persecution. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we find that they were of a common spirit with servants of God in the Old Testament who were also martyred but persisted, despite the danger, to seek a close relationship with God and witness for him.. (Hebrews 11:36-38)

When Christianity was legalized by Rome, instead of seeing their kingdom as one yet to come with Jesus' return, Christians began to create a kingdom here on earth. They prospered through the power of the state on their behalf. The state determined by force who should and should not be considered Christian, making heresy and schism capital offenses, but blessing those faithful to tenets approved by the state. Christians were expected to bear arms in defense of the state. These two demands alone were enough to corrupt the church for thousands of years as we see today. Sunday observance was more useful for the state as it supported state antisemitism and facilitated the integration of Christian and Pagan communities. Because of their rebellious nature, it excluded the Jews who continued to cling to the Sabbath. That practice was considered Judaizing and was allowed to continue, though preached and written against, until late in the fourth century when the Council of Laodicea outlawed it. This could not have been done in the ante Nicene era as the church only had the backing of the state to enforce these decrees beginning with the Council of Nicaea.

Once the relationship between the church and the state became unified, it was only a small step to enforce church doctrine by armed conflict. This was aided by the idea that the civil authorities are appointed by God. (Romans 13:1-2) Therefore, to disobey the civil authority became tantamount to blasphemy and rebellion. Persecution had abated somewhat after official recognition of the faith, but it flared up again in all its fury when those arose who saw their faith as a personal matter between themselves and God and would not have it dictated by state or church.

They say that history will repeat itself if we are not educated to see the warning signs. Much of Christian history has been dictated by fear, fear of the church, fear of the state, fear of others who would plunder and steal. They did this to the early Christians. The church and state are not above doing this again if allowed. So far, the United States has kept much of this from our shores. The only way to assure this does not happen is to stop being afraid. Fearful people are easily manipulated. It is time we set about casting fear aside. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." To that, the Bible answers, "Perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18)

 

 

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