Stephen
Terry, Director
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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