Nomad
The more I study the life and teachings of Jesus, the more perplexed I become. Time and time again, it seems that those who claim to follow Jesus have adopted positions that are in direct contradiction to the words that our Lord preached during his ministry here on earth.
One such issue is the death penalty, which is making headlines today as nearly 400 leading evangelical and catholic clergy released a statement calling for it’s end.
Their statement begins by saying:
“As Christians preparing for the holy days of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, we speak out with renewed urgency against the death penalty. Torture and execution is always a profound evil, made even more abhorrent when sanctioned by the government in the name of justice when other means of protecting society are available.
Indeed, this holy week, we are called to reflect on Christ’s death on the cross. We are called to look up at the innocent Son of God being brutally executed by his government as a means of carrying out “justice”. We are called to look at the thieves on his left and on his right, who were also receiving the due penalty for their crimes. But when Christ looked at them, he didn’t do so with an eye of condemnation, but with gracious compassion. On the cross, we see the Author of Life being stripped of his life and dignity. Yet even in the midst of such suffering, our Lord looks down on the centurions who had beaten him and on the crowd that was mocking him and pronounces a word of absolution, of forgiveness.
The whole concept of corporal punishment is deconstructed on Good Friday. We see the inherent injustice of using murder as a means of establishing justice. As we gaze at the crucified Jesus, we see his bruised and bloodied face looking down at us and our sinful human desire for retribution and hear his strained plea to God, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” Indeed, when we put our fellow human beings to death as a means of establishing justice, we truly don’t know what we’re doing. In the act of deciding to take another humans life, we are situating ourselves as God, who alone is the giver and taker of life. When we stand for the execution of anyone, even the worst criminals and convicts, we are engaging in moral de-evolution.
Christ came to pull us forward into the Kingdom of God, a vision of a redeemed and restored world, freed from injustice and sin. He taught us how we ought to conduct ourselves as radical citizens of this new, growing Kingdom. He laid out a higher ethic for us all, an ethic that if followed would bring healing and peace to all the world in an instant. Christ’s teaching was new and progressive to all who heard it. It flew in the face of the conventional and religious consensus of his day. The Torah taught us that when someone pokes out our eye in a fight that justice demands we poke out their eye. But Jesus showed us that such a teaching was incomplete. It wasn’t ultimately what God desired for us. No, God’s standard was much higher than that. It was much more difficult to adhere to.
Jesus began, one by one, revealing the the complete ethic of the Kingdom of God.
“You have heard that it was said to these of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment.”
“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 an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
In a moment, Jesus raised the bar and revealed the full standard of God for his people. We are not to be angry at one another. We are not to resist an evil doer. We are to turn the other cheek. We are to love our enemies. We are to pray for those who persecute us. In other words, we are to live my an ethic of unconditional mercy and grace.
But today, it seems, the Church of Jesus has taken a major step backwards. We’ve moved from following the Jesus’ full ethic of the Kingdom of God back to following the partial ethic of the Old Testament. It seems that we are lacking faith to believe that Jesus’ way is truly the better way, and we have decided to take things back into our own hands. If you’re a Christian and support the death penalty, it seems to me that you have to either do the most impressive hermeneutical gymnastics or else completely reject the wisdom and teachings of our Lord. Because it’s impossible to go from “love your enemies” to “kill your enemies.”
When we look at the cross on this holiest of weeks, we see our God humbling himself to stand in solidarity with the those at the furthest edge of soceity- those on death row. We see a God sitting in an electric chair as a criminal, between two other criminals. We see God standing in the middle of a firing line and kneeling before a guillotine. We serve a God who died on death row. And in his execution, he shows us a better way. The way of restoration, not retribution. The way of grace, extended to us even when we don’t deserve it. The way of redemption, not condemnation. This is the message of the cross. This is the Good News that we devote ourselves too. This is the radically subversive path that all of us who name the name of Christ are called to embrace as the truest and most effective way of promoting justice and righteousness.
To promote the death penalty is to fundamentally reject God’s plan of redemption. God does not simply throw us into hell for our sins, but instead, extends grace and the opportunity for restoration and reconciliation to each and every one of us. God doesn’t desire for any of us to die because of our sins. That is the Good News, after all. That there is a better way, a way of repentance and sanctification. That we are always offered another chance to turn from our evil ways and walk in the way of righteousness. If God is willing to extend such radical grace to all of us, we should in turn be willing to offer it to one another. And what is more satifying? The death of an offender or their transformation and redemption? As people of the cross, our singular desire should be to see every person transformed and restored, not condemned and killed.
It is for these reasons that I stand with nearly 500 other religious leaders from across the spectrum of Christian faith to oppose the death penalty. If we are truly going to be witnesses to our world of the powerful, subversive, upside-down, “foolish” message of Good Friday, then we should begin by relentlessly standing for life– not just in the womb, but all the way through to the tomb.
TO READ THE STATEMENT FROM CATHOLIC AND EVANGELICAL LEADERS CALLING FOR AN END TO THE DEATH PENALTY, CLICK HERE.
FOR MORE RESOURCES ON A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON DEATH PENALTY, CHECK OUT THE WRITINGS OF MY FRIEND REV. DR. JEFF HOOD HERE.
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