God Retaliates

Yesterday, I finished watching the 1977 TV mini-series 'Jesus of Nazareth' [1], directed by Franco Zefirelli. I had started watching the first of four parts sometime in December before Christmas, and watched it in installments since then. It brought back a lot of memories of childhood; if I remember correctly, I'd first watched it sometime before the age of 10. Perhaps for that sentimental reason, it will remain in my opinion the best depiction of the gospel narrative on film, although there are other reasons as to why I believe it to be so. But more than these, it brought to mind some thoughts I'd had during an informal bible study with friends at Campus for Christ's Western Winter Conference in Vancouver during the last week of 2009.

At one point in the study, we were looking at the passage of Matthew 6 : 38-42, and thinking about the practical implications of Christ's famous instruction to 'turn the other cheek' and other things concerning retaliation in this passage. What did it mean for everyday life and situations in occasions where others had wronged us, physically or otherwise? Though I don't think I contributed anything much to the discussion at the time and mostly listened to what others had to say, some thoughts did occur to me later on, and were evoked again yesterday.

This little section occurs in the context of the greatest sermon ever preached, The Sermon on the Mount. Following His teaching on oaths and prior to His instruction on giving to those who are in need, Jesus speaks a few sentences on retaliation that have created tremendous controversy in their interpretation, as with everything else that He said and did. As I glanced over Matthew's recording of Jesus' flow of thought in the sections preceding and succeeding this little section, there seemed to be a most interesting pattern emerging.

As Christ speaks on how He has come to fulfil, not abolish the Law, He concludes with the sentence "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 6 : 17-20, ESV). He then launches into a series of thoughts on anger, lust, divorce, oaths and finally retaliation and the treatment of one's enemies, each marked with a variation of the phrase 'You have heard that it was said...' With each section that He addresses, He raises the standard of conduct to a seemingly impossible level. It seemed interesting to me that He should conclude these with the matter of violence, retaliation and responding to one's enemies. Might there be a reason for that? If so, what could it be?

Christ begins His sequence of thoughts in Matthew 6 : 38-42 with a reference to the statements of the Mosaic Law in Ex. 21:24, Lev. 24:20 and Deut 19:21. As He then raises the bar, He speaks of a retaliation to the perpetration of physical violence, confiscation of clothing and the forced bearing of someone else's burden for more than the required distance. Though He could have used any other series of illustrations, I found it extremely significant that He selects these in particular. It suddenly occured to me that the specific actions that Christ was listing were mirrored exactly in the same order in His passion and crucifixion; His whipping and beating (Matt. 26:67-68, 27:26, Mark 14:65, 15:15, Luke 22:63-64, John 18:22), the confiscation of His clothes (Matt. 27:28, Mark 15:17, John 19:2) and the forced carrying of His cross to Calvary (Matt. 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26, John 19:17). In addition, Jesus' instruction of loving one's enemies in the following verses (Matt. 6:43-45) are also exactly mirrored in sequence on the cross, as he prays "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34).

As I continued to reflect on this incredible correlation, I came back to the matter of why Christ might have intentionally ended with retaliation to violence and loving one's enemies. Within the massive spectrum of edicts beginning with 'You shall not...' that could be issued by God or anyone else, I think the denial of retaliating in kind to the violation or desecration of one's body, possessions or rights by someone else is the hardest to comprehend, let alone live out. I can imagine the incredulousness, if not anger, building up in those hearing these words, for Jersualem and all Israel was under the domination of Roman rule at the time. One could somehow stomach the decree of an impossibly high standard of conduct on every other issue - their anger; lust; greed; pride; divorcing a spouse they bitterly regret having married; the words itching to come off their tounge. This however, seems too much to bear. Someone has violated my body and inflicted some manner of indignity upon it; something precious to me has been taken away or destroyed; my rights have been violated by an imposition demanding that I do something, for someone I have no desire to serve. Millenia later, those words and their implications fly in the face of all reason and emotion; one's immediate instinct is to jump up, shake one's fist at God and shout 'How dare You say such a thing!'

And yet, of all the beings in existence, does God not have the most reason and highest prerogative to retaliate? He who abhors any form of evil, should He not conduct a massive slaughter on a spectrum from individuals to entire nations for all that they perpetrate upon one another? As expressed by Robert Burns, 'Man's inhumanity to man'[2] is one of the most verifiable features of our existence. In saying these words, Christ set the bar to such an impossible height that the only one who could even dare to attempt to meet it was Himself. He essentially issued a prophecy pointing to His cross as the real-life demonstration of this command. In the manner of a true leader, He led from the front and not from behind a desk, by being the first down the road in carrying out His own order. And in the counterperspective of Jesus Christ, God retaliates in a form that defies any and all human thinking; in a shocking turning of the tables, He releases in one mighty deluge the full fury of His anger and disgust for all of mankind's violations upon ...Himself.

It is no wonder then, that the Bible is authoritative in describing the power of the cross in its destruction of sin, Satan, death and their hold over everything in this world. As Paul wrote in his epistle to the Colossians:

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him." (Colossians 2 : 13-15, ESV)

REFERENCES:

[1] Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
[2] Man's Inhumanity to Man

Where is home?

Some time ago, I was at a weekly meeting held by C4C at UBC, at which the topic of discussion was about 'home'. During the course of the discussion in small groups, two very thought-provoking questions that were raised were the 'what' and 'where' of home - what is home? where exactly is it? Many people in my group talked about how home was with their parents and family, or a familiar environment, where their heart was most comfortable and at peace.

As these ideas and feelings were expressed, I reflected upon my own life and situation, asking the question "What about my state of affairs? Where is home for me?" Although I grew up in a home made by loving and caring parents whom I love intensely, I have effectively been away from home for 10 years now, having left home in '99 when I began my undergraduate degree. Since then, I have effectively lived in seven cities in four countries over the past decade and moved myself and my limited possessions very frequently. Home was wherever I would return to at the end of the day, in the particular city and country that I have lived in during my travels. I saw my parents and sister roughly once every year over the last decade, usually when on vacation from university or during a short stopover in the city they were residing in, while on my way to somewhere else. As the discussion progressed, I thought about how this lifestyle over the past decade has also impacted many of my habits, particularly over the past three years. I had not bought any furniture, deeming it too difficult and cumbersome to deal with when uprooting myself to move. My suitcases became my clothes drawers, and I did not unpack and hang up my clothes until the summer of last year; when I did so for the first time, it seemed almost alien to see them hanging in the built-in closet of my room. I had lived on the simplest level possible, sleeping on the floor in a comforter and without a pillow, only acquiring a bed two years ago after moving to the apartment that I reside in now. Since that time, God has blessed me with a wonderful living environment, repeatedly doing so through other people. All of it has beyond any expectation I have ever had.

Although it was initially interesting as God moved me from east to west, back east and now back to the west for the past few years, I began to feel sick of this modern-day nomadic life over the last year or two. Packing everything I own, moving, unpacking and settling in only to repeat the cycle began to feel sickening, especially as I began to consider the prospect that I might be called to do it once again in the near future. There comes a time in one's life when the heart begins to yearn for a place it can put roots down into and call 'home' with some degree of permanence, somewhere it can look forward to returning to, even if it were to travel elsewhere. I began to feel this ache about three and a half years ago, though it had subsided temporarily in between, only to return once again as I approach the end of my Master's degree and possibly my entire time in academia.

"Where and what is home for me?" Sitting in that small group at C4C @ UBC's weekly meeting and searching for some insight into the matter, a fascinating train of thought began to emerge from my rumination. It began with the recollection of the song 'All I Ever Wanted' from the animated movie 'The Prince of Egypt', depicting the life of Moses. Moses has discovered that he is actually the son of a Hebrew slave, rescued as a baby from a proclaimed infanticide of Hebrew children by the Pharaoh he addresses as 'Father'. Attempting to supress the truth and convince himself otherwise, he sings the following lyrics:

"This is my home
With my father, mother, brother
Oh so noble, oh so strong
Now I am home
Here among my trappings and belongings
I belong
And if anybody doubts it
They couldn't be more wrong

I am a sovereign prince of Egypt
A son of the proud history that's shown
Etched on ev'ry wall
Surely this is all I ever wanted..."

Affirming him in his denial of reality, his 'mother' the Queen joins the song and reinforces what he has believed thus far:

"This is your home, my son
Here the river brought you
And it's here the river meant
To be your home
Now you know the truth, love
Now forget and be content
When the gods send you a blessing
You don't ask why it was sent..."

Moses believed that the truth of what he had seen and taught to call 'home' was indubitable. Reading His story in the book of Genesis, God eventually had to strip away everything he thought was 'home' and show him that his identity as a prince and member of the royal Egyptian house was an illusion. Moses never really had a permanent place he could call 'home' after that. The rest of His life after this rude awakening was spent on one massive journey of wandering with God - exile into Midian; the return to Egypt to free his people and 40 years of wandering the wilderness, following a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In effect, Moses' (and indeed, all Israel's) home became wherever the presence of God went; pitching tent and tabernacle wherever His presence stopped, breaking camp and resuming their meandering as God began to move on.

My state of globetrotting has not been too different from that of Moses on his journey with God, the only difference being that I have no illusion of the wonderful home and family that I have been born into. I was struck by the idea that home, then is not a place with parents and family; home is being in the presence of my Heavenly Father and following Him whenever and wherever He summons me to. Without Him, neither I or anyone else has a home; we would repeat the words of Cain as he echoed the curse that God had laid on him for murdering his brother: "...from Your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth..." (Genesis 4:14, ESV). Indeed, without Him we are reduced to more than fugitives and wanderers, for if home and heaven are found in His presence, it is not homelessness, but hell in His absence. 'Home is where the heart is' is reduced to an empty statement if the heart does not find itself following the beckoning of Him that fashioned it to yearn for His presence.

As I reflected on this idea, the words of Christ to His disciples at the Last Supper suddenly presented themselves to me:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am you may be also." (John 14: 1-3, ESV)

What a difference presented by the comforting counterperspective of Christ to all that the world calls 'home'! I can almost hear a pleading tone that enters His voice as He says the words "if it were not so, would I have told you...?". Jesus makes a spectacular pronouncement in these sentences which he only reinforces a little while later with the words "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18). There was a tremendous silence and emotion that entered my heart as my mind connected the implications of the story of Moses and the comforting words of Christ. Thousands of years apart, yet both addressing the yearning of one's heart for 'home, sweet home'.

Moses tells me that all that this world calls house and home are but illusions without the presence of God; Jesus affirms this with His very first statement to His disciples in John 1 : 35 - 39, "Come and see". Moses by his life testifies that 'home' for the believer becomes following God's summoning; Jesus reinforces this as He called those who listened to Him with the words, "Follow me" and "Come unto me". Moses' dwelling was a symbol of the fleeting nature of this temporal life - a tent. Paul resonated with him thousands of years later in 2 Corinthians 5 : 1- 5. Jesus asks me to trust that He desires me to be with Him forever. in fact, He desires this so much that He is preparing one room of all those in His Father's house for me, just for me. And once He is done, He will personally come and take me there. For He knows that His own home is in the presence of the Father, and I will not truly be at home until I am in His presence as well.

On that great day as the Father stands at Heaven's gates with His Son, welcoming all His children to the place that He has lovingly prepared for them, it will truly be "home, sweet home".

- The Wisdom Seeker

To Hold Someone's Heart

   Over lunch with some friends a few days ago, one of us observed that human beings seemed to be almost infinite in their capacity and variety to hurt one another. As I pondered this statement for some time, my mind was drawn to the power wielded by our words, particularly in the context of our relationships with those who are or may become nearest and dearest to us.

   When someone voices words of kindness or affection to us, they are essentially asking us to trust that their words reflect their inward intent towards us. They ask us to believe that their words are true, without any hint of guile. And indeed, at this point we must pause and ask ourselves, what does it mean for one's words to be "true"? The answer necessitates the involvement of the definition of truth - "that which describes things as they really are". Thus, with words of kindness and love, they ask us to believe that those words describe the intent of their inmost spirit towards us as it really is. And in doing so, whether either person realizes it or not, the consequences become serious; for we trust them with that which is most precious and sensitive - our hearts.

   Modern culture and media most commonly uses the term 'heart' in connection with one's emotions and feelings, among other things. In this context, the promulgation of myth and the potential for abuse is enormous; I am reminded of the saying that "nothing is as widely believed as that which is least understood". What does it truly mean to ask for someone's heart, and in winning their trust, to take their heart into our hands? And, on the flip side of the coin, what does it mean to give our hearts into the hands of the one who asks for it?

   While looking up the meaning of the word 'heart' in many languages, I found the most insight provided in the ancient Hebrew, which uses the word 'lev' [1]. While the ancient Hebrews viewed the heart as the centre of emotion, they also understood it to be the centre of thought; there was no dichotomy with the mind residing in the brain and emotions ascribed to the heart. Instead, the 'heart' was perceived to be the centre of one's being, holding all thoughts, both of the mind as well as emotion. For them, it was the very locus of all of one's being.

   If this is indeed the perspective of the Bible, then the implications of being entrusted with someone's heart are very serious indeed. For when we trust someone with our heart, we give them that which encompasses our most fragile sensitivities, thoughts and emotions - all that defines us and makes us vulnerable. The phrase "my heart in your hands" takes on a very literal meaning indeed; it is like cupping water in one's hands. If you've never tried doing that, I suggest you try it now. In the light of this analogy, the words 'love' and 'commitment' take on new and serious dimensions - the one who loves appreciates the fragility of that which he/she holds in their hands and is committed to keeping their hands together, otherwise the other's heart will fall and shatter, or be spilt on the ground.

   Without this understanding, the phrase 'I love you', perhaps the most used and abused phrase known to mankind, becomes a horrific instrument of destruction. How awful to say such a thing without meaning it, to convince another of one's love and take their heart into one's hands, only to open those hands when one is no longer interested! How terrible is the one who voices words of love and commitment to another, only to discard them when someone else comes along! How selfish to play with another's spirit for one's own mental and emotional gratification, and then spill that heart on the ground without regard! It is perhaps one of the worst acts that one human being can perpetrate upon another, to violate another person in such manner. For as bad as it is in which one violates another's body, even worse is that which violates another's soul. Thus, betrayal of any form becomes the act of those who do not comprehend what it means to hold another's heart in their hands.

   Having said all this, what about the happiness of those who do understand these truths, and is there anyone into whose hands we can place our hearts? For when properly understood, giving one's 'heart' into another's hands and holding their 'heart' in ours is possibly one of the greatest privileges of the human existence. I will probably pen my thoughts on this matter in the coming posts. Until then, have a good week and God bless!

- The Wisdom Seeker

[1] Ancient Hebrew Word Meanings: Heart ~ lev