rich’s blog

Message: Assembling

Preface:
last week we talked about reaping and sowing, we looked at Haman, and looked on as he reaped in his own life the destruction that he’d been sowing in the life of the Jews, and especially Mordecai.  And we talked about the way we, as God’s people, are invited into a relationship with God that is one characterized, in the last analysis, by us reaping forgiveness and mercy that we just couldn’t sow apart from God’s help.

And we were reminded that we’re supposed to be forgivers, who help others not reap what they sow; but do what we can to minimize the negative consequences of people’s actions in the world.

Today we’re talking about different things: but pray with me.

Prayer:

Introduction:
Among the different things we’re talking about today is the question of how we bring the Bible into our lives.  We’ll consider what it means to be a Christian reader of this part of the book of Esther, and we’ll talk about enemies, death & murder, Holy War, Holy Spirit, Jesus…all in 30 minutes!  Woot!

I should say: I am sick; I know I sound a little pitiful, so just bear with me if you can, okay?

Another Look:
But let’s go ahead and take another look at the passage that was read to us.  I think this is a helpful thing to do.  It gives things one more chance to settle down into our hearts, you know?

Another Look: vv1-4
We continue in Esther; and we learn that the tables have turned, and the Jews have the upper hand.  They are gathered together to attack whoever attacks them; and every official, in every place where there are jews, which is everywhere, helps them out because they are scared of Mordecai; the most powerful man–after Xerxes–in the empire.  (Although, we’ve continued to see over and over that Xerxes just doesn’t wield all that much power, that really it is this “second in command” who is first.) But, we read:

“Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.”

So powerful, in fact, that every official will do whatever they can do to help his people; because they are scared of him.

Another Look: vv5-10
We’re told what happens when the jews gather to protect themselves, we read, “The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them.”  And then we learn the details of this.  500 killed in Susa; all of Haman’s sons cut down, too. No plunder is taken, though; although they could have taken stuff from the people they killed. The king is told about this, and calls Esther to him, and repeats what the jews have done in Susa, questions aloud what must have happened in the other provinces, and asks Esther–you get the sense its out of fear, almost–“Now what is your petition?  It’ll be given to you. What’s your request; you’ll get it.”

Another Look: vv11-14
And Esther asks that the Jews in Susa get to do it again the next day: and they do.  In reading, I was pointed to the fact that of course, on this second day there was no one gathered to attack the Jews; they were simply allowed to destroy the ones who hated them, and their women and children.  But again, they take no plunder.

This note about plunder is relevant; it highlights the way the jews are engaging in what’s called “Holy War,” a formalized way God’s people would take on those who stood in the way of God’s covenant purposes; it was something that happened often, very early in Israel’s existence.  And the Israelites were never to personally gain from Holy War–that is, take the spoils of war, take plunder.

But the jews have their second day: one scholar calls this “literally overkill.” (NIV AC 200) And Esther asks that Haman’s dead sons be impaled on stakes; and you’ve got to bet that helped spread that fear of Mordecai and his people, right?

It’s almost strategic, a warning: if not completely an act of vengeance.  And we see in this request of Esther a side of her that is frankly, dark.  Scholars have talked about how morally empty this second day is; and we aren’t given any explanation as to why Esther pursues this.  It’s been pointed out that, “Esther’s request is another instance of the disquieting moral ambiguity that characterizes this story.  Rather than attempting to resolve it, we should reflect on it.” (That’s a quote, really: niv ac 202.

We will reflect on it this morning.

Another Look: vv16-19
Oh, and we’re told the answer to the king’s question about what happens in the other provinces: 75,000 of the jews’ enemies were killed.  But the jews in the other provinces didn’t take the stuff of the people they killed, either.

The passage ends explaining a question we all would have if we were jews living in Persia a few years after this happened, which is “Why do the Jews in Susa remember this event, and celebrate it, on a different day than the Jews in the rest of Persia?”  Well, its because the Susa Jews got a second day to go for it, right?  They town Jews were assembling while the country Jews were celebrating.  So know we now. Extra day.

Sharing Time!
And I have got to share: the things we read about in the story of Esther today are troubling things for me.

This is only my perspective, right?  A perspective.  I find the violence troubling; and I know all the things we say about it, I’ve studied them, I’ve owned them: “It was a different time.”  “God worked in a different way through the typical cultural attitudes and understandings of the day.”  “God did the best he could with the sin-covered system and people he had.” “Holy War, in which God’s covenant interests and commitment to God’s covenant people was insured through the formalized annihilation of Israel’s enemies, was a standard practice, almost understandable for a number of reasons: the fact that the jews take no plunder highlights the Holy War context of these scenes.”  These are each true, in their measure.

And I also know that through and because of Jesus, God felt the pain that each one of these killed ones–men, women, and children–felt, that God knows the suffering of the murdered, and the terror of being alive in a system of sin and pain and hurt. Jesus knows every side of life.

But the killing of 75,000 people is hard for me. It’s just really hard for me.  I am tired of the cycle of death that makes up our world.  I read about it every day, you know: I guess there’s a part of me that just doesn’t want to have to read about it in the Bible, don’t want to see this leader of God’s people ask for the second day she asks for.

I just want Jesus to come back. Take away my cold.

This may be a personal weakness; but the stuff we read about today…it’s demoralizing to me.  Esther–one of God’s leaders–and her day two request saddens me.

Attacked?
And it is not even clear that these people who were killed actually attacked the Jews.  One author, Karen Jobes, writes that “Presumably the Persians who were killed had in fact attacked the Jews…If the Jews did attack their enemies indiscriminately,” (I’m quoting) “their actions exceeded the permission of the decree.”  (The decree that actually allowed the Jews to kill the women and children of their attackers, even if those women and children hadn’t tried to harm them.)

Karen Jobes doesn’t discuss what it might mean if they had “exceeded the permission of the decree,” though one scholar at least feels that it’s the author of Esther’s intent to show how easy it is for God’s people to be confused with those who aren’t God’s people, to become just like those who aren’t God’s people over time.

Importantly though, Jobes goes on to note that God never chose Jews because they were morally superior, but chose them on God’s own account, because of his covenant faithfulness to them. (niv ac 182-183)  This is something all over the Old Testament.

A Similar Situation:
We are in a similar situation: we were brought into relationship with God “while we were still enemies,” on account of God’s grace.  But here’s the rub: once we are God’s people–us, I’m not talking about the Jews in Persia, but Christians–once we are God’s people, we are called to be moral, right?

We spent months talking about Christian ethics, and I promoted character ethics as our standard: the idea that we are supposed to work toward having a consistent character in every situation: Jesus’ character, conform our lives to Jesus’ life, by doing what he said and did, and that this was the ethical call of Christianity.

We talked about having the Holy Spirit, and one another–and even in some way, Scripture–the Bible–as partners in our attempts to live out our conformity to Christ.

Bible:
But we have to ask ourselves: what do we do with the Bible.  Because we could easily say, “Vengeance killing is biblical, right?”  It is?  It’s here!  In Esther!  The people of God gathering to take out their enemies.

But how do we read this passage Christianly?  That is, as people who believe that the image of the invisible God who loves us is revealed in Jesus; that the concerns and attitudes of God who loves us are revealed in the concerns and attitudes of Jesus.  How do we read today’s passage as people who are supposed to, and empowered by God to, conform our lives to Jesus’ own?

Here’s my question: Is it ever reasonable to take the life of another human being?  As the people of God–I am speaking now of groups, of the Church, any church, any two or three gathered together–can we kill our enemies?  Can we kill people?

And some of our thoughts stream to war; some of our thoughts stream to abortion, some of our thoughts stream to the death penalty: but the passage we read today was one discussing enemies, “those who hate” the Jews in the Persian Empire, and we should, probably, pace with this.

Can we kill our enemies?
So. Can we kill our enemies, people of God? Those who hate us? And this has two parts, really: Killing, the taking of life: and Enemies; those who hate us.

A Place To Begin:
Karen Jobes writes that “The death of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, provides the only basis for the cessation of holy war, and the in filling of the Holy Spirit provides the only power by which one may love one’s enemies as oneself.” (NIV Application Commentary: Esther,184).

Why don’t we let this quote be our beginning place: but keep in mind the question, “Can we kill our enemies?  Is it ever appropriate for Christians to kill those who hate them?”

“Enemies,” Love, Spirit:
The quote we looked at noted that “the in filling of the Holy Spirit provides the only power by which one may love one’s enemies as oneself.”

Basic Christian Info Warning: We have the Holy Spirit of God inside us.  The power of God that comforts us, counsels us, reminds us of Jesus’ life and teachings, encourages us to be faithful and loving, and enables us to become like Jesus, and even do things greater than Jesus did, we’re told.  We talked about the Spirit last week during our Christian Ed. time, and we sort of acknowledged that for most of us who were there in the room, we have pretty good theologies about God the father, God the son, but God the Spirit is sort of weird, a lot harder for us to talk about.

Our Philosophy of Ministry declares that “without the Holy Spirit, our efforts are exhaustible and limited.”  Karen Jobes says that it is only because we have the Spirit filling us up, that we can love…love…our enemies.  And the Apostle Paul says that the Holy Spirit is our down payment from God that promises we’ll end up on the other side of death living lives in a world where death is absent.

But Paul says other things, too.  He reminds us, for example, that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (eph 6:12)

We’ve talked in the past how these antagonistic, evil spiritual beings have been kicked out of the universe by our mutual landlord, God: but they are still angry at their eviction.  And so they stick potatoes in our tailpipe, and soap our windows, and do worse: but we do not have to fear them because the landlord of the universe, who loves us, has ensured that they can’t force our eviction from the world.  And we know that the–how far can i stretch this metaphor–that the property manager, Jesus, will come back and kick them out entirely, totally empty their apartment and let us spread out in the space.

In the meantime, we work with God to keep these enemies, these evicted tenants, from hurting us and hurting the people around us, people who live in the world, the apartment building, with us.

Our enemies are not our neighbors in the apartment next door–not other people–whether those people be liberals, conservatives, red or white or brown, young or old, muslim or jewish–but they are the supernatural beings who have been evicted and are angry about it, and sometimes manipulate people to teepee the place or ring our doorbells and run away, or worse.

So.  I’ll turn in my “free pass” to overuse a metaphor in a sermon, okay? Never again. Maybe.

Our enemies are not people; we cannot confuse them with people, even though it’s so normal and easy to do, even when our enemies manipulate people to their evil, antagonistic ends.  Jesus died for people, because he loves them, and us: and the Spirit that we’ve been given enables us to love, too, and in fact, it is love that turns enemies into neighbors, into brothers and sisters, when we love them as ourselves.  Because of course, while we were still enemies of God, God showed his love to us.

Death, Jesus, Holy War:
Now again, that quote we looked at noted that “the death of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, provides the only basis for the cessation of Holy War.”

Our model is Jesus, right? Whose sword is the words of his mouth, in revelation, who sounds like a roaring lion, but when we see him, he’s a filleted lamb, butchered in his own selfless sacrifice on behalf of those who he loves, who love him, who were once those who hated him, Jesus who could have called down legions of angels in self-protection at his betrayal, but instead, allowed himself to be killed, who counseled that if slapped, we offer our other cheek to a person, at whose birth angels announced “peace on earth and goodwill to all people.”

This is the Messiah who has promised us life in a world in which lion lies down with lamb, eats hay, people beat swords into plowshares, and murderers, along with others, stay outside the gates.  Jesus who says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets,” and elsewhere, “Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength: and love your neighbor as yourself.”  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?”

We Christians, of course, are supposed to be doing more than others. We are supposed to be unlike others in, especially, how deeply we love people.  We do not take an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth; but are to be merciful, so that we might receive mercy, are to be pure in heart, so that we might see God, are to be peacemakers, that we might be called God’s children; children of a God who desires peace.  These are all things that Jesus does, and things that are true of him, of course, too.

And we could nuance and qualify these things to death: but we’re left with this idea that In Jesus’ self-chosen, sacrificial death on our behalf, killing as an answer to our problems, retributional justice–meaning, the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” sort of justice–it ended.  Jesus was the last scapegoat; the one who ended Holy War by taking its effects and its violence into himself, and suffering Holy War upon himself, dying and diffusing it out into creation.

Those of us who have been filled with the same Spirit Jesus was filled with rewire a bomb he has diffused when we promote death, when we murder those he died for, I think.  It just doesn’t seem like Christians can kill people that seem to be their enemies.

For two reasons: people are not our enemies; and we are not to be a violent, “tooth for tooth” people. I think, anyway: but I’m not the only one here with the Spirit.

Confessions of an Idealist:
And I need to confess, that I don’t know how to live out these sort of conclusions all the time.  There are things that we can learn, that I am learning, that do help, though.

I am learning to remember, and to remind myself, that my enemies are not people; are not flesh and blood.  And the tools that I fight them with are not human tools, or human arms.  We need to remember this, you know?

I am discovering more and more that the annihilation of enemies isn’t the only option facing people, not since Jesus died.  Holy War ended; and if Jews & Gentiles can be brought together–Mordecai’s great great grandkids and Xerxes great great grandkids–than maybe any two people can be brought together.  The church has built Spirit-filled ministries of reconciliation that have brought together those who hate each other; and we should explore these things.

Along with this, though, I know that I have thought about these things more than some of us, and less than others of us, and differently–very differently–than some of us.  My framework for understanding the question “Can christians kill their enemies” is based on being like Jesus, and adapting in this life habits that will be normal in the world to come.

Some of us may consider these questions from a different theological, bible-based framework. But we all need to be people who come together to share our convictions about death, murder, enemies, the Spirit, so that we might, together, become a people who looks more like Jesus.  Even if we disagree a lot about some things.

So I end with my confession that I am still in process on this one, still thinking these things through…but I also want to urge us to consider these topics.  To think critically about them, pray through them with our Bibles and friends before us.  Who is an enemy?  When can we Christians kill another person?  How can we be people who navigate moral issues–like inviting the death of those who hate us–really well, and in a way that’s thoughtful, Spirit-filled, and pleasing to God.

Prayer:

Father.  Help us to remember that our enemies are not people.  Help us to love people as you do–even when it is hard, or when people drive us crazy. Help all of us to consider questions of death and life and murder theologically, biblically, and let us of all people, be people who can talk about difficult things with one another, and resist any urge to see one another as our enemies.  Fill us with your Spirit, and thank you for your salvation.  In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.