A Requiem for the Dead Violence has a “chokehold” on our culture, and none of us can breathe. The cold-blooded murder of two minority race New York police officers (one Asian and the other Hispanic) as they sat in their squad car in traffic simply reveals the devastating irony of it all. In response to these murders the tone of some of those who rightfully and peacefully protest knee-jerk lethal force on the part of police nonetheless suggests that the protestors see these murders as simply anticipated collateral damage in a movement that must press on despite the tragedy. This is what happens when the perceived importance of the “cause” exceeds the need for a moment of heart-wrenching inner contemplation, when being “right” overshadows being broken and humble, when the word “justice” is drained of its restorative meaning and becomes instead a longing for vengeance, when ideology trumps humanity. “Who will deliver me from this body of death,” cries out the Apostle Paul in desperation. “Thanks be to God for the Lord Jesus Christ,” he concludes. And he so concludes for two very important reasons. The first has to do with the way Jesus died. We say that Jesus died for our sins, but what does that mean? It means that he absorbed violence but did not return it. One might say that he could not because he was nailed to a cross. But it is obvious that his heart was pure as well, untarnished by even a spot of hatred for his executioners, which include you and me. In response to the pain and shame that was poured out upon him from socially “righteous” people, he returned only love and forgiveness. He spoke no words of accusation nor condemnation, such that even a hardened “criminal” who was dying with him and a hardened Roman “cop” standing at the base of his cross publically recognized his innocence and his godliness. In that moment, criminal and cop were reconciled, because, as the Apostle asserts, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The second reason has to do with the way Jesus has lived since he conquered death by rising from the grave. Paul points out that, for those who believe, “hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” The Holy Spirit, who is the very Spirit of the risen Jesus, is the power to live like Jesus, absorbing violence, and returning love. This is the true meaning of peacemaking and it transcends ideology, cause, self-righteousness, all deceptions of the heart that enable us to promote violence or ignore or diminish its impact in the name of peace. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” claims Paul, “but…against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.” Only by Christ’s ever present and living Spirit can we be empowered and humbled to do the work of real reconciliation on earth. Christ did not call us to a cause, but to himself. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” May our hearts be truly broken by the fallen on both sides of the line. May we waste no more of Christ’s blood by the continued spilling of our own. Arnie Gentile
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 17:53:52 +0000
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