N.T. Wright is always a source of fresh thought provoking insight from scripture. In my reading today, I enjoyed some time with his thoughts on the subject of evil. Evil is one of the issues that Jesus requires that we deal with in the Lord's Prayer. "Deliver us from evil" is something that Jesus tells us we must pray. On that basis alone, it is something that we must address.
But what is evil? How do we respond to it when we see it? How conscious of it are we to be in our daily living? Is it something out there in others or is it in me as well? For some the answer of what it is or what we should do with it is obvious. Evil is a politician, (I can think of one that most people easily mark and vilify today!) or a political party, (Again, this is way too easy for most people!) or a boss, or management in general, or big business, or unions, or environmentalists, or...well I think you get the point. And what are we to do with these evil things? For some that answer is simple as well. We are to complain about them, bad-mouth them, or listen to our favorite talking head complain and bad-mouth them. Perhaps we even take things to the next level and encourage everyone to join our on-line group "I'm opposed to evil and hope you are too!" But is that what Jesus had in mind through his platform of prayer
It is interesting to note that we find ourselves in multiple camps when it comes to evil. We locate ourselves somewhere on an evil scale consisting of two extremes. One extreme states that evil is something to be ignored. If we ignore it, it goes away. After all, we have enough things to worry about without adding evil to the list. Simply accentuate the positive in people and in life and the result is a glass that is at least half full. The polar extreme, evil is everywhere and what evil we don't see yet is certainly being thought of by someone right now for later deployment. The glass here is seriously leaking with no hope for a refill. Demons exist everywhere and some of these demons even have human faces and names.
Anthropologically we see these themes expressed in the belief that man is basically good and humanity enjoys the possibility of improving things with the proper education, environment, and political agenda on the one hand and seeing humans as totally depraved or comprehensively corrupt with no chance for anything good apart from the cross of Jesus. Escatologically we see evil's extremes in those who believe we can build a better world or kingdom on the one hand and those who believe in Armageddon that is unavoidable on the other. Evil, and how we think about it is a most important ingredient in how we see humanity, history, and the future; and how we approach life and what we ultimately live for.
I believe that scripture presents to us four groups of people who all saw and dealth with evil in different ways. Jesus was well aware of each of these groups and their response to evil. In his message and mission he provided a response to them that is still appropriate to today. Evil is evil and has always been evil. It's remedy is timeless as well. I want to briefly discuss these groups and their approach to the subject of evil. I then want to explore Christ's approach to evil as well.
First of all we have the Sadducee's. These elitists among Israel's ranks were firmly entrenched in power through the Sanhedrin or Jewish Council. Evil existing as a moral or social condition was given minimal attention in their ranks. Evil existed primarily in the form of opposition their agenda; an agenda entrenched in political and social ties with Rome. In a strange twist of irony Jesus embodied evil, because he threatened their existence as players at the table of progress in the future of Israel. As Caiaphas rightly declared under this premise, "it is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish" they saw evil as an opponent of progress. For them, evil wasn't in the hearts of humans necessarily, certainly not in their own hearts, but rather in ideals defined by their agenda.
We next have the group known as the Essenes. This lessor known group withdrew from culture in order to live above the evil that everywhere existed. They noted evil's presence everywhere and countered it with a radical lifestyle of celibacy, communal ism, and practices of purification. Their call to holiness required their members to renounce most everything involved in normal living as evil in order to be pure and unstained in their life before God. All of life was defined by evil and demanded a strict code of behavior to rise above it. For them evil was everywhere, permeated everything, and only austerity could remedy its hold on life. Withdrawal and asceticism was the only appropriate way to combat the omnipresent forces of evil. Jesus embodied evil because he ate and drank with sinners earning the label "a glutton and winebibber".
The Pharisees represent a most highly recognizable response to evil. For them evil was associated with the masses in the form of uncleanness. Evil was a force that needed to be guarded against through laws and religion. Their outward preoccupation with evil became a analgesic numbing these devout practitioners from the reality of the inward presence of evil that was rooted in their hearts. For them evil was present in everyone who didn't practice the faith as they had developed it and was present in Jesus because he didn't honor the traditions of the elders. Building a system of rules and laws was the only solution to evil's threat. The real irony in their position was that Jesus was evil for healing a paralytic man. Why was he evil...because he happened to do it on the Sabbath in violation of one of their rules.
The final group was known as Zealots. Like their name suggests, they were permeated by a radically zealous approach to solving evil's existence. For them evil was embodied in Israel's enemies and the answer was the sword. Those who were not a part of Israel were the enemies of Israel and their presence was the very presence of evil itself. There could be no compromise, no co-existence, no partnership with those outside of Israel. The only remedy to evil's presence was eradication. Retribution, retaliation, militant action were all righteous actions whereby the evil would be exposed and dealt with in theocratic fashion. Peter's embracing the sword in Gethsemane was the picture-perfect solution to the problems that evil presented. The irony for this group was demonstrated by the utter evil represented in Jesus dying at the hands of Roman soldiers on a cross instead of leading the armies of God to unseat Roman rule.
And then there is Jesus. He didn't minimize evil, nor did it maximize it. He didn't order new laws to prevent it. Nor did he suggest a holy war to eliminate it. He didn't advocate withdrawal from society as a means to cope with it. Nor did he suggest that a social platform could build upon what was already in place in moving things forward from evil. To him, evil was beyond legal, political, military, or religious remedies. Evil could only be dealt with by coming into a head-on collision with the Kingdom. The reality and power of evil could only be solved by the reality and power of the God's Kingdom reigning in men's hearts. His call to repent and believe were the cornerstones of taking the fight to evil in eternal terms.
The Kingdom's call to generosity, trust, contentment, forgiveness, charity, and justice would powerfully oppose the inroads of greed, covetousness, anxiety, lust, revenge, anger, and lust. The forces of evil that result in poverty, enslavement, disrespect, injustice, abuse of power, and self absorption can only be nullified by the obedience of those whose lives are defined by the cross (where the power of all evil was met with convincing defeat). Jesus conquered evil by submitting to the cross. His suffering as the just for the unjust dealt a lethal blow to evil and the principalities and powers behind it. His resurrection sealed evil's fate forever in the second death.
We become the opposition force to evil's reign when we embrace the call to live as citizens of another Kingdom in the midst of a broken world. When we turn the other cheek, give water to the least of the brethren, remember the poor, forgive those who hurt us or spitefully use us, practice extravagant generosity, and live as servants we become God's response to evil. When we mourn, hunger, thirst, endure, suffer, and take up our crosses we declare that evil's space is limited in this world. When we bless instead of curse, give instead of take, forgive instead of retaliate, serve instead of demand, trust instead of control, obey instead of reason, and humble instead of exult ourselves we embrace the calling to be light and salt; both of which cripple evil's influence.
Someday in the future the Kingdom will be fully manifested and all evil will forever be dealt with. Death will be no more. The Tree of Life will use its leaves for the healing of nations. The lion will lay down with the lamb. Swords will be beaten into plowshares and the righteous will shine like lights. We can't make this happen with more laws, or with political alliances, or by retreating to our secluded bunkers prepared for Armageddon, or by a militancy that justifies war or the destruction of our enemies. Liberal and conservative politics both exchange romantic trysts with evil suitors. Bombing abortion clinics is more evil that the evil it tries to eradicate. Social engineering in order to build on the good already present in humans is a total denial of reality. Fundamentalism and its legalistic rules and scriptural literalism breed more evil in the form of intolerance and selfrighteousness than it ever thought about doing away with. Only Kingdom works. Only the cross behind the Kingdom shows us the way.
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