My good friend and pastoral colleague, Pastor Mike Miller, asked me to read through his most recent column for his local newspaper. I found it to be both respectful and thought provoking. I encourage you to read it and consider the questions he poses for those who claim the name of Jesus.
It feels like every week presents our society with a new national debate over issues of basic human morality and decency and last week was no exception. Unfortunately, as often happens, the Bible gets dragged into these kinds of discussions and butchered by almost everyone on all sides as folks try to prove their own preconceived biases. The truth ends up on the proverbial ‘cutting room floor’ either because it is more complicated than we would want it to be, or because it doesn’t lend itself well to the battle lines we have already drawn.
This time, the argument is not only over the morality of capital punishment, but specifically with the inherent rightness or wrongness of making the act of state-sponsored death penalties available for public consumption.
Leaving aside the question of whether or not capital punishment fits a Christian moral ethic, I feel we must confront the second question, as it reveals our hearts far more accurately than our opinion on the first. The first question is, I believe, more debatable as the Bible does, at times, speak of capital punishment. Of course, everything belongs in its context and that is where the debate may take place. Yes, the New Testament does tell us that the government has the power to wield the sword in order to gain or maintain societal order or compliance. What it does not say is whether or not it should exercise that power. The fact that the government of the day was Nero, who used that power to execute Christians as enemies of the state would seem to suggest that it may not have been a completely moral use of authority.
Should Christians desire to watch or celebrate the death of this prisoner?
To be clear, the crime committed was heinous. The criminal, whose name does not even warrant the ink it would take to print it, has been judged guilty by a jury of his peers and sentenced to die accordingly. His sentence is both earned and lawful. It is just. However, I think the second question is less debatable. Namely, should Christians desire to watch or celebrate the death of this prisoner?
Here is what Scripture says about God’s character toward those who commit evil deeds. Ezekiel 18:23 says, “‘Do I take pleasure in the death of the wicked?’ declares the Sovereign Lord. ‘Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?’” And Ezekiel 18:32 says, “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord. Repent and live!” This is the same God, by the way, who prescribed death as the punishment for certain sins committed among His people, the Israelites. So, on the one hand, there are times where He acknowledges the severity of a crime with the ultimate consequence, but on the other hand He does not enjoy it. There’s no sense in which God glorifies death as the answer to our sin problem.
The issue is not whether execution in this case is right. It is our attitude toward it.
The issue is not whether execution in this case is right. It is our attitude toward it. In ancient Rome, Christians and other criminals were put to death in the public view in gladiator matches for the entertainment of the masses. Have we turned back to that form of worldly morality, or can we agree with the only Righteous God Almighty, who mourns death, even when it is just? Can we find our humanity and declare that some things just represent a line we are not willing to cross? Or are we just seeking, with our rabid and bloodthirsty flesh for the next worst thing to entertain us?
