Caroline's Blog

Hell

Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else in the bible....or did he?

The word "hell" occurs 15 times in my NIV bible , 13 of those times in Jesus' sermons. Jesus' audience, first century Jews, did not have the same concept of hell - a hellish place of fire and brimstone, eternal damnation and eternal conscious punishment - as we do. They believed that people went to Gehenna when they died and there their souls are purged and purified before they enter heaven. Gehenna is the word Jesus used and the word that got translated as "hell" in our bibles.

My pastor once told us of the time his 9 year old son went to camp. After one week, they got back a dirt encrusted stranger. They ran a hot bath and scrubbed and washed and scrubbed and washed until something recognizable emerged. "Ah, there you are my son!" he exclaimed.

Now that I know Judaism does not have a concept of hell and other places of eternal damnation, I can picture a different ending for the people who bloated up and died of snake venom near Edom or who puked their guts out and died while eating quail at Kibroth Hattaavah.

I think they all ended up in Gehenna where the LORD tossed them into hot steam rooms until they started to sweat toxins. Then He thrashed them thoroughly with hyssop and birch branches and steamed them even some more. Then He pushed up His sleeves and pounded and kneaded, stretched and folded them into artistic pretzel and origami shapes to loosen them up. Then He slapped them face down on thin mats and commanded His angels to walk all over them. Many a hardened sinner has turned white as a ghost and muttered, "Oh dear G_d"  when they saw the size of the angel coming purposefully toward them.

God would walk around, supervising and nodding approval and has been known to pounce on an unsuspecting sinner, wrenching his neck around and cracking 15 or 16 vertebrae into position and moving on before the victim can let out a scream. Meanwhile, his angel would continue to walk up and down nonchalantly as if this was a very common occurrence.

Then the sinners are tossed into vats of hot water and long, drawn out groans would echo around the room. Aaaaahhhhhh!!! Ooooooohhhhh!! and Ooooooooooo. They would alternate between soaking limply and blasting through energetic wash-and-spin cycles which involved all sorts of detergents, soaps and shampoos. The light-hearted work songs of the angels running the water and soap systems added to the surrealness of the whole experience.

Finally, God dips them in a cool water rinse, flips them inside out, wrings out their innards, snaps them right way up with a practiced flick of His wrists and stands them on their feet. And then He says with absolute delight, "Ah, there you are, my children!"

son of perdition

perdition: a state of punishment which goes on forever, suffered by evil people after death; damnation; hell

Jesus, when he was praying to his Father said, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled." [John 17:12, KJV]

The son of perdition he was referring to is Judas, a name that now means "traitor". People naturally assign Judas to hell and most feel that is his proper place. But some are bothered by the other part of the verse that says he was destined from before his birth to betray Jesus.

Judas Isacariot, son of Simon, was a zealot, a member of a political movement in Jesus' day. In between the Old Testament and the New Testament, Israel ended up under Roman rule until Judas Maccabaeus led a successful rebellion and they were independent for nearly 100 glorious years. Hanukkah celebrates one of the miracles from that time when the oil supply in the temple did not run out and the flame kept burning. In those days, you could be proud to be a Jew, an Israelite, a chosen people, a tiny nation who stood up to the Roman Empire.

By the time Judas was born, they were back under Roman rule, hating it and longing for the days of King David, the days of Judas Maccabaeus. Some of the zealots became known as "sicarii" or dagger-men (aka assassins) and because Judas is called Isacariot, he was probably one of them. They fought for independence by stealthily stabbing Romans and Roman sympathizers in crowded places. They saw themselves as freedom fighters. Rome called them terrorists and crucified any they caught.

One day Judas Iscariot encountered a rabbi who said, "Follow me!" and that rabbi was Jesus.

Judas followed for three years and listened to Jesus talk about the coming kingdom of God with a glowing heart. He saw Jesus heal people, cast out demons and raise the dead!! He knew he was in the company of the long awaited Messiah. They traveled up and down Israel and he saw thousands beg Jesus to be their king.

But Jesus always refused. Often just when the crowd reached a hysterical pitch of excitement and it looks like things were gonna happen, Jesus would...fade into the woodwork, disappear, drop out of sight. And Judas had to wait another day.

Every spring, Jews from all over the world come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. At that time, the city of David become a seething mass of people gathered to remember the glorious day when the Angel of Death killed all the Egyptian first born males but "passover"ed the Jews, the glorious day when Moses told Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" To the Romans, it was a nightmare of crowd control.

One Passover, Jesus came to Jerusalem in the same way an Israelite king would in the days of David, riding on a donkey. The people filled the streets, waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!" ("Save!") "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!"  "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest!" Judas walked behind with tears in his eyes and his heart bursting with pride and excitement. This is it!

Then Jesus went to the temple and drove out the people who changed Roman coins into Jewish shekels and gouged the Jews in the process. This is it!

Then they gathered in an upper room for the Passover meal and Jesus started talking about serving others and loving one another and...that he was going away; they will be sad but not for long. This is NOT it.

The bible says Satan entered Judas at the feast and he got up from his spot beside Jesus and betrayed him. He sold Jesus to the authorities for 30 pieces of silver  and betrayed him with a kiss in a garden as pretty and peaceful as Eden. Then he watched.

He watched as Jesus went quietly like a lamb to the butcher's block to be mocked, beaten and crucified. He watched his friends flee the scene. He waited for the people to rise up and revolt. Instead, they who shouted "Hosanna!" yesterday now shouted, "Crucify him!" He watched his dream die and he too died. He had betrayed an innocent man.

He returned the money and he hung himself. Prophecy fulfilled.

But I don't think Judas is rotting in hell. A better rendition of what Jesus said is "While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled." meaning Satan was all out to kill Jesus and his disciples but all the disciples, except Judas, will survive that horrific night.

On the cross, Jesus said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." He said it for the Roman soldiers who were executing him, for the nation of Israel who had rejected him, for his disciples who had abandoned him, for the thief beside him who died believing and for the other thief beside him who died cursing. And he said it for Judas.

Judas: zealot, sicarii, friend, betrayer, human. It was for such a person as he that God came in person to save. Judas is one of us.

for Adam
The morning after Palm Sunday, 2005

son of perdition con't

Simon Peter also betrayed Jesus that night when he denied him three times. He had sworn earlier that evening that he would never, ever disown him. Other people might turn chicken and flee but not he! He would rather die first. He will be the one to go down fighting by Jesus' side.

Like Judas, he didn't realize what he was doing as he was doing it. Like Judas, he realized what he had done after he did it and was absolutely devastated. The gospels said he wept bitterly. The only difference between Peter and Judas is that Peter didn't kill himself. He lived to see a new morning. He saw the empty tomb. He saw Jesus alive again. He received forgiveness, blessing and a new life.

On the night of betrayals, Jesus told him, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

In the midst of our failure and shattered dreams, Jesus also says to us: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

eternal punishment and eternal life

There is a parable of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46 that is problematic for a lot of Christians.

Non Christians have no problems with this parable because it seems obvious that good people, regardless of religious affiliation, will go to heaven and bad people will go to hell. In fact, this parable is rather comforting because Jesus is saying it's the little acts of kindness that we're all capable of doing that gets us into his good grace, not the heroic 'walk on glass and get burnt at the stake' martyrdom stuff of saints. You don't have to be Mother Theresa or the Pope to get in; you could help out at the food bank.

The problem Evangelical Christians have with this parable is because we believe we're saved by grace through faith alone. It is Martin Luther's battle cry sola fide - faith alone. I have a problem with this parable because I don't believe in eternal damnation.

The key to this parable is found in the epistle 1 John, particularly the verse 1 John 1:2. "The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us."

Eternal life is Jesus Christ. It is the incarnation. It is us in Him and He in us. If we do good, we get Him as our reward. Being kind and loving to someone is practicing His presence. Being cruel means not getting him or getting the other guy which counts as the opposite concept, eternal punishment. Eternal life begins right now with our next act of lovingkindness.

This is because God is Love and Love gives. God gave us everything He had: His Son to show us who He is; His Spirit to guide and comfort us; and Himself to love and father us. We are all His children.

Both Paul and Jesus said that if we loved God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and if we loved our neighbour as ourselves, we fulfill all the commandments. The odd thing I've found when teaching people this concept is that some believe that loving God means hating certain people like Muslims or homosexuals. To my consternation, I found that I could not convince them that we love God by loving others and we love others by loving God. In the end, I had to drop God from the equation and say, "When caught in a moral dilemma, do the most loving thing for the people involved." I hope someday I can put God back in but I'll have to change who people believe God is and that is a herculean task.

Just in case that sounds like a cop out (which it is, by the way)....

A friend introduced me to a group who believes God is angry all the time against sinners. (Thanks Lance) The surprise is they are more gracious and loving than their God. But they believe loving God means hating those He (or so they believe) hates and their hate is unleavened by mercy or grace because they believe God is unrelenting in His judgment. They were the ones who got me thinking about Matthew 25 because they threw it to me along with other biblical passages, all in the Authorized King James Version, which had double the references to hell than my bible. So I do owe them thanks for this post.

"Luke, don't give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side." Obi-Wan Kenobi

Love's Wrath II

"When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God."
2 Samuel 6:6-7

This story is one of the most difficult for all of us who believe God is Love. The usual explanations are:
a) Uzzah ought to have known better because the bible says the ark can only be carried on poles by Levites. It should not have been on an ox cart in the first place.
b) Uzzah's act was irreverent and it defiled God's holiness. He had to die so that the Israelites will continue to show proper respect for the ark.

I have problems with either explanation. The Lord did not strike dead the people who picked up the ark at Uzzah's home and placed it on the cart. He didn't strike dead the Philistines who captured it in the first place and moved it from place to place. They did suffer for having the ark in their midst but the people who carried it did not die instantly or the ark could not have toured the Philistine cities. He didn't strike dead the Israelites who brought the ark to battle which began this whole episode even though God did not sanction this irreverent act.

Uzzah acted instinctively with an impulse to protect. The ark stayed at his family home for 20 years and his brother, Eleazar was consecrated to guard it when it first arrived. Uzzah and his brother Ahio were responsible for bringing it to Jerusalem. He knew about the ark and he was doing his job.

I do take seriously the holiness of God but I consider that to be an aspect of His Love, not a separate characteristic so I have trouble with the second explanation as well. The Lord can dial up or tone down His Presence at will. He is not tied to the ark like some genie caught in a bottle and does not have to be there in full force or even there at all.

His Spirit entered people like Kings Saul and David and the prophets and He did not kill them. Even when Saul performed the sacrifices. Even when David committed adultery and murder. Even when Elijah lost faith. Elijah also didn't do two of the three things God told him to on Mount Horeb but God still took him up to heaven in His fiery chariot but that's another blog all together.

When Joab was running from King Solomon, he fled to the tent of meeting and took hold of the horns of the altar. The Lord didn't strike him down but Benaiah did on King Solomon's command. The Lord didn't strike down either Benaiah or Solomon for spilling human blood inside the tent. When King Solomon first built the temple and the ark was brought in, the Lord dialed up His presence so high, the priests could not perform their service because His glory filled the temple.

Theologians have always referred to God as both transcendent and immanent; both far above us and very near to us.

I have a different explanation for Uzzah's death. I believe that there are different consequences to the same action. Sometimes you run a red light and nothing happens; sometimes you run a red light and you kill another person. One time it is as it you didn't do anything; another time you've affected adversely a number of lives. There are consequences for Uzzah's act that has nothing to do with Uzzah himself, consequences that we don't know and can't imagine. God, who is Love, can see what Uzzah had invoked for himself and for those near him so in His mercy decided it was best to remove Uzzah from the scene even though it hurt King David and will continue to hurt and confuse generations of Jews and Christians. Sometimes mercy is severe and Love follows inscrutable reasons.

I believe Uzzah lives. He lives with God. And he lives in this story that confounds us and asks us so who do you say that I AM and what do you say the bible says about Me?