 |
|
|
 Instructions on Violence and War in the
Old Testament – Jesus: “Love your enemies”
Jesus Rebukes the Hypocrisy
of the Scribes and Pharisees
Jesus did not soothe our conscience. Nor did he call on us to lull our conscience with tricks and ruses and hair-splitting formulations, and silence it. Only those who are against God do this, those who work against Him, and who have already turned the word of Moses into its opposite. Of this, there is another example:
In the second Book of Moses, Exodus, we read: Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. (Ex. 21:12) Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. Whoever steals a man, whether he sells him or is found in possession of him, shall be put to death. (Ex. 21:15-17)
In Exodus 21:24 we continue: ... eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Many times this was taken literally and was used to justify all sorts of acts of vengeance.
Jesus did not speak such in His Sermon on the Mount. There it says: You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. (Mt. 5:38-42)
The words of Jesus are thus very different from those of the “God” of the “Books of Moses.” Whoever wants to be an upright Christian, ought to make the decision: Either for God through Jesus, the Christ, or for the god of the institutional churches, because one cannot serve two masters. At some point the false god will cause us to fall. Our indifferent, callous society is the best proof of this.
In the fifth Book of Moses, Deuteronomy, we can read among other things about retribution:
Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Dt.19:21)
War and the warriors. When you go forth to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies. Let not your heart be faint! Do not fear, or tremble, or be in dread of them; for the Lord your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ (Dt. 20:1-4)
Today it is the same, as if Jesus, the Christ, had not been on Earth in the meantime. Today’s priests bless war and its weapons in the belief that those who receive the blessing will have God on their side against the “enemies.”
In the same book of Moses, we continue to read:
Conquering the cities: When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes not peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes. (Dt. 20:10-16)
In the Middle Ages, the crusaders waded through the blood of those whom they had conquered in the name of the cross. Between 1941 and 1943 in Croatia it was not much different. The Church does make it true: The Old Testament “sheds light” on the New Testament – but not with the light of God, which Christ proclaimed and is again proclaiming today!
God is peace. Christ came in Jesus to bring peace to all human beings. He will return – in spirit – as the Prince of Peace, that is certain.
Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount about loving one’s enemies. In Matthew we read:
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5:43-48)
Again we recognize: Jesus said, You have heard … He did not say “You have heard from God through Moses,” and He did not say “You have heard from the prophet Moses.” He said: You have heard …
Jesus spoke of God’s love and about reconciliation – the so-called “God” through Moses spoke of destruction, plunder and killing.
In Leviticus, the third Book of Moses, things are summed up as follows:
And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. And I will have regard for you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and will confirm my covenant with you. ( Lev. 26:7-9)
But Jesus said: All those who take the sword will perish by the sword. (Mt. 26:52)
Moses supposedly ordained priests at God’s bidding. The ceremony began with the usual sacrifice of a ram. Jesus taught just the opposite with regard to priests. In the gospel of Matthew He put it very clearly: But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. (Mt. 23:8)
In Matthew 23, Jesus rebuked the scribes and pharisees for their hypocrisy:
Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.
They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, not allow those who would enter to go in.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Woe to you, blind guides who say, ‘If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If any one swears by the altar, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it; and he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisees, first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zehari´ah the son of Barachi´ah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. (Mt. 23:1-36)
Jesus said, among other things: And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. (Mt. 23:9)
Why then, is there a “Holy Father” on Earth? All Catholics who believe in the words of Jesus ought to ask themselves the question whether they are not cheering for a Roman Catholic figurehead, thus agreeing to defame the name of Jesus and His teachings, in order to ridicule the greatest prophet of all times, who became our Redeemer.
Jesus called himself master, that is, teacher of wisdom. The Catholic Church, contrary to His teachings and His will, turned Him into a priest. In the Catholic Catechism, No. 1548, it says: “In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth.”
In the Catholic Catechism it says: “…and Teacher of Truth.” In this way, today’s church officials are again scorning Jesus, the Christ. They talk about the teacher of truth, but they don’t do what Jesus taught and wanted.
to the next chapter
|
|
