Cathedral Sermons
Sunday 24 January, 2010
Gospel Reading: Luke 4:14-21
It was the words “release to the captives” that particularly grabbed by attention when I read the gospel passage during the week. For as the political year has begun, a first major policy announcement has been about crime and punishment with detail released on how the Act party’s “three strikes and you’re out” proposal is to be implemented by the government. So a few comments about the context of the gospel reading and the words Jesus quotes; what it means to talk of the justice of God, and some thoughts on how that might interact with contemporary New Zealand attitudes to crime and punishment.
Jesus has begun to establish a reputation around the district for his preaching in local synagogues and for the acts of power he has performed. Now he comes to his hometown synagogue. No doubt there was some anticipation as to what he might say and do, and he is invited to participate in their worship by reading. The pattern of worship described is common to 1st century synagogues, which always included a reading from one of the prophet, and some latitude was given to readers as to what they chose. Clearly an arrangement has been made that Jesus is to be the preacher. So when the scroll of Isaiah is handed to him, he chooses his passage deliberately.
Luke only records the opening sentence of what Jesus has to say about the reading: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. It is an announcement of the fulfilment of prophecy, and as a result a declaration of Jesus’ understanding of himself as the Messiah, for the text he read from chapter 61 of Isaiah was regarded as a messianic prophecy. In Jesus, these promises of God are to come to fulfilment.
“He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.” The words when they first appear in Isaiah speak of the Exiles in Babylon. It was a prophecy that related to the time of the Return to Jerusalem. Those who have been held in captivity are now being told that they can return to rebuild their city. And the words as they are taken up by Jesus could no doubt have been understood to speak of the captivity of Jews in his day, now under the rule of the Roman Empire. So we could see references to Jewish political prisoners, or prisoners of war. But that the passage closes with the proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favour, which is a way of referring to the year of Jubilee. And in that year, one in every fifty, was about a far more general emancipation, the release of debts and the release of Jews who had become enslaved to other Jews as the result of debt or of wrongdoing.
Jesus is making a big statement then, not only about himself as the Messiah but about the implications of what is to be worked out through him. It is well received at first in Nazareth, though later there are problems and Jesus’ life is even threatened because people become enraged by the thought of some of those for whom Jesus says these things will be true, beyond and perhaps ahead of his own people.
Jesus is speaking of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God as divine justice which puts to right what is wrong in the world, and establishes a new relationship between God and humanity. It is also the establishment of a new community whose transformed life as kingdom people in the midst of the old order of the world’s powers will work to bring about these things. A distinctive aspect of this community is that it is to be one through which reconciliation is worked out. Paul writing in his second letter to the Corinthians speaks of the ministry of reconciliation that has been entrusted to the Christian community, making the plea that it will be so among them in order that they may be effective in their vocation as Christ’s ambassadors of this ministry to others. Jesus taught this new community to practice a radical forgiveness of those who offend against them and not to retaliate in the face of opposition. Jesus exemplified this behaviour in his own life.
For it is to this place that Christ’s ministry ultimately led in the offering of himself for the world. One commentator writing of God’s justice speaks of a “contributory” justice, which in contrast to a justice that is corrective or seeks retribution, is marked off as helpful, redeeming and caring. This is the justice that God has shown to us and exemplifies that which is to be shown to others by the Christ community formed to embody God’s justice, at work to put to right all that is wrong in the world.
Which may be all very well when people speak ill of us, or take advantage of us in some way. But what does this have to say about crimes of violence? And does it imply that a Christian stance should be one of walking away to leave such acts unchallenged? Certainly not, for where would be the justice in that? On the other hand we should also remember that the teaching and the action of Jesus was not to retaliate in the face of violence. Jesus taught disciples to turn the other cheek if one was struck, and although the expression is used metaphorically by people today, it is clear that Jesus meant it literally. For when he himself was struck he did not fight back, and admonished his disciples when they tried to do so on his behalf.
So the best time to form an ethic around these things is while we have the chance to stand back from them and consider the issues more dispassionately. Most of us can be grateful that we have not been the victims of a crime of violence and hopefully never will be. And we know how easy it is to hold good ideals about these things until we suffer them ourselves.
There is no question that those who commit crimes of violence against others should not be brought to account. In severe cases that may appropriately involve lengthy terms of imprisonment. The questions I invite us to consider, in the light of the justice of God, are around the motive and purpose in doing so. What is sought to be achieved by it? And how is that to be viewed from the perspective of disciples of this same Jesus, those who are part of the new reconciling community which is called to embody the justice of God now.
Is the purpose of prison to rehabilitate; to deter; to punish; to reinforce shared social values; to in some way restore to the victim whatever has been removed from them? It may be all of these things to people, as well as a means of removing a person from society for the safety of others. Sadly though, it would seem that prison achieves few of these things. It certainly achieves little by way of rehabilitating those who spend long years inside; there are high rates of recidivism; and no matter how long the sentence, it seldom seems long enough to the victims of their crimes.
It is not practical for me to propose policy on sentencing in a Sunday morning sermon, let alone appropriate. But I would note the Salvation Army’s report on prisons from 2006 which looked at these issues in a well-researched way. It noted the need for significant change, not out of a desire to be soft on crime, but because the system is not working and ultimately does justice neither to the offender nor to the victim. The Sallies along with many others working in the field do not consider that more prisons or longer sentences will change anything in that respect. They proposed instead that more work be done around systems of restorative justice, already in place for some minor offences, and in other parts of the world, noticeably Finland, beginning to have an impact in situations that involve more serious offending.
It seems to me though that much of what motivates public attitudes and political policies around our response to crime is about retribution and punishment. They are understandable responses especially for those who have suffered violence, but in the end are they the attitudes which will allow the justice of God to effect its transforming work in peoples’ lives? In the end the person most affected by the bitterness of my revenge is myself.
So as we consider our own attitudes to crime and punishment and wonder about the merits of a three strikes policy, we do so from our call to be a reconciling community embodying God’s justice, which weekly prays together “forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”? New Testament scholar Dr Chris Marshall wrote this about forgiveness: “It is not an optional response to wrongdoing; it is an obligation placed upon all who celebrate the saving justice of God manifest in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
The place to begin is of course within the Christ community itself as we practice reconciliation and forgiveness among one another and so grow into our call to be ambassadors for Christ’s gospel. Such a community is then called to proclaim release to the captives on behalf of Jesus, that this justice of God made real to us through the reconciling and forgiving love of Jesus, might be real for all.