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I’m not a Christian – I don’t believe in the trinity, the resurrection and so on, although I can see how it can have beauty and meaning for some – but I do believe in the revolutionary and divine insight of Jesus.
And nothing was more divine than his call to be humble. Humbleness is closest to holiness.
The saying that the meek shall inherit the earth is easily misunderstood from a human perspective. At times when brutality and power triumph over the “little person” it is hard to see the sense of it. But with respect to humbleness in the sight of God it makes perfect sense. It actually serves to remind us that we are human, not perfect. We are not Gods.
I was reminded of this when I read about the execution of two young men in Iran for their part in the protests against the state, the planned hanging of another nine, with the promise of more on the way.
There is something particularly chilling about judicial murder, the attempt of a regime not to hide its sordid crimes but to actually legitimize them. The show trials in Tehran echo those of Stalin and Hitler, and in particular bring to mind Sophie Scholl and her friends – the young German students who peacefully protested against the Nazi regime and were tried and guillotined in 1943.
Wikipedia notes Sophie’s firm Christian belief in God and in every human being's essential dignity formed her basis for resisting Nazi ideology.
Meanwhile in present-day Tehran Ayatollah Ahmad Janati commented: May God not have mercy on those who are lenient with the corrupt on earth. There is no room for clemency. It is time for severity.
Judicial murder characterizes Utopian politics. From The Terror of Revolutionary France there is clear line of sight to present day Iran.
Certainly on the surface the fundamentally atheist France of Robespierre bears little resemblance to the Islamist fundamentalism of Ahmadinejad, but both are borne of Utopianism – the belief heaven can be built upon the earth. Yet whether it is in the name of Reason or God makes no difference – the deed must always be done by human hands, with the inevitable blood-soaked consequences.
Jesus saw this danger clearly. Time and again he emphasized our imperfect humanity, fallibility; our need therefore to be humble, meek. Not to cast the first stone. His was the authentic voice of God. The vengeful pronouncements of priests and politicians in the name of a higher authority are human, all too human.
02:21:07 |
