Killing God

ELyle and Erik Menendez were convicted on August 20, 1990, for the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. It was a particularly brutal murder. Their father was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun. Kitty was shot from behind multiple times. In the months which followed, the two young men, then 18 and 21, went on a lavish spending spree. They purchased Rolex watches, expensive cars, rented penthouse suites, traveled and lived a life of wealth. Estimates are that they spent nearly a million dollars in the six months following the murder of their parents. Their crimes stands as a grim landmark among those violent acts perpetrated by Americans on one another. We react with horror at their conscienceless deed, but, in fact, we share with them the guilt of an act of profitable murder. From Eden to the cross, mankind killed their God in ritual and symbol, in type and ceremony. God Himself legislated this. Abel, Noah, Abraham, prophets, priests and kings all performed the grisly act of symbolic murder. Rivers of blood and millions of carcasses litter the pages of the Jewish scriptures. Each one a symbol of forgiveness and reconciliation; a relationship restored in the blood of the innocent killed by the guilty. Then, on that wondrous, horrific day, man slew, not the symbol of God, but God Himself; and we were all, in a way, there. We betrayed Him in our stand-in, Judas; We condemned Him as Caiaphas; we washed our hands of His guilt as Pilate; we mocked and scourged and crowned Him with thorns in those anonymous Roman soldiers; we drove in the nails, lifted and dropped the cross into its place and thrust in the spear. Yes, we do share the guilt of His death. We, the murderers, like the Menendez brothers, benefit from our deed. His death is our forgiveness and our reconciliation; the very death that we perpetrated gives us access to Him. In some mysterious way, we are actors in our own redemption. This is not to say, that we are our own saviors. Far from it. But we do benefit in the murder that results in our forgiveness. That which we did in hatred, anger or ignorance against God was, by Him, turned to our blessing. He offered up His own life, it is true, but we are the instrument of His death. Somehow, in some cavernous mysterious way, we are necessary players in this drama. The act of atonement would not have accomplished its purpose had He died in suicide or at the hands of an angel or in releasing His life without our participation. It was our destiny to kill god. In the hidden plans of Father and Son, before our beginning, their purposes were laid out. His death at our hands was pre-ordained. The long bloody history of death, the slaughter of millions of lambs, birds and bullocks all point to this fact. None of these deaths were natural; all were caused by the hand of a human. All the ritual cleansings, all the guilt, sin, burnt and peace offerings were acts of violence against the symbol of the Son of Man and Son of God. Each was perpetrated by the guilty human who received forgiveness as a result. That most-famous of all Isaiah’s pronouncements graphically underlines this fact: He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5) Each benefit foretold, the forgiveness of our iniquities and transgressions, the resulting state of well-being and healing is the result of piercing, crushing, chastening and scourging. Each is also at the hand of humankind; I, the murderer, am forgiven by the very act of murder. There is in this fact some vast mysterious Plan, a profound Purpose which is just beyond my horizon of understanding. I sense the import, crave to know and immerse myself in it. But for now, it eludes me. Perhaps I shall never fully know, this side of that great eternal Then, but, though desiring, am content to contemplate the glimpse afforded. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_and_Erik_Menendez I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 50:6 according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5: 30 , 31 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.´ Leviticus 17:11 Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know --this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. Acts 2:22-24 11/21/13