Date: 2009-01-27 21:04 Subject: Scripture as metaphor part 3 Security: Public

Yeshua compared anger with killing, as quoted by Matthew:

"You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, You shall not kill; and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you, anyone who is angry with a brother will answer for it before the court; anyone who calls a brother "Fool" will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone who calls him "Traitor" will answer for it in hell fire."

This one passage does so many things it makes my mind spin.

First, it places the onus on people who make others angry to beg their forgiveness, in no part because we have made them guilty of murder. So much for "I am not my brother's keeper".

Second, it places the onus on us to seek forgiveness when we are angry before we even think about going to God.

These are lovely pastoral instructions for people to live a Godly life. Most people never go further than this. They are the blessed.

However, Yeshua kicks the observant listener/reader in the teeth.

If it is ungodly to be angry, then all those actions in scripture that were recorded as being done by an angry God were not done by God in anger.

He's thrown Israeli history as understood conventionally even to this day by many Jews and Christians under the bus.

He's demanding without demanding that we think of scripture not so much as God's word to us, but our words about and reaching towards God. Do we find God's word in scripture?

Yes.

But no more so than we find blasphemy.

God bless Yeshua of Nazareth. I'm starting to understand why he made so many intelligent people angry with him.

Yes, Yeshua is guilty of making people angry, so by his words, he is guilty of killing. Incidentally, he was dragged before the Sanhedrin, and condemned for it. Incidentally, in his own words, this would make him guilty of sin.

Like I said, my head is spinning, but my heart is clear, for I also remember that he begged for God to forgive them.