The second of three Lenten lectures in Chipping Barnet (see previous post for the first) focused on the way God uses human agents to execute his purposes. The end of Nineveh came at the hand of the Babylonians in alliance with others.
We explored the way in
which in the book of Jeremiah things said of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar
echo what is said about God and vice versa (see, e.g., 21:2,5, 6-7 and cf. 21:7
with 13:14). Nebuchadnezzar is God’s
instrument (see 27:8). God worked
through Nebuchadnezzar and takes responsibility for the actions of the
Babylonian king.
Is this the same with us? The famous saying (wrongly?) attributed to St
Teresa of Avila is meant to encourage us: “Christ has no body now on earth but
yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours … yours are the feet by which He
is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us
now.” But what if I use my hand to
strike someone? Did Christ strike?
In some ways the answer may have to be “yes”. Being God’s image means that humanity
represents God on earth. As a member of
the body of Christ what I do Christ does.
This means, of course, that God is often badly represented and that
Christ is often dishonoured. We often
bear false witness to who God is.
Nebuchadnezzar also bore false witness. More generally, Zechariah 1:15
testifies, “I am extremely angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I
was only a little angry, they made the disaster worse.” This maybe makes all divine judgement
somewhat mysterious. Vis-à-vis the
victim God accepts responsibility for what happens through his agents but his
rogue agents are held to account and their deeds do not in fact truly and fully
represent God.
Habakkuk complains about injustice and violence to God because he
believes God to be ultimately responsible for the havoc caused by Babylonian
oppression. His complaint in chapter 1
includes in verses 5-11 a flashback, frequently but wrongly designated God’s
first reply to Habakkuk’s first complaint.
The flashback is based on an earlier prophecy in which God announced
that the rise of the Babylonians (Chaldeans) is his work, cf. Jeremiah 5:15-17
(and see 4:11, 13, 18 which are echoed in Habakkuk). The prophecy likely re-appears here in an
ironic form which already hints at the wrong brought about by this divine deed.
Habakkuk positions himself at the beginning of chapter 2 to get an
answer from God. The answer comes in
form of a command to document on tablets a revelation which in its received
form talks about the oppressor and the victim.
The fate of the oppressor is at first only hinted at in Habakkuk 2:4 – a
swollen appetite which is not judicious is unhealthy but this is not spelled
out. The second half affirms that the
righteous will live, if only they remain loyal.
Verse 5 then offers more detail.
The more-ish wine will be the drunkard’s downfall and someone who is as
greedy as death itself may well be "death" in due course.
What do we learn about the cross?
We remember that the fact that it was humanity that condemned Jesus and
put him on the cross does not mean that God can wash his hands off what
happened any more than Pilate. It would
of course be disastrous for our faith if God had not been involved in some way
on the cross. But he was. “God put [Christ Jesus] forward as a
sacrifice of atonement.” (Romans 3:25). “God has done what the law, weakened by
the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” (Romans 8:3). This does not mean that we can easily read
off God’s purposes from these events because the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate were
rogue agents of God just like Nebuchadnezzar and we often are.
The third lecture explored further what we must say and what we must not
say about God’s involvement on the cross. We must say that far from being uninvolved God is implicated in the
death of Jesus and that Jesus suffered God’s condemnation of evil. But we must not say that the cross shows God’s
condemnation of Jesus. It would be simplistically
wrong to say that God punished Jesus for our sins but we can and must say that Jesus
suffered God's punishment for our sins.
Furthermore, the cross does not balance God’s justice with his love. God’s justice is an expression of his love.
“In this is love, not that we loved God but
that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1
John 4:10)
