Throughout Eastertide our thoughts have to turn back to those slaughtered on Easter Day in Sri Lanka (Rev. 7.9-17; John 10.22-30).
Context
On Easter morning we were unprepared, as we rehearsed the resurrection stories, for the dreadful news from Sri Lanka. So we might need to turn to Revelation and this week’s Gospel, rather than focus on the story of Dorcas’ return to life. ‘The great ordeal’ could refer to any persecution of believers, whether in the time of an emperor like Nero in the first century, or in any number of places in our own days. The Good Shepherd in this week’s Gospel reading assures us that ‘I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. (v.28)’. He foresees the coming conflict.
After the Last Supper in John’s Gospel, Jesus gives a prophetic warning, saying ‘Anyone who hates me hates my Father also. If I had not performed such works among them as no one else has ever done, they would be blameless; but as it is, they have seen all this, and still they hate both me and my Father. But all this was only to fulfill the words written in their Law; They hated me for no reason’ (15.23). And ‘I have told you all this so that your faith may not be shaken. They will expel you from the synagogues, and indeed the hour is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy duty for God’ (16.1-2).
As we celebrated the Last Supper, the ‘New IRA’ murdered an innocent young woman, Lyra McKee, imagining, misguidedly, that they might further their cause by firing a gun or using petrol bombs. Today the whole world knows they were wrong. Their bullet condemns them. They spoke for no-one. Indeed, this murder is the one thing which might bring all sides to their senses in Northern Ireland and realise that we are better together, we need to re-establish power sharing and responsible government for the sake of everyone there.
In Sri Lanka, the stockpiles of bomb-making equipment discovered were proof that the bombers thought their actions might bring more people to their cause, but the result has been revulsion by the whole world. People of all faiths and none were willing to donate their own life blood to help the victims of the atrocities, a clear sign that the whole world knows what is right and what is wrong, what it is to do the will of God and what it is to oppose God. The Holy Spirit is the witness to all, and this Spirit binds people of all faiths together in Sri Lanka, binds Catholics and Protestants together in Northern Ireland and resists evil.
In remembering this we have to include the faithful followers of Islam, murdered as they met for worship in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The deceit that has been practised, in Sri Lanka, in Northern Ireland, and in Christchurch New Zealand, is that those caught up in evil have deluded themselves into believing that they were engaged in some kind of crusade which the world might applaud.
The problem is one of our own making. It is Christianity which began the notion of a crusade. It is Islam that coined the idea of Jihad, a holy war. We inherit from Judaism the myth that redemption is achieved through the death of the firstborn of Egypt and the slaughter of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. We, religious people, have been our own worst enemies, betraying our professed belief in the God of love and bringing our faith into disrepute.
As Britain and the USA planned the Iraq war, the Bishop of Jerusalem went to the USA to warn that this would be seen as a crusade, and would lead to the persecution of Christians throughout the Middle East. Kofi Anand, the UN secretary general, had warned that it was illegal.
Today Christians are the most persecuted faith in the world.
Lord Singh makes reference to this in Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 8 May (podcast not yet available) and points out that founders of Sikhism died for their faith in non-violence and rejection of religious extremism. Much of the blame for the rise in persecution of Christians must lie on Bush and Blair who started what was perceived as a holy war – and turned out to be the most unholy war imaginable. It is insidious. Our grandson’s mind is filled with stories of ‘bad guys’ and ‘good guys’ battling it out. Any violence is OK so long as you are a ‘good guy’ and are using it to beat up the ‘bad guys’. On his fourth birthday most of his cards featured Spiderman and Superman characters, beating up the ‘bad guys’. The same kind of poison infects teenage girls who went off to Syria to join I.S. in the mistaken belief that they were the ‘good guys’ and everyone else was wrong.
The ideological fervour blinds people to their own evil which is so evident to the rest of the world, whether in Christchurch, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, or indeed, much of the Middle East. The world knows all the victims were innocent. The opening of the inquest on those who died at Borough Market two years ago brings back painful memories of another act of terrorism on innocent people.
Reflection
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus sees the storm gathering against him and against his followers, the sheep who know his voice (10.27), those ‘who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’(Revelation 7.14).
The question the Jews put in this week’s Gospel has a sinister ring when they ask ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly’ (John 10.23). If he is the Messiah, are they expecting him to be a second King David, saving the nations from the Philistines by cutting of the head of any modern day Goliath? After the feeding of the 5,000, John tells us that ‘Jesus realised that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king’ (6.15). And when Jesus is finally arrested Peter, who admits to having swords, cuts off the ear of the High Priest’s servant (John 18.10-11). There was probably something of the zealot mentality in several of Jesus’ disciples, and a tradition of battling, seemingly with God’s blessing, that goes back to Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Kings of Israel and Judas Maccabaeus. But the creator of the world, the one through whom all things were made, whom the evangelist would describe as ‘the Word’, has no place for wrath, not even a seemingly divine wrath against the ‘bad guys’ plotting to take his life. After the beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 5) Jesus goes on to insist ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5.44-45).
When we are attacked, when Jesus goes to the cross, the hardest line of the Lord’s Prayer is ‘forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.’ Yet this, Luke’s Gospel tells us, is precisely what Jesus does (Luke 23.34).
John’s Gospel insists that the true parallel between celebrating the Passover and our salvation is with the Lamb of Revelation, for Jesus was crucified on ‘the day of preparation’ (John 19.31). That is, the day on which Passover lambs might be slaughtered for ‘the day of great solemnity’ – which was the day when the body of Jesus lay in the tomb. The Last Supper is ‘before the festival of the Passover’ (John 13.1). The Gospel writer wants to avoid any idea of seeing the Last Supper as a celebration of the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea or the death of the Egyptian firstborn. And in the reading from Revelation 7.14, the faithful are those who ‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’
Prayer
We pray for all who walk through the valley of the shadow of death, all who live in fear and all who have faced violence:
for Christians in Sri Lanka, in Syria, in Iraq, in Pakistan and in India;
for Rohingya Muslims in Burma, and all made refugees;
for Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand;
for Sikhs fleeing violence in Afghanistan;
for the people of Northern Ireland;
for those who continue to suffer as a result of violence in mainland Britain, especially in London and in Manchester;
for all who face threats on social media.
Amen.
Questions
- What makes you angry? Share stories of things that do this.
- What can you do about the anger?
- How can you make a positive response?
- When does such a response become impossible?
- And what then?
All-age activity
Discus pictures of ‘The Lamb’ and the image they convey - e.g. that by Zurdaran, and the altar triptych in Ghent.
Young people
Think of stories of ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’; cowboys and Indians, cartoon characters, heroes and villains in comic books and films. Ask whether the stories encourage people to hate those who are different. Ask whether social media have provided new ways of bullying and if so, what is the right response to it.
The Revd Dr. Tom Ambrose is a retired priest at the parish of the Ascension, Cambridge.
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