Our Culture of Violence - April 1?

One of my favorite new ministries emerging at Saint Stephen’s is the supper that follows the Celtic service. Most Sundays, we share a meal and sit around the table talking about the sermon, theology, and life. It’s a simple but meaningful way to build community and offer formation for our 5:00 p.m. community.

Last Sunday, we had a fascinating conversation about atonement theology. Someone shared that they didn’t think Jesus had to die—as if it were something God required. That question has stayed with me. Lately, I’ve come to see Jesus’s death not as something demanded by God, but as the natural and tragic consequence of the escalation of human violence.

We can’t seem to help ourselves. We go to war in order to bring about peace. We justify harm in the name of order. Is it any surprise, then, that an innocent son of a carpenter—one who disrupted systems, challenged power, and reoriented people toward love—would be crucified in an effort to keep things “peaceful”?

I think Holy Week invites us to wrestle honestly with this part of our human nature and our deep and persistent tendency to use violence to solve our problems. Not much has changed in 2,000 years.

Mark’s Gospel for today, the parable of the vineyard, speaks directly into this reality. The landowner keeps sending servants, and they are beaten, rejected, and killed. And then finally, the beloved son is sent and he too is killed. If we pause long enough, we might ask: Where is the outrage? Why aren’t we more shocked?

Perhaps it’s because, deep down, we recognize the pattern. We expect it. We understand, even if we don’t want to admit it, the primal, violent impulses that live within humanity and within ourselves.

And yet, this is not the end of the story. Because it is into this very world that Jesus enters. It is in the midst of our violence, our fear, our need to control, that Christ takes on death itself and transforms it.

And so Holy Week is not just something we remember. It is something we enter that changes how we are to live and be in this world. Whom do we follow and whom do we emulate? May it be the one who has shown us the way of the Lord.

John+

Question for Self-Reflection: Where does your own life intersect with our culture of violence?