Contrary to the Gospel?

Our
Torah study group took up the discussion at our mid-week meeting,
examining Genesis 9:6 where, indeed,
there seems to be a divine directive about capital punishment: Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall
his blood be shed. One only has to
read a few commentaries to discover that there is so much more to this verse
than meets the eye - - far more than can be offered in a brief blog. Both Jewish and Christian traditions have
produced volumes over the last
3000 years arguing both the sanctity of human life and the issue of when it is
permissible to take a human life as punishment for a crime.
There
are two parts of the same verse that are in
tension with one each other. The
first part suggests retributive justice
- an eye for an eye, tit for tat justice.
Capital punishment is the uttermost expression of this kind of justice -
a justice that requires retribution - a life in payment for a life : Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall
his blood be shed.” The tension
mounts when the second part of the verse impinges on the first, echoing earlier
verses in Genesis that affirm that humans, male and female, are created in the
image and likeness of God: For in the
image of God, God made man.” The juxtaposition of the two statements brings
a heart wrenching moral and spiritual, religious and political dilemma into
focus. When a human life is taken -
whether by criminal intent or through state sanctioned execution, we are
challenged to grapple with the idea that the image of The Divine is defaced.

Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks reminds us that there is One God, experienced in different ways
and named by different names in the traditions of the People of The Book:
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. In The
Trace of God/Noach, Covenant and Conversation 5778 on Life Changing Ideas in
the Parsha he writes: “If there were
only one human being, he or she might live at peace in the world. But we know that this could not be the case
because it is not good for man to be
alone. We are social animals. And when one human being thinks he or she has
god-like power vis-a-vis another human
being , the result is violence.
Therefore, thinking yourself god-like, if you are human, all too human,
is very dangerous indeed. That is why,
with one simple move, God transformed the terms of the equation. After the flood, God taught Noah (and through
him all humanity), that we should think not
of ourselves but of the human other as in the image of God. That is the only way to save ourselves from
violence and self destruction. This is a
really life changing idea. It means that
the greatest religious challenge is: Can I see God’s image in one who is not in
my image - whose colour, class, culture or creed is different from
mine?”

Is
capital punishment contrary to the Gospel?
I am not a Roman Catholic. I
confess there are some days when even calling myself a believer would put me on
shaky ground. But I stand with Pope
Francis on this one. It defies
imagination to ever think of a person like Jesus, upon whose life the Gospel is
based, standing in judgment over another human being and condemning that person
to death.
That would, indeed, be
contrary to the Gospel.
Vicky Hanjian
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