Sometimes in our complex relations with Middle East countries, we are confronted with instances of barbaric forms of justice. We hear of people getting hands cut off for stealing, a princess stoned to death for adultery and so on. We need to remind ourselves that Christian history has also been full of barbaric acts. Humane treatment of wrongdoers and enlightened applications of justice are modern developments. The morality of rehabilitation as opposed to retaliation is still not fully evolved.
Consider, for example, a fascinating occasion in American History when we as a nation nearly acted out of revenge rather than out of justice.
When the Revolutionary War ended, a number of colonists loyal to England remained on in America in small clusters. The hostility between these Loyalists and the other colonists was great. A group of Loyalists from Manhattan raided Toms River, N.J., and burned the town. Shortly after that, Philip White, a loyalist, slipped back into New Jersey to visit his wife. He was captured by the New Jersey militia but shot while trying to escape. Rumors about the event built.
Manhattan Loyalists under the command of Richard Lippincott rowed out to the British prison ship Brittania and convinced the commander to hand over one of the colonists, Joshua Huddy, for a supposed prisoner exchange. The Loyalists then took Huddy out and hanged him in revenge for what they called the murder of Philip White.
The American people were outraged! A large group from Huddy's funeral wrote to George Washington, demanding that he do something or they themselves would. Washington was aware that things were on the verge of mob justice and realized something must be done.
Washington first wrote the British commander in the area and asked that he hand over the guilty party. The British commander stalled.
Washington next consulted Congress with his unhappy secondary plan. It involved executing one British prisoner, drawn by lot, to pay for the hanged Huddy and to appease the people. Congress agreed with the plan, and a prisoner was chosen by lottery to die. His name was Captain Charles Asgill.
Since the British still would not hand over the guilty murderer, it looked as if Charles Asgill would be executed. The Americans, though, were reluctant to end the life of this likable youth for a crime he did not commit. On the other hand, the populace demanded retribution for Huddy. His release would likely start a return to mob justice against the Loyalists.
As Congress debated the issue, the French stepped in and begged for Asgill's life, reminding the colonists of the debt that they owed for French assistance in the recent war. The Americans took this convenient way out and released Asgill.
The issues of justice were difficult, even laying aside the whole problem of appeasing the populace. Joshua Huddy had been murdered. However, the American government could not rightly execute just anyone for the crime. Despite the politics, punishment was due the murderer and only the murderer. There would be no justice in making an unwilling man sacrifice for the absent murderer. It is a fascinating case out of our history. One man to be sacrificed to satisfy the guilt of another. (1)
There is a case in history, however, when an innocent man willingly gave his life for the guilty. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." Charles Asgill was almost an unwilling substitute for the sins of Charles Lippincott. The Lord of all life willingly lay down his life for us all.
WE APPLAUD WHEN A MAN OR WOMAN GIVES HIS OR HER LIFE FOR ANOTHER. Such instances do come along from time to time. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. May 28, 1989. "Former NFL football player Jerry Anderson," read the newspaper account, "died Saturday after pulling two young boys out of a rainswollen river about 40 miles southeast of Nashville. Witnesses said Anderson saw two boys, thought to be 11 or 12 years old, attempting to cross a dam spanning the river. One or both boys fell into the water.
According to officer Bill Todd, "Mr. Anderson jumped in the water and managed to get the little boys out, but witnesses said he went under two or three times and about the fourth time, he didn't come back up." He gave his life to rescue two small boys.
Of course, you don't have to be an American or a football player for such heroic actions. In a Middle school in the Ukrainian village of Ivanichi a young teacher died sometime back. He absorbed the blast of a hand grenade to protect his pupils.
What was a grenade doing in a middle school? According to the London TIMES the teacher, a graduate of the KGB borderguard college, had been delivering the military instruction that is a compulsory part of the curriculum for Soviet children. He was teaching them how to handle what should have been an unarmed grenade. When he pulled the pin a wisp of smoke showed that a live grenade had become mixed in with demonstration grenades, and he gave his life.
You don't have to be a man to perform such heroics. Many years ago a woman carrying a baby through the hills of South Wales, England, was overtaken by a blizzard. Searchers found her later frozen to death in the snow. Amazed that she had on no outer garments, they searched further and found her baby. She had wrapped them around the child, who was still alive and well. He grew up to be David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Great Britain in World War I.
No greater love than this, than a man lay down his life for his brother. We applaud such bravery, such selflessness, such willingness to sacrifice one's life for another.
That is not what this passage from John's Gospel teaches us, however. Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep."
Do not be deluded. WHAT TRANSPIRED ON CALVARY WAS NOT A TRANSACTION BETWEEN EQUALS. A man laid down his life not for other men but for some dumb sheep.
I hope you don't mind being called a dumb sheep, by the way. Actually it is the sheep who should be insulted. After all, a sheep never killed his neighbor, or passed on the latest juicy gossip. A sheep never deliberately abused its body or stole from its employer. Judged by their own standards, sheep are pretty upright creatures. Still, I don't think any of us would lay down his life for a smelly sheep.
I did hear about a man who acted drastically on behalf of his dog. He was on a boat returning from a Caribbean cruise. On deck a boy was playing with the man's dog, throwing a stick on deck for the dog to retrieve. One toss went too far and went over the rail into the sea. The dog jumped overboard after it. In distress the dog's owner begged the captain to turn the ship around and rescue the dog. "Stop the ship for a dog! I can't do that," said the captain. "Then you will stop it for a man!" shouted the dog's owner, as he jumped overboard. Of course the ship stopped, and both man and dog were rescued. The point here is that the man knew the ship would stop. He was not really sacrificing his life for his dog. (2)
What I long for us to see is the divine absurdity of it all. The Lord of all the universe lay down His life for such as you and I. He lay aside his regal robes to take up the cross of degradation and death. He lay aside his crown of glory for a painful crown of thorns and he did it for you and me. Can you get your mind around such an astounding truth? Are you worthy of such an act? I certainly am not. Are you?
I was reading recently about the island nation of Guam. Guam now has an almost insoluble problem, snakesbetween six and twelve thousand of them per square mile! And these slithering problems (often 8 feet long or longer) have wiped out 70% of Guam's native species of birds.
The problem, however, is manmade. Guam once had no snakes, but during WWII the brown tree snake was evidently imported from Australia, New Guinea, and The Solomon Islands as a stowaway in military shipments. Guam now has no way to get rid of the snakes.
The Bible teaches us that man has always carried a snake problem with him. Everything we touch we infect. We discover a way to harness the wonderful energy of the atom and begin building bombs. We invent the internal combustion engine and pollute the air. We discover a way to extract from nature cures for various ailments and we end up producing addictive drugs. The Lord of Life gave his life for creatures who do such things-creatures such as you and I. Why in the world did he do it? I don't know, but I do know the result of it all.
SOMEHOW HE FOUND A WAY TO TURN SHEEP INTO SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD. That's why he lay down his life. I don't fully understand why it had to be done that way, but the result is staggering all the same. That wonderful preacher and theologian Helmut Thielicke put it like this:
I see myself at the Last Judgment, and, as at an earthly trial, my identity has to be established before the proceedings begin. But there is an interruption. The Supreme Judge has hardly put to me the question, "Who are you?" before my satanic accuser breaks in and answers for me, "Who is he, you ask? I will tell you. He is the one who has done such and such, and failed to do such and such. He has ignored the plight of his neighbors because he himself was always the neighbor. He has been silent when he ought to have confessed. The gifts you have given him have not made him humble but proud." He goes on for a long time in this strain. But then the counsel for the defense interrupts; he is the exalted Son of God. "O Father and Judge," he says, "the prosecutor has spoken the truth. This man has all these things behind him. But the accusation is without substance. For he no longer is what he has behind him." And although he who sits on the bench knows very well what Christ is saying, for the sake of the audience he asks, "Who is he then if he is no longer what he has behind him?" To this Christ replies, "He has become my disciple and believed me that you have met him in me and want to be his father, as you are mine. Hence I have canceled his past and nailed the accusation to my cross [Colossians 2:14]. Who is he then, you ask? He is the one who has accepted me and thus gained the right of sonship that you have promised. Look upon him, then, as you look upon me; he is my brother and your son." This is the story, says Thielicke, of our identity.
Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." I don't like being classified with sheep. But I know I'm a sinner. I know I am unworthy of having the Lord of Life sacrifice himself in my behalf. Rather, I should be sacrificing myself for him. Today's not too late to start. By his grace I will dedicate the rest of my life to him. I hope you will, too.
1. Ewing, Edwin, Jr. "The Asgill Incident," American History Illustrated (May, 1973), pp. 10-13.
2. A. Philip Parham, LETTING GOD, (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers).
3. "The Far Side of Paradise," U.S. News and World Report (Feb. 13, 1989), p.15.
4. Thielicke, Helmut. BEING HUMAN...BECOMING HUMAN: AN ESSAY IN CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY. Trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984.