John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

The ones we fear, we crucify

... You know, it is time we stopped blaming God for the Crucifixion.

For too long we’ve been saying that it was to satisfy an angry God that Jesus was crucified.

But nowhere in the Crucifixion story do we see God angry. Far from being vengeful, wrathful, the God we’re shown in the Gospels is a loving Father sharing his dear Son’s agony. The God Jesus reveals at the Crucifixion is a God who would rather die than kill his enemies.[1]

It’s not God’s anger but the anger of Pilate, fearful of being shown in a bad light, which crucifies Jesus. 

It’s not God’s wrath but the wrath of Caiaphas, fearful of Jesus’ challenges to his hypocritical ways, which sent him to the cross. 

It’s not God’s vengeance but the vengeance of the crowds, whipped up in their fear of a man who dared to do things differently, which justified his lynching.

The Crucifixion is a story about how we humans condemn those who are different from us, punish those who challenge us, revenge those who show us in a bad light.

It is time we stopped blaming God for the Crucifixion, and started facing those fears of ours which lead us to crucify others. ...

- from my Good Friday village open-air service talk, The ones we fear, we crucify.

From Mosul to East Africa, to the High Street: can these bones live?

... Can God breathe new life into a devastated nation? In 597BC the Babylonians took Israel's land, smashed Israel's temple, exiled Israel's king and executed his sons. Everything these people knew and valued had been lost, stripped back to the bone; a community  cut off completely from all which had defined them and sustained them. Can these bones live? No wonder that question was in the mind of Ezekiel, looking at the wilderness his people were in, and with them, yearning for the dry bones to live again. 

But as we take another look at the passage, a truly remarkable thing emerges about the question we are contemplating today. Who asks the question, “Can these bones live?” Not Ezekiel asking God. It's a question which God asked Ezekiel. Surveying the scene of dereliction and loss in the valley of dry bones, the Lord said to Ezekiel, 'Mortal, can these bones live?' 

It is God who gives voice to the question which is on the hearts of all the lost people. Can these bones live? It is God who sees the people's loss, hears their heart's cries, and who longs to help them. It is God who asks Ezekiel for an answer: 'Mortal, can these bones live?' 

All God needs is for Ezekiel to respond and then he can set in motion the events which bring help, healing, restoration, resurrection, to the dry bones before them. ...

- from my talk today,From Mosul to East Africa, to the High Street: can these bones live?