Biblical Principles and Patterns Used to Justify Domestic Violence

July 19, 2015                        John 5: 10-18

1. Jesus healed a man who’d been an invalid for 38 years.
   1. That is the introduction to our passage today.
   2. He did an amazing and powerful thing in the power of God.
   3. And Jesus is going to be condemned for it.
2. The Jewish leadership accosts the man Jesus healed.
   1. He is Sabbath-breaking, doing work, carrying his mat.
   2. The man’s response,
      1. "I met 'Miracle Max', he healed me, told me to take my mat and go." 
   3. He didn’t even know who healed him.
3. The scene changes to the Temple, where Jesus catches up with the man.
   1. Now comes the faith-based attachment to the healing.
   2. “Don’t sin any more or worse than 38 years of being an invalid might happen.”
4. The man expresses his gratitude by reporting Jesus to the authorities.
   1. The authorities then start to persecute Jesus for Sabbath-breaking.
   2. Instead of trying to put out the fire, Jesus adds gasoline to the mix.
      1. My Father is still working, and I am working.
   3. Added to Sabbath-breaking is the charge of making himself equal to God-blasphemy.
      1. So the authorities are out all the more to try and kill Jesus.
5. So, Jesus is Sabbath-breaking, that is the charge coming directly from his healing.
   1. That is not really on our radar today as a hanging offense.
   2. Ours is a different time and place.
      1. The Sabbath has a different meaning to us.
   3. It was a defining characteristic of the oppressed Jewish nation.
      1. It was one of the few visible signs they had of their own culture as a conquered people.
6. We take weekends for granted.
   1. Five working days, two days off, one Jewish-Saturday, and one Christian-Sunday.
   2. Many of our lives do not align to that pattern, but that is how we write the calendar.
   3. The Roman calendar, the calendar of the overlords of Jesus’ time, did not work that way.
      1. The Roman year was filled with religious and superstitious observances and rituals.
         1. It wasn’t 5 on and 2 off, or even 6 on and 1 off.
         2. It might be 10 days, 3 off, 15 on, 6 off, 2 on, 1 off-a year filled with random festivals between which you worked without break..
         3. Confusing in the extreme
   4. But the Jews rejected that calendar for their own.
      1. The Sabbath was a sign that they were still God’s people.
7. The importance of the Sabbath is built on five legal and morale and biblical precedents that we still use in deriving truth from Scripture. 
   1. First, there is an eternal principle to the Sabbath, with authority going back to creation itself.
      1. God created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the 7^th he rested, therefore he hallowed that day.
      2. The Sabbath is a tribute to the divine powers of creation.
   2. Secondly, it has made the top Ten Commandments, number 4 to be precise.
      1. Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord Your God; you shall not do any work…for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
   3. Thirdly, there are strict enforcement principles to be observed,
      1. Sabbath-breaking is a capital offense.
      2. Exodus 31: 15 “…the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy t the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.”
   4. Fourthly, there are common sense interpretations to be considered.
      1. Jesus uses these common sense exceptions in his debates with the authorities.
      2. Luke 14:5: “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?”
         1. They do not respond because the answer is obvious, “YES”
   5. Fifthly, there is the authority of history and tradition.
      1. For over fifteen hundred years, they have been keeping Sabbath. 
8. Now, I would challenge those principles in consideration of how the Bible is used today to justify domestic violence. 
   1. Domestic violence is identified in five forms today,
      1. Physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, and economic.
      2. How is violence defined?
         1. It is the use of force or the threat of force to get your own way.
      3. The vast majority of cases are men violent against women, and that is our focus this morning. 
   2. Now, as we enter into a new era of marriage equality, there will be a whole new set of cases of domestic abuse to consider among same-sex couples.
9. Applying these principles to domestic violence is not an abstract bible exercise.
   1. Men have used these exact rationalizations.
   1. First, there is the eternal principle, going back to creation itself.
      1. God created male and then he created female
         1. To be man’s helper, out of his rib
         2. Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, I will call her woman.
   2. Secondly, domestic violence appeals to the top legal authority of the Bible, the Ten Commandments.
      1. Specifically, it is commandment #7, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”.
         1. Even Jesus forbids divorce except on grounds of adultery.
      2. That commandment locks the door on a violent relationship.
         1. It is not adultery if you beat the living daylights out of your spouse.
         2. It is not adultery if you force yourself upon your spouse.
         3. It is not adultery if you belittle them, insult them, do everything in your power to keep them under your thumb.
         4. It is not adultery if you try and control every penny they come in contact with, every moment they have, every connection that might exist to the outside world to keep them contained.
      3. Bible says domestic violence is not a reason for divorce.
         1. Are you going to break the vow you made before God?
   3. Thirdly, there are strict enforcement principles.
      1. Let’s jump out of the Old Testament and go talk to Paul
         1. A wife shall submit to her husband.
         2. A woman shall not teach a man.
         3. Here is my favorite, the man is the head of the house like Jesus is the head of the church.
      2. You got to listen to me because I have Jesus’ authority.
   4. Fourthly, there are common sense items in the bible to be considered.
      1. The next line after a wife shall submit to her husband is that the husband shall love his wife.
         1. He’s in charge of the household.
         2. He’s in charge of discipline.
      2. Proverbs 13:24, “whoever spares the rod hates their child…”
         1. Not just spoils the child, but hates the child.
      3. Tie that to 1 Corinthians 14:34 and following, “a woman shall keep silent in church…if there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home.”
         1. If the bible treats them like children, how far is it to justify disciplining them like children?
   5. Finally, consider the history and tradition behind these practices.
      1. Who are the greatest heroes of the Bible?  
         1. David and Solomon
            1. Hundreds of wives, hundreds more concubines
            2.  Great example for the next generation
      2. What are the legal principles surrounding women?
         1. Polygamy was okay
         2. They were legal property of fathers and husbands
         3. They were second class citizens at best
         4. Their worth was not built in but relative to the children they bore or the whim of their mate.
10. The importance of domestic violence today, our reactions to it, the need to solve this problem,
    1. This carries the weight of the issue of Sabbath breaking in the time of Jesus.
    2. It carries the weight of how we use the bible to solve problems.
    3. It lays down the principles of what can lead us astray in trying to live as Christians.
11. Jesus did not try to solve the problem of Sabbath-breaking, that wasn’t his purpose.
    1. Because Sabbath breaking was not a problem to be fixed
       1. Neither the Sabbath nor the bible were the problems.
          1. The problem was how the authorities were interpreting both.
       2. He was breaking out to an entirely new way of doing things.
       3. The authority of the Sabbath was God’s.
          1. Jesus assumed that authority for himself.
          2. The result was more reasons to try and kill him.
    2. The authority he was assuming was the authority of love that sought to heal people.  .
    3. It is God’s day, God will do what He wants with it.
12. How do we fix the problem of using the bible to justify domestic violence?
    1. We don’t solve it, we bust out of it.
13. Step One: the single biggest bible principle, God is love.
    1. If what we draw out of Scripture does not come out of that, we are wrong.
    2. Love does not hurt people, for any reason.
       1. Spare the rod?
       2. Proverbs was written 2500 years ago.
       3. We have made some progress in child rearing.
    3. Men are in charge like Jesus is in charge?
       1. Love does NOT put anybody in charge.
       2. Love is language that transcends discussions of authority and power.
       3. Even if we can sideline that, men, remember that Jesus died for the church, he never beat on her.
14. Step Two: What, then, do we do with all that other stuff?  All those verses, all those commandments?
    1. What do we do with all the bad interpretations of our own history?
       1. Keeping people as slaves?
       2. Denying the leadership of women in the church?
       3. Denying equal rights for everyone to be married?
    2. Do we do like Thomas Jefferson?  Cut out all the parts we don’t like?
    3. We have to understand this,
       1. Bible stories are written in the contexts of their own times and cultures.
       2. They are particular interpretations of the eternal principles.
          1. You need the eternal principles, of love, faith, sacrifice, justice, peace, to understand those particular interpretations.
15. Then we are doing what Jesus did, and changing the world for good.
16. Amen.

When The Bible Is Used To Justify Domestic Violence

Jesus healed a man who'd been invalid for 38 years.  It was a remarkable demonstration of the power of God.  But he did it on a Saturday.  He did it on the Sabbath.  The man, in our Scripture for Sunday, is discovered walking with his mat-by Jesus' command-and is accused of Sabbath-breaking by the religious leadership.  The man said Jesus told him to do it.  So they come after Jesus.


Sabbath-breaking is a Ten Commandment thing, pretty high up in the Legal Code of the Bible.  Today, it is practically irrelevant.  "Blue laws" are pretty much extinct except for a few locations around the nation.  Their real impact on the lives and faith of people is questionable at best.  This is NOT an issue that will pack the pews of our churches today.


But while the issue is not overly relevant to this day's culture, the legal principles, the principles of applying the bible to life situations, that is absolutely relevant.  Because the way the Jewish leadership is applying the Bible to that situation is a way that continues today, with the same damaging effects to the lives of the faithful.


This Sunday, we are going to look at those principles of biblical application and apply them to an issue of extreme, deadly relevance today, that of domestic violence.  The kinds of arguments made in that passage are the same kinds of arguments that are made today.  We need to be able to identify them, understand where they come from, and make the case when the bible is being used as a tool of oppression and not liberation, where the love of God is presumed to carry the stick of punishment, not the freedom of relationship.


We worship at 10am, 45 Market Street in Perth Amboy.  Come and join us.

“Can We Heal Like Jesus?”

Sermon: July 12, 2015   John 5: 1-9a

        What were you doing in 1977?  What have you been doing with your lives for the past 38 years?  Because the man Jesus heals in our passage today, he has been in invalid care for the last 38 years.  He’s been waiting, in our frame of reference, since 1977.

He meets Jesus when Jesus returns from Galilee.  To sum up Jesus’ movements; he was in Jerusalem for a festival; he was a little too much in the public eye; he retreated to Galilee, his home base; he did so thru Samaria, not along the main route.  Normally, the Galileans would dismiss him, he was a local boy, but he received praise because a lot of the locals had seen him at work at the Festival.  He healed the man’s child from afar.  Now, John records, Jesus has gone back to Jerusalem for another festival.

We get a very interesting glimpse into the Social Service structure of ancient Israel.  Jesus goes into Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate.  It is so named for the flocks that enter that way for temple sacrifice.  Down there is the pool of Bethesda-“The House of Outpouring”-where the US Military Hospital gets its name.  There were five roofed colonnades.  “In these lay a multitude of invalids-blind, lame, and paralyzed.”  It is supposed to be a healing place.  When there is a disturbance in the water, the first one there gets healed.

That is the testimony of the man Jesus meets.  It is a bitter testimony.  Jesus asked him if he wants to be healed.  The man’s response is that he’s been trying for 38 years but, first, no one will help him to the pool, and, second, someone always cuts him off.

The man’s response strikes me as a sharp one, between the lines, he’s saying something like, “Do you truly think I want to be here?”

I have heard that comment in various forms throughout my career from people I have gone to visit in nursing home.  Bethesda seems to be a nursing home.  In other places in Scripture, the blind, lame, and paralyzed are also described.  Jesus and his disciples heal any number of them.  Their gainful employment is begging by the side of the road.  Unless, like the man who was lowered through the roof by his friends, they have private means of support.

Do you know what the single greatest fear I have encountered as a pastor in the years of my ministry?  It is not the fear of death.  It is the fear of ‘ending up’ in a nursing home.  It has been known by various names; “The People Warehouse” or “The Land of the Forgotten”.

I live with that.  My mother has ‘ended up’ in a nursing home and she isn’t going to come out.

What is Jesus’ response?  He heals the man.  There is no statement of faith that Jesus has power, there is no mention of a post-healing belief  in Jesus, like with the man whose son Jesus healed.  Jesus told him, “Get up and go.” and the man got up and went.

What is our response?  “Praise the Lord, Jesus healed that man?”  He certainly did.  My response is more like “Why didn’t he heal them all?”  Why didn’t Jesus walk around the pool of Bethesda, leaving a trail of recovered bodies in his wake?

Why didn’t he give all those blind their sight?

Why didn’t all the lame get to walk?

Why didn’t all the paralyzed get unparalyzed?

Why didn’t Jesus just walk on through and empty out the nursing home?

Who here has visited a hospital or an assisted living facility or a nursing home and not come away with the despair that there are far too many people in there for you to help?  Who has had the despair that even your own people, friends or family, are beyond your ability to help?  Except that is exactly the mission that we have chosen for this congregation, the pursuit and provision of pastoral and spiritual care.

The T-shirt for such a ministry might be “Healers Like Jesus”.  Can this passage provide us inspiration?

Let me add fuel to the fire of the impossibility of the task.  The first question was “How on earth could we help everybody in need?”  The second question might be, “Jesus had God’s power to really make a difference.  The lame guy got up and walked away. What on earth do I have to offer that comes close to that? 

There is a powerful sentiment in the faith ‘to be imitators of Christ’.  Sure, that’s great with the small stuff; good morales; loving the neighbor; being polite; saying grace before meals.  But how on earth are we supposed to imitate the phenomenal, cosmic powers being displayed in this passage?

I am not denying the power of miracles here brothers and sisters, I have seen too many in my own life.  But I do not believe I can approach a random individual in the nursing home and tell them to “Rise up and Walk” that will not end with them rising up and falling down.

There are too many people to help and I can’t really help them anyway.  Those are two of the largest stumbling blocks to any healing ministry.  To truly understand, I think we have to take apart this healing of Jesus to see just what he gave to this man.

This man was an invalid on three levels.

The most obvious was on the physical level.  He’d been lying there, an invalid, for 38 years.  In terms of our lives, lying there since 1977.

Again, what were you doing in 1977?

But I would argue that the most superficial damage to him was on the physical level.  What would we do with that today?  Physiological medicine is incredible.  We can fix more things now in the human body than ever before.  And even if he was ‘unfixable’, we live in a culture that does more than ever in the past to make life accessible to even the most broken.  I am thinking Christopher Reeves.  And this man does not seem to be as injured as Christopher Reeves.  He could, by his own means, start the process of getting to the pool.

What psychological damage has been done?  He’s been at the Bethesda Invalid Nursing Pool for 38 years.  No one has ever helped him to the pool.  Makes me think he’s never had a visitor, makes me think that he is alone, makes me think that the staffing levels at the pool are grossly understrength.

He has been forgotten and he knows it.  He is waiting there to die and 38 years is a very long time to wait for death.  At that time, he could only wait.  What can we do now?  First line, call in the Social Worker.  If need be, get a psyche eval., get the patient on medication, monitor and follow up.  This man is awake and aware.  I have come out of a nursing home, silently thankful to the Lord that so many of those people are unaware of their surroundings.

This is today.  Then, that man did not have doctors to care for him, he certainly did not have a therapist, he had nothing, he was not even a number in a ledger or a name on a chart.  His very humanity no longer existed.  He was forgotten, tucked into this little corner of Jerusalem to watch every miracle pass him by.

Now, a brief sidebar.  That is one thing Jesus is never explicitly recorded as healing.  He never explicitly healed someone of Alzheimer’s or some other kind of mental incapacitation.  I think the closest we can come is to provide a close reading of the exorcisms and casting out of demons.  In that time and place, there was no language for mental illness.  Language and explanations from the supernatural were the closest they had.

But this man was completely aware of every slight, of every failed attempt to get the pool, of every day when nobody came to him, until the day Jesus came.  And Jesus restored his humanity.  “Take up your mat and walk” was not simply a physical miracle.  It was not simply the solution to the mental fatigue of enduring for 38 years.  That man was recognized once again as a person.

There is the healing we bring.  Because to recognize someone as a human unleashes tremendous possibility.  First via the Love of God:

A person is created by God

A person is precious to God

A person is protected by God

Second, via the Love of Neighbor

A person is a member of the community of God

They are valuable as creations of our God

They are never, ever alone

Note what we are not doing. 

We are not promising physical healing.  That is not our specialty; And that may not happen.  People are going to die, all of them.  And some of the most peaceful, together people I have ever met are ready to step through that doorway.

We are not promising mental healing.  That is not our specialty.  It may not happen.  Alzheimer’s may take our most precious; depression kills; addiction warps good people into creatures of unfulfillable need.

We are not even promising emotional healing.  You might argue Jesus provided the man with hope.  I would argue the man was not without hope.  After 38 years, he was still trying.  

We might not make people ‘happy’.  Because they may need to grieve.  They may need to rage.

The only thing we are promising is to treat them as humans.  We will offer dignity; we will offer caring; we will offer the sure and certain power of Jesus that embraces all of humanity.  And it may be rejected

But at the end of the day, they will know we have cared.  And that can be the foundation of their healing.  It is us being in imitation of Christ.  Amen

Healing and Being Christian

In John 5, Jesus heals a "Man" after being an invalid for 38 years.  He-"Man"-the unnamed recipient of this miraculous healing-is in what I can only consider as an equivalent in Jesus' time and place of a nursing home.  It is the pool of Bethesda with five porticos where many invalids lay.  The bible defines them as the blind, lame, and paralyzed.  Apparently, miracles happen there from time to time.  "Man" has been there for 38 years, waiting. 


Jesus asks "Man", "Do you want to be made well?"  Man responds out of the depths of his pain and abandonment.


"Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me."


"Man" has a way out of the nursing home.  But two things stop him.  1. No one will help him.  2. When he can muster the strength, somebody else cuts in front of him.  I wonder if "Man" saw Jesus the Miraculous Healer or Jesus the Dumbass Gawker standing in front of him.


When Jesus told "Man" to get up, take up his mat, and walk, he healed "Man" on so many levels.  He healed him physically, mentally (although a little follow up therapy probably wouldn't hurt), emotionally, and spiritually.


Our consideration on Sunday is where we, simple Christians, fit into that healing.  We are going to take up the challenge of being imitators of Christ and daring to call ourselves healers.  There is a lot of things we cannot do.  I am not the miracle worker Jesus is.  But I have come to believe that the most basic thing we can do is foundational to any healing that "Man" received.


Now I am going to be a pain-in-the-#$%^ "advertiser" and stick you with that cliff hanger.  Come to worship at 10am on Sunday, July 12 to the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy, 45 Market Street in Perth Amboy for more.


Because this topic is so near and dear to me, as a pastor and a 'spiritual caregiver', I will post the sermon to the blog next week.