God’s Vengeance : Duane W.H. Arnold
God’s Vengeance
There are those who love the apocalyptic side of Christianity. They somehow want an accounting to be made. They look around at the world in which we live and they long for vengeance. I must admit that there have been times when I have wondered if hell can burn hot enough as I consider the violence, injustice, and exploitation that we see around us every day. There is, however, all the difference in the world between human and Divine vengeance. Human vengeance is necessarily tainted with revenge. Its root is the maxim of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. Indeed, if it were possible for us to add something more severe as a punishment, we probably would.
I would suggest that Divine vengeance is altogether different. Indeed, I would suggest that God’s mercy is his vengeance. It is impossible to categorize or to explain it, but we know it to be true. Moreover, it provides a pattern for the Christian life lived in the world.
The world in which we live is wholly preoccupied with itself. It is preoccupied with loving itself, hating itself, vaunting itself, exploiting itself, pleasing itself. Increasingly, scarcely a thought is given for anything beyond itself and its material concerns. When, as believers, we speak of the generosity of a God who is a life giver and sustainer, the source of all our wisdom and inventiveness, we sound as though we are speaking in another language and in another age. Yet, the rejection of what we say is not hatred, it is indifference. As Elie Wiesel said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” It is the indifference of the self-sufficient. It is the indifference of a world that is fascinated with itself and its own machinations and that wishes us to join in that fascination.
So, to a world that has rejected him, that is indifferent to him, God brings his unique vengeance.
Yet, God brings this vengeance not in a cataclysm, nor in a calamity, but in a baby’s cry. In the Incarnation, God is suddenly among us. He is among us as we are, one of us, helpless and vulnerable like the least of us, poor like most of us, dependent on love like all of us. He places himself in our predicament, he gives himself to a world that has never dreamt he would do it and that has never really wanted him among us. That is his vengeance. His vengeance is his mercy. In the Incarnation, God risks it all. He risks being unwanted, unrecognized, unwelcome, and alienated. In that we are unwilling to give ourselves to him, his vengeance has been that he gives himself to us. In his coming among us he invites disagreement and misunderstanding. With no concern for the inconvenience and discomfort of a supposedly self-sufficient world, he appears among us. Regardless of being considered ill timed, he comes among us. We would put him off forever if we could, but he comes among us. This is his vengeance and this is his mercy.
A friend of mine once said, “It is as though God is an uninvited guest at the table, who does not bring conviviality, respectability, or good luck; yet he does bring food, food for eternal life. You see, he brings himself.” Not only that, but he keeps on bringing himself to our table of discontent and disappointment, failure and foolishness, and in so doing he keeps us alive. His vengeance for our indifference and inattention is that he has reclaimed us for himself and has bestowed upon us his life and his love. How does God settle accounts? He settles accounts by coming among us and inviting us to act like him. If you wonder what that looks like, read the Sermon on the Mount.
For almost a millennia, it was the custom in the Roman Catholic Church that the end of the Mass concluded with the “Last Gospel”. The Last Gospel consisted of reading John 1:1-14 from the altar as the last thing that would be heard by someone attending services. It was a reminder that the Incarnation was central to our faith and to our conduct in the world. If it were up to me (and it’s not) I would reinstate the custom for, in my opinion this is the greatest unveiling (apocalypse) of God’s mercy and God’s vengeance that one can find in all of scripture. It is the bedrock of my faith in the present and my hope for eternity.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
How does this manifestation of Gods vengeance bring about His justice?
We think of justice as a settling of accounts in a just manner. It seems to me, that God’s justice is far different. He pays those who came at the last hour the same as those who toiled all the day. This is not justice as we think of it. The parables are filled with such examples. In this scheme of things, justice was already delivered by the death and resurrection of Christ with reconciliation being the end object.
This is a large mental and theological adjustment to ponder…
Proper vengeance would say that we get what we deserve. The heart of the gospel is that we don’t get what we deserve, instead we get mercy… In some ways I believe it to be a template for the Christian life.
I hope you’re right, but I’m not convinced. I do know that heaven will not be heaven if the people I love are not there. To me, that is not good news.
pstrmike
You know the phrase, “getting your own back”? In the simplest terms, I think that is what God is doing… except it’s not vengeance, it’s reconciliation.
Thank you for this; much to ponder. God is better than we think he is…
our vengence is much more about others getting worse than we deserve–we don’t wish them the same grace we possess. We see ourselves as the grieved/offended party, not God. I think this is because we don’t understand two things–our own depravity & the grace of God.
Duane
“ You know the phrase, “getting your own back”? In the simplest terms, I think that is what God is doing… except it’s not vengeance, it’s reconciliation.”
Reconciliation? Really? How? I don’t understand.
Hoppy,
Reconciliation is the heart of the gospel, at least in my opinion.
filistine
Great observation!
Vengeance is a seldom used word in the New Testament. Judgment is more often.
This post beckons a discussion of The Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse. Most believers have had no problems seeing them as both compatible and consistent. Does this post intend to call that into question? It seems to do so and to need a discussion.
Dread
I see no contradiction. In fact, with regard to the conduct of believers in times of trouble, I think the Olivet discourse aligns well with the sermon on the mount.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!”
God’s aim is reconciliation. The stumbling block is the indifference and unwillingness of those who were called to that reconciliation.
“Holy” is a term that doesn’t get enough exposure
So your post is not about the conduct of the Lamb but that of the believers? I am trying to understand this viewpoint textually rather than a conceptually. The hermeneutics that seem to be present in your post are those who view all power exchanges through the suffering of the lamb. I understand that. What I don’t see is the way it works in terms of what actually happened in history.
The baby’s cry turns into grown messiah’s tears and the latter is in light of a terrifying judgment action of God in there and then history.
What I think your text does is remove judgment actions from history but I am not clear. For sure we are not the agents of wrath but of reconciliation; that is not confusing. But it seems impossible to understand scripture apart from the reality that God ultimately judges evil in here and now history. There is where discussion is warranted.
Dread
“The hermeneutics that seem to be present in your post are those who view all power exchanges through the suffering of the lamb.”
Even more so than in the article, for the lamb was slain before the foundations of the world. I am arguing not for an historical timeline, but the more theological timeline of creation, fall, and re-creation. Part of that re-creation is the reconciliation that was made possible by the incarnation. As I tried to indicate in the article, the real sin is that of indifference which God meets not by vengeance or judgment, but by giving himself to us, and continuing to give himself to us in Word and sacrament.
How God will ultimately choose to judge those and that which he has created is, in my opinion, still somewhat of a mystery. We may have hints, but I’m not sure we have certain knowledge.
Yes the bits about indifference were noted and were embodied in the failure of Israel to know the day of their visitation.
Note that I also attempted to raise the matter of kingdom actions within history of what I would call saving judgments… not retributive but restorative … however the destruction of Jerusalem as a kingdom action connected to their indifference … gives us pause.
Thoughts?
AND
THANK you for the very fine and thought provoking original post
Dread
If we look at the historical record of the destruction of Jerusalem, could we not say that they brought judgment upon themselves by their indifference? Jesus could’ve brought down the temple as he was looking at it. He did not. The prediction of its destruction, does not necessarily indicate being the agent of that destruction.
I don’t know exactly what happens to people after they die, but I do believe that in this life, justice and mercy meet together at the cross