Marginal Christianity

Jesus has just announced that Israel’s “house,” that is, its temple – the centerpiece of its life and the world’s hope – is left to it “desolate.” He has already pronounced judgment on it and here he prophesies its destruction. [1] Which, I remind us, will happen to “this generation” (23:36). With have seen this note sounded repeatedly by Jesus. His time frame is within the lifetime of the current generation. Not centuries or millennia future at the supposed end of the world. This generation! This is the moment of God’s New Exodus, which as we have often noted means salvation for those Jews who followed Jesus but judgment on the rest, incorrigible ethnic Israel which had made a career of resisting God and dirtying his name and reputation before the world. Here Jesus deals with the judgment of recalcitrant Israel. Israel’s role on God’s plan is the issue here. As Israel bears the hope and destiny of the world in its faithfulness, so to in its faithlessness it bears the sin ...

1. Delimitation: find a group of people, a corporate “other,” to blame for social, economic, and additional problems (such as crime) 2. Description: portray this group at first with half-truths and hyperbole, and then with out-and-out lies that demonize them 3. Dehumanization: take the next step and call this group of people non-human, or sub-human, or part-human—they are more like animals or things—and take away their basic human rights 4. Desecration: inflict emotional and then physical damage on these sacred persons (made in the image of God) who have been dehumanized 5. Destruction At the moment, thank God, the U.S. is not at #5, but certain people and so-called leaders are deeply entrenched in #1-3, and some have already participated in aspects of #4. Let the rest of us resolve to oppose and reverse the path before we go any further in the wrong direction. (And even if we cannot imagine #5 or never get there, #1-4 must still be overcome.)