Day 272: are our hands clean?

Ezekiel 9-10, I John 4, Psalm 74 OR Sirach 27

“He said in my hearing, ‘Pass through the city after him, and kill; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Cut down old men, young men and young women, little children and women.'”

Reading Ezekiel 9 against the backdrop of reports of ISIS killing children in Iraq, against the backdrop of what many are calling the martyrdom of James Foley, the journalist murdered by militants; reading Ezekiel against the background of our condemnation of the extremism of our enemies is about as uncomfortable as it gets.

We discussed at the beginning of the prophet’s book the mystical nature of his writings. Now we see the dangers of literalism.

I John says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

This is not to say that Ezekiel is a false prophet; but that those who cherry-pick verses of violence and read into them their own commandments to kill have lost their way; they have forgotten to test the spirit of interpretation against the commandments of love: Thou shalt not kill.

“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brother or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”

Of course, the warning does not belong to radicals alone, but to each of us that seeks to justify our prejudice, our grudges, our resentment and hatred; we suburban and domestic extremists, rationalizing our unloving with the twisted words of scripture, hardened into swords where they should hang like poetry, twisting in the wind.