IF the Prime Minister’s domestic and international political agenda cannot allow him to be persuaded to support clemency for the three Bali Bombers then hopefully he has enough rigour and stamina in his arguments to also distinguish and justify a future call to save Scott Rush from a firing squad (CL 19/10/08).
Whatever about the political intrigues, his position has no support within any religious heritage that traces itself back to Abraham as its father in faith (Romans 4:15-17).
Jesus’ words on the cross asking the Father “… to forgive them for they not what they do …” (Luke 23:34) and repeated by Stephen at his death (Acts 7:60) represent the “victim’s epistemological privilege” and are the highpoint of biblical revelation.
No longer is the old dispensation of an “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” dominant.
In John’s Gospel, the victim par excellence is the Mother of Jesus. She is there at the beginning (Marriage at Cana – Jn. 2:5-saying: “… do whatever he tells you …”) and she is there at the end (Standing under the cross as her son is killed – Jn. 19:27 – “from that moment the Beloved Disciple took her into the centre of his being”).
The message of Jesus to the Johannine community is to go forth under the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive sins (Jn. 20:23).
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus dies on the cross expressing confidence in God’s presence in the face of apparent desertion. The risen Jesus promises to be with his disciples always on their mission to the nations.
The victim has become the way of new life.
This is why Matthew’s genealogy, which is typically Jewish in its concentration on lineage through the male line, at the start of his gospel uniquely refers to five women: four described as “mother” and Mary for whom “… Joseph was husband and from whom Jesus was born …”
The four are connected with Gentile cultures but have the Holy Spirit as does Mary. All act heroically through faith.
Mark’s Gospel opens with the Baptism of Jesus and ends with his death.
The opening and the closing of his gospel are focused in his pivotal question at chapter 8:27 – “who do people say I am?”
This is the question implicitly posed by all gospels to a Christian challenged by capital punishment. In answering Mark’s explicit question we inescapably answer the absolutely cathartic question posed to all victims.
Abraham was saved from murdering his son Isaac. Moses faced it in the burning bush. Mary faced it from the day of conception.
Peter faced it when the cock crowed. Paul faced it on the road to Damascus. Stephen faced it as stones rained down upon his body. “Who do you say I am?”
VINCE HODGE
Paddington, Qld
