I was in a McDonald's with my wife last night, and a young man walked in wearing a sweatshirt with the slogan, "Body Piercing Saved My Life." He was so clean-cut--no obvious piercings--that I had to stop and think for a moment. Then I noticed below the slogan--two hands with holes in them.
If you still are not getting it: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." -- Isaiah 53:5.
I wonder how many conversations that sweatshirt starts!
Not a new formulation. There's a woman I see at the Y with a shirt like that, for a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteAs a non-believer, my first (private) reaction is "Keep it to yourself."
ReplyDeleteTo you, I note that the whole Jesus story too conveniently fits the Hebrew scriptures' description to be believable. But that's what an up-and-coming religion does to co-op the previous one.
I can't stand it when someone wants a believer to "keep it to [him]self". Should I keep my interest in math to myself, and not wear math T-shirts? If I like an obnoxious television show, should I keep that to myself? If I think religion is evil, should I keep that to myself?
ReplyDeleteIf I firmly believe something, and think it's a wonderful--or at least worthwhile--belief, and have a desire to share it with others, then I should be free to do so by whatever means I find attractive to do so, so long as I don't trample on the rights of others.
To Bill Michtcom, I'd add: On the one hand, it's convenient that the whole Jesus story so conveniently fits Hebrew scripture...and while it can be explained by co-option of the Jewish religion, there's another explanation as well.
ReplyDeleteFor centuries prophets have been prophesying the coming of a Messiah who will take on the sins of the world. Thus, the Jesus story can so conveniently fit the Hebrew scriptures precisely because it is a continuation of those scriptures, and a fulfillment of prophesy.
As I have studied both the Old and the New Testaments, I am struck by how there is a single God presiding over both. I think it's comical how people talk about the Vengeful God of the Old Testament, who says "Though your sins be scarlet, they can be white as snow", or the Merciful, peaceful God of the New Testament, who says "Wo unto Jerusalem, for because you have rejected me, you will be destroyed", even going so far as warning his disciples to flee the city when it is surrounded by Romans.
The reason there is no conflict is that the God of both the Old and the New is both Just and Merciful; God seems most vengeful when mercy has been exhausted, and justice needs to be fulfilled.
According to Jewish traditions, those verses were referring to the Jewish people who were being tortured. (It may have been a foretelling of the Holocaust.)
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