A Forgiving Jesus?

 

 

 

 

          Joseph Francis Alward  
              © Copyright 2001 

 

 

If some gospel writers thought that Jesus was all-forgiving, why did Luke think that Jesus taught parabolically that those who did not want Jesus as their king should be killed?

 


 

 

E-Mail Alward                        Home Page

 

The Bible presents contradictory views of Jesus.   In one place it states that Jesus teaches love and forgiveness of one's neighbor, but in another place it says that Jesus taught with a parable that those who are the enemies of God (and therefore enemies of Jesus) are to killed!

 

Decades had already passed by the time the writer of the Lukan gospel penned his stories about Jesus, and no doubt those who believed the stories about Jesus coming in the lifetimes of his disciples were losing faith, for most of the disciples would have been long dead when the Lukan gospel was written, around 80-100 AD, 50-70 years after Jesus' alleged crucifixion.

The scare the people into maintaining their faith, even though Jesus hadn't returned when he said he would, the author apparently manufactured a story about Jesus telling a parable about the man who was rejected by his people, went away, returned a king, and had those who earlier had rejected him killed:


 

[Jesus] went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.  A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return But his subjects hated him [and said], ‘We don't want this man to be our king.’   “He was made king, however, and returned home….[and said] …those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them-bring them here and kill them in front of me."  (Luke 19:26-27)

It is not surprising that the author of this passage believed that Jesus supported the death penalty for enemies of God, because that was also the view of the holy prophets of Scripture:

If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.  (Deuteronomy 13:1-11) 

 

How could Jesus on the one hand be all-forgiving, and on the other hand explain parabolically to his followers that enemies of God are to be brought before God and killed?  What kind of forgiveness is that? The contradictory nature of these teachings show that the Bible cannot be the word of a perfect, all-powerful God, for how could the words God be contradictory?