Steven Carr

Has the following ever been read out in a church on Good Friday?

Romans 13

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.



Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.


For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.



For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.



Jesus knew that 'he does not bear the sword for nothing' and that later Christians would condemn him as a wrongdoer, punished by God's servant, the agent of wrath sent to bring punishment on wrongdoers.



That had to hurt.....

Dutch_labrat

But what does this have to do with Good Friday (saviour-onna-stick-day)?

Steven Carr

Well,the person who wrote that passage knew that the authorities he was praising as sent to punish wrongdoers had mocked, stripped, beaten, flogged, and crucified the Son of God.

Strokes chin thoughtfully...... Or did he, I wonder?

Huon

Holy Friday in Romance Languages, Charfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German, Good Friday is the English designation of Friday in Holy Week.
That Friday was not good for everybody... if we believe the NT.

Pontius Pilate was the governing authority, established by God, and Jesus did wrong... But JC is the second of three gods, and did wrong deliberately.

bacht

I can't be the only one who sees the sacrifice of Christ as the final rejection of the old "eye for an eye" mentality (?) Isn't the message about not reinforcing the spiral of retributive violence in the world?

Steven Carr

Nobody seems to know if that passage has ever been read out in a Good Friday service.

I doubt if even Christians could shoulder that much cognitive dissonance.

Minimalist

Oh, sure they could. Then they'll sit there and tell us how the US was founded on xtian "values."

Well, you nailed it. Those clowns gave us the Divine Right of Kings. Luckily for us the US was founded by children of the enlightenment.

Newfie

I wonder what the Tea Party folks think of God personally choosing every President of the US? The Christian duty then is to blindly accept whatever the leader wants, right? Hardly seems democratic, and where does free will to vote as you please fit into this?

Minimalist

I really don't think they analyze it quite that deeply, Newfie.

In fact, most of the time they wouldn't question the president at all.


As long as he was white.

Solo

I am not sure where you want to go with this. The thing to observe in Rom 13 is that Paul (who certainly is not responsible for the use of his ideas by the later church) is a 'law and order' guy who - in his holy saintliness and godly self-righteousness - affects he can't even conceive of abuse of judicial power by authorities. I say 'affects' because 'unjust ruler(s)' certainly was a concept available in Paul's time. This 'blind spot' is an absolutely crucial point if one wants to understand the way Paul ticked and how he viewed Jesus' crucifixion.

Jiri