The Enemys Plot to Clot the Body of Christ

By administering sacred pain, the group tests the future member's loyalty and readiness to die. To investigate this, the uninitiated has to be tested via rituals which in some cases involve beatings; isolation; deprivation of food, water and sleep; bodily mutilations and torture. The psychological benefit of such experience is that it increases the self-worth of the uninitiated, while the group becomes re sanctified and reinvigorated in its cohesiveness by the experience of ritual itself.

Alcorta and Richard Sosis write: As a result, such rites are likely to produce the most cohesive groups and the most effective warriors. Military boot camps and paramilitary terrorist training camps effectively employ violence and pain to the same end. The primitive societies understood that intragroup violent competition could threaten the survival of the group. As the fury of the competitors turned deadly and could not be stopped, it was crucial to release it into something else; perhaps an external entity which lacked the capacity to retaliate.

The external entity, or the scapegoat , not only absorbed the fury of the competitors but also ended the deadly competition. With the destruction of the scapegoat, the peace of the group was re-established, and the sacred - that is the delimitation between matters that are numinous and foul - was recreated through sacrifice sacer , 'holy'; facere , 'to make'.

Capitalising upon the initial success of the sacrifice, the leader has to remind his community that any deadly competition ought to be avoided. He does so by re-enacting the sacrifice with regularity; only this time as a symbolic expression and with non-human victims. This is a pedagogical event in which the entire group has to participate. Such perception of sacred violence can be observed throughout the historical development of religion.

The Hindu gods, the Greek gods and the Aztec gods demanded the sacrifice of the beloved one, as much as Jahveh did of Abraham's son Carrasco Preemptive justification of violence. One might be tempted to regard ritual violence as a contested area of the just war thinking because of the natural ambiguity projected by the symbol itself within the logic of causality. In spite of this temptation, it is a fact that political rituals are infused with acts of symbolic violence. Such symbols not only coagulate human emotions in face of potential violence but also become platforms that justify preemptive strikes.

In this sense, the desecration of a sacred place or object, or the spiritual offense brought against a holy person, represents taboos that cannot be broken Little Similarly, the desecration of holy places such as the demolition of Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosque complexes in the city of Banja Luka, by the Serbian Orthodox political elite from Belgrade in Walasek Yet, the preemptive justification of violence is not only the domain of organised religion, as the secular state uses it in a similar manner. According to the Just War theory, one of the jus ad bellum prerequisites for a just cause includes the desecration of the national symbols.

While certain secular states have issued specific laws that prosecute flag desecration exclusively Welch , in North Korea, even pointing a finger at a statue or a painting of a political leader, or pointing a finger at a slogan carved in stone, is considered a severe crime against the communist state.

Even if evading their own visibility, rituals of preemptive violence act as aggregates that determine the course of collective action during social hostilities. Conclusively, religion endorses and sustains both peace and violence by providing spiritual narratives that give meaning to life and death, and by altering or changing the moral standards of the community.

The relationship between the spiritual narratives and the moral standards is solidified in the public consciousness through the power of ritual. Ritual and violence in world religions. Is religion inherently violent? Qualitative empirical studies have demonstrated that in its essence, religion is a phenomenon of trust and stability Girard , while in its institutionalised form it becomes a source of peace or violence, as mandated by interests Simion In its history, the comfort that religion took with real and symbolic violence had been expressed through rituals of 'bloody' and 'bloodless' sacrifices which displaced the deadly fury of rivals into a scapegoat that was unable to retaliate.

As such, scapegoating rituals became instruments for social stability, and tools for acquiring political power. Today, the relationship between ritual and violence in organised religions continues to follow the pattern of ambivalence. Contemporary religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and others, display complex ecosystems in which rituals are used either to generate peace and understanding, or to radicalise their followers, by demonising adversaries and justifying violence against them.

Even if disguised as innocent melodramas of cultural expression, the furtive power of rituals goes hand in hand with doctrinal teachings and sacred texts, as they craft new patterns of behaviour. In Hinduism, ritual violence was developed during the Brahmanic period BC through AD on the venues of dharma and yoga. Dharma interpreted the order of the Vedic animal sacrifice, and it imposed social conformity in a discriminatory and violent fashion. As Hermann Oldenburg explained, the Vedas imposed the killing of the animal in order 'to free oneself from the sin of a bloody deed, and from impending revenge' Oldenburg If the path of dharma offered detailed rituals of violence, the path of yoga developed specific mental techniques to destroy violence from its roots that are found in the human heart Nayak As the recent events in Sri Lanka demonstrate Gregg In a positive sense, the goal of a Buddhist monk is to attain enlightenment and become a bodhisattva ; that is a saint who deeply embodies the quality of nonviolence Nayak This is done through meditation and rituals that generate peace and nonviolence.

In attaining enlightenment, for the regular believer it is imperative that a ceremonial reading be practised twice a month, so that 'anger must be overcome by the absence of anger; evil must be overcome by good; greed must be overcome by liberality; lies must be overcome by truth' Ferguson Negatively, there are instances in which Buddhism considers ritual killing to be a path towards enlightenment and towards attaining instantly the status of bodhisattva.

For instance, in AD , the Chinese ruler Fa-ch'ing led an army of 50 rebels and announced that any of his troops who killed an enemy will become a bodhisattva on the spot Ferguson Mahayana Buddhism identifies five circumstances in which the act of killing is justified and commended as a ritual act.

In some variants of this narrative, the killer-monk is the Buddha himself. Biblical Judaism often combined the act of worship with war, whereby a prayer had a direct impact over the success of the military. One classical sample of such ritual behaviour - which was adopted by Christianity and Islam - is the episode from Exodus in which the success of Israel depended on Moses being able to raise his hands in prayer: As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.

Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So, Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. At the same time, violence-oriented rituals invoke ritual killing of enemies including their livestock , as an act of worship; often performed on the basis of mythical battles against Israel's mortal enemies Eisen However, Biblical Judaism included also the nazirite rituals Num 6: Nazirism was preceded by additional rituals of purification which involved abstinence from alcohol, from cutting hair, from touching corpses and the avoidance of graveyards.

Nazirite rituals included the practice of sacrifices such as the olah [lamb as a burnt offering], the hatat [sheep as sin-offering] and the shelamim [ram as peace offering]. Contemporary Jewish rituals continue to express religious ambivalence. The peace-oriented rituals involve morning prayers shacharit , afternoon prayers mincha and evening prayers ma'ariv , or arvit , as well as Friday night and Saturday morning services. The evening prayers include a particular peace invocation such as: Regarding contemporary violence, as Robert Eisen writes, 'Judaism has inspired violence not just in religious Zionism, but in secular Zionism as well' p.

The peaceful and the violent aspects of the Muslim rituals are linked with the centrality of Mecca, and with the question of leadership. Muslim worship takes several forms such as salat [ritual prayer], dhikr [contemplative prayer] and dua [prayer of praise or exhortation]. The ritual involves a prostration towards Kaba from Mecca, which is performed daily morning, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and evening , and it is practised at home or in the mosque.

The Hajj culminates with a ritual called, 'stoning the devil' which denounces Satan's temptation of Abraham, and by extension, of the entire Muslim community. The importance of this ritual is significant as it promotes a dramatic release of frustration into a virtual scapegoat and not into a human being. In Islam, rituals of violence are conducted prior and during military confrontations; mainly as acts of encouragement, and as forms of spiritual discipline designed to ensure that the battle is conducted for the benefit of Islam.

Ritual violence is directed against external enemies, as well as internally, as a devotional symbol. When directed against external enemies, Islam practises two chants for mobilisation, the shahada and Allahu Akbar [Allah is the Greatest]. The shahada - La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur-Rasool-Allah ['there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet' - is a chant that prepares the crowd for a violent confrontation].

However, when the moment of attack is imminent, the Allahu Akbar chant is used. According to Islamic tradition, Allahu Akbar was prescribed by Prophet Muhammad to each mujahedeen [holy fighter] to ensure spiritual legitimacy when fighting 'on the path of Allah'. The pain imposed through self-flagellation has strong emotional consequences, explaining perhaps the ease of willingness to conduct jihad and martyrdom Bowker Ritual ambivalence in Orthodox Christianity.

In Orthodox Christianity, the relationship between ritual and violence subscribes to the general configuration of religious ambivalence. The metaphorical representation of violence through symbols, rites, rituals and sacred art plays a significant role in the way Christianity understands itself. Symbols of violence such as cross and blood were given opposite meanings through the power of ritual. But Jesus refused any numbing drug. He chose to face the spiritual and physical terror with His senses awake.

In Mark Jesus declines the drink, apparently without tasting, desiring to suffer with a clear mind. We have yet to see an accurate, full depiction of crucifixion in modern media. If it were ever made, it would be limited to adult audiences, because of its intense horror and brutality. The Bible spares us the gory descriptions of Jesus' physical agony, simply stating " then they crucified Him.

Edwards and his associates. The quotations belong to the article, and much of the other text is paraphrased from the article. The victim's back was first torn open by the scourging, then opened again as the congealing, clotting blood came off with the clothing that was removed at the place of crucifixion. When thrown on the ground to nail the hands to the crossbeam, the wounds were again opened, deepened, and contaminated with dirt.

With each breath attached to the upright cross, the painful wounds on the back scraped against the rough wood of the upright beam and were further aggravated. Driving the nail through the wrist severed the large median nerve. This stimulated nerve produced bolts of fiery pain in both arms, and often resulted in a claw-like grip in the victim's hands. Beyond the severe pain, the major effect of crucifixion inhibited normal breathing. The weight of the body, pulling down on the arms and shoulders, tended to lock the respiratory muscles in an inhalation state, thus hindering exhalation.

The lack of adequate respiration resulted in severe muscle cramps, which hindered breathing even further. To get a good breath, one had to push against the feet and flex the elbows, pulling from the shoulders. Putting the weight of the body on the feet produced more pain, and flexing the elbows twisted the hands hanging on the nails. Lifting the body for a breath also painfully scraped the back against the rough wooden post. Each effort to get a proper breath was agonizing, exhausting, and lead to a sooner death.

The ambivalence of ritual in violence: Orthodox Christian perspectives

Moreover, it was customary to leave the corpse on the cross to be devoured by predatory animals. Death from crucifixion could come from many sources: If the victim did not die quickly enough, the legs were broken, and the victim was soon unable to breathe. A Roman citizen could not be crucified except by direct order of Caesar; it was reserved for the worst criminals and lowest classes. No wonder that the Roman statesman Cicero said of crucifixion: What shall I say of crucifying him? An act so abominable it is impossible to find any word adequately to express.

How bad was crucifixion? We get our English word excruciating from the Roman word "out of the cross. Then they crucified Him: It is significant to remember that Jesus did not suffer as the victim of circumstances. He was in control. Jesus said of His life in John It is terrible to be forced to endure such torture, but to freely choose it out of love is remarkable.

Can we ever rightly doubt God's love for us again? Has He not gone to the most extreme length to demonstrate that love? And divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: Divided His garments, casting lots: Jesus lost even His clothing at the cross. He was nailed to the cross as a naked, humiliated man.

Jesus came all the way down the ladder to accomplish our salvation. He let go of absolutely everything - even His clothes - becoming completely poor for us, so we could become completely rich in Him. That it might be fulfilled: Yet even in all this sin, pain, agony, and injustice God guided all things to His desired fulfillment. It may seem that Jesus has no control over these events. Yet the invisible hand of God guided all things, so that specific prophecies were specifically fulfilled.

Sitting down, they kept watch over Him: This was to prevent someone from rescuing Jesus from the cross. They felt it was false , because they did not believe that Jesus was the King of the Jews. They also believed it was demeaning , because it showed Rome's power to humiliate and torture even the " King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.

Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left: In His crucifixion, Jesus stood right in the center of sinful humanity. With the mockery of the criminals, the rejection of Jesus by His people is complete. Even criminals rejected Him. One of these robbers repented and trusted in Jesus, and one did not Luke And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads: In the midst of His staggering display of love, Jesus was not honored. Instead, He was blasphemed and His enemies sneered, saying, "Save Yourself. When Jesus Christ most wanted words of pity and looks of kindness, they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads.

They acted as if Jesus did what they said, they would believe Him. Yet it is precisely because He did not save Himself that He can save others. Love kept Jesus on the cross, not nails! Jesus did greater than come down from the cross; He rose from the dead, yet they did not believe even then. Jesus also showed us how we should regard the scorn and mocking of this world - that is, to not regard it at all.

Let us scorn scorn. Does the world laugh at us? Let us laugh at the world's laughter, and say to it, 'Dost thou despise us? It is not one half as much as we despise thee. Our fathers despised thy sword, O world, thy dungeons, thy racks, thy gibbets, thy stakes, and dost thou think that we shall tremble at thy scoffs, and jeers?

Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing: There were many low points to Jesus' ordeal on the cross, but this is surely one of the lowest. Even among the three crucified men, Jesus was put in the "lowest" position. This was the peak of God's love for man: But it was also the summit of man's hatred for God; God came to earth, and this is what man did to Him. Jesus had to suffer this alone, outside the gate.

He was cut off from the community; both so we could be joined to His community, and also so that our experiences of isolation can be redeemed and made into opportunities of fellowship with Him. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour: From the Roman reckoning of time, this was approximately from This unusual darkness lasted for some three hours, much longer than any natural eclipse. This was not the entire time Jesus was on the cross, but the later part of that time.

According to Mark The first three hours of Jesus' ordeal on the cross were in normal daylight, so that all could see that it was in fact Jesus on the cross, and not a replacement or an impostor. This darkness was especially remarkable because it happened during a full moon - during which time Passover was always held - and during a full moon it is impossible that there be a natural eclipse of the sun. There was darkness over all the land: The remarkable darkness all over the earth showed the agony of creation itself in the Creator's suffering.

God was angry, and his frown removed the light of day … The symbol also tells us what our Lord Jesus Christ endured. The darkness outside of him was the figure of the darkness that was within him. In Gethsemane a thick darkness fell upon our Lord's spirit. There was contemporary evidence for this unusual darkness. Phlegon, Roman historian wrote: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?

The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him. My God, My God: In quoting Psalm 22 , Jesus declared His fulfillment of that prophecy, in both its agony and in its exultation. The Psalm continues to say, You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise You Psalm It is no argument against this that the spectators might not understand what He said, for the utterance was not meant for the ears of men. Why have You forsaken Me? Jesus had known great pain and suffering both physical and emotional during His life.

Yet He had never known separation from His Father. At this moment He experienced what He had not yet ever experienced. There was a significant sense in which Jesus rightly felt forsaken by the Father at this moment. It is not, 'Why has Peter forsaken me? Why has Judas betrayed me? This stroke has cut him to the quick.

At this moment, a holy transaction took place.

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God the Father regarded God the Son as if He were a sinner. As the Apostle Paul would later write, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Yet Jesus not only endured the withdrawal of the Father's fellowship, but also the actual outpouring of the Father's wrath upon Him as a substitute for sinful humanity. Horrible as this was, it fulfilled God's good and loving plan of redemption. At the same time, we cannot say that the separation between the Father and the Son at the cross was complete.

Paul made this clear in 2 Corinthians 5: God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself at the cross. The agony of this cry is significant. It rarely grieves man to be separated from God, or to consider that he is a worthy object of God's wrath. Yet this was the true agony of Jesus on the cross. At some point before He died, before the veil was torn in two, before He cried out it is finished , an awesome spiritual transaction took place. God the Father laid upon God the Son all the guilt and wrath our sin deserved, and He bore it in Himself perfectly, totally satisfying the wrath of God for us.

As horrible as the physical suffering of Jesus was, this spiritual suffering - the act of being judged for sin in our place - was what Jesus really dreaded about the cross. This was the cup - the cup of God's righteous wrath - that He trembled at drinking Luke On the cross, Jesus became, as it were, an enemy of God who was judged and forced to drink the cup of the Father's fury. He did it so we would not have to drink that cup. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

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And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We can imagine the answer to Jesus' question: You, who have never known sin, have made the infinite sacrifice to become sin and receive My just wrath upon sin and sinners. You do this because of Your great love, and because of My great love.

Knowing this agony of the Son of God on the cross should affect how we see sin: Surely I, too, must be an accomplice in the crime! Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it? This man is calling for Elijah: Sadly, Jesus was misunderstood and mocked until the bitter end. These observers thought it was all an interesting test case to see if Elijah would actually come. As Jesus hung on the cross, His listeners misunderstood Him by taking the part for the whole. He said, " Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? This will not do for the true follower of Jesus; we hear not only one word from Jesus, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

One of the first things we know about Jesus was that He was misunderstood. Now at the end of His earthly ministry, He is also misunderstood on the cross. Jesus knew what it was to have His motives misunderstood.

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He healed people, and others said He did it by the devil. He reached out to sinners and people called Him a drunken pig. The followers of Jesus also sometimes have their motives misunderstood. Jesus knew what it was to have His words misunderstood. He said, "destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again," no doubt motioning towards His own body as He said it. Still, people insisted that He spoke of the literal temple in Jerusalem.

Another time He knew Lazarus was dead and He told others that Lazarus was sleeping. They misunderstood Jesus and thought He meant Lazarus was getting much needed rest. The followers of Jesus sometimes have their words misunderstood. Jesus knew what it was to have His silence misunderstood. When Herod questioned Jesus, He didn't say a word. Herod misunderstood the silence of Jesus and saw it as weakness and powerlessness.

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Herod was blind to the power and dignity in the silence of Jesus. The followers of Jesus also sometimes have their silence misunderstood. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Jesus cried out again with a loud voice: Most victims of crucifixion spent their last hours in complete exhaustion or unconsciousness before death.

Jesus was not like this; though tremendously tortured and weakened, He was conscious and able to speak right up to the moment of His death. Some modern commentators, on the contrary, regard the cry as the utterance as one dying of a ruptured heart. And yielded up His spirit: No one took Jesus' life from Him. Jesus, in a manner unlike any other man, yielded up His spirit.

Death had no righteous hold over the sinless Son of God. He stood in the place of sinners, but never was or became a sinner Himself. Therefore He could not die unless He yielded up His spirit. As Jesus said, I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

Jesus Christ, as born immaculate, and having never sinned, had not forfeited his life, and therefore may be considered as naturally and properly immortal. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God!

The veil of the temple was torn in two: The veil was what separated the holy place from the most holy place in the temple. It was a vivid demonstration of the separation between God and man. Notably, the veil was torn from top to bottom , and it was God who did the tearing. Perhaps this torn veil demonstrated to them the greatness of the work of Jesus. It is also probably how the torn veil became common knowledge. There is an entrance made for the greatest sinners. If there had only been a small hole cut through it, the lesser offenders might have crept through; but what an act of abounding mercy is this, that the veil is rent in the midst, and rent from top to bottom, so that the chief of sinners may find ample passage!

The earth quaked, and the rocks were split: Nature itself was shaken by the death of the Son of God. He did not die for rocks; yet rocks were more tender than the hearts of men, for whom he shed his blood. There should probably be a break between the end of Matthew We aren't to suppose that the earthquake that happened and split rocks during the crucifixion also opened graves of some of the righteous dead; who waited in those open graves for three days until coming out of the graves after His resurrection.

It is better to understand that Matthew intended us to see that the earthquake happened on the day Jesus was crucified. Then, on the day He was revealed as resurrected, the radiating power of new life was so great that it resuscitated some of the righteous dead. Coming out of the graves after His resurrection: This is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Matthew.

We don't know about this event from any other source, and Matthew doesn't tell us very much. So we really don't know what this was all about, but apparently these resuscitated saints died once again, because they were raised from the dead in the sense that Lazarus was - not to resurrection life, but to die again. They were raised, "Not to converse again, as heretofore, with men, but to accompany Christ, that raised them, into heaven; and to be as so many ocular demonstrations of Christ's quickening power. Truly this was the Son of God!

The scene at the crucifixion of Jesus was so striking that even a hardened Roman centurion confessed that this was the Son of God. This man had supervised the death of perhaps hundreds of other men by crucifixion, but he knew there was something absolutely unique about Jesus. This was the Son of God: The only thing wrong is his verb tense; Jesus is the Son of God. The Roman centurion seemed to assume that He was no longer the Son of God.

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