Curses and Mercy

Synopsis     Deuteronomy 27:16-28:3     3/17/2018

Moses commanded a rite for the Israelites as they crossed the Jordan and entered into the Promised Land. They were to arrange themselves on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Then, the Levites were tasked with announcing a series of curses for various kinds of bad behavior. After each one, the people acknowledged the evil and the  consequential curse by proclaiming “Amen”

Curses and Mercy

With all the contemporary emphasis on the Christ who saves me – the individual – the thought of people willingly accepting a curse is strange.

When I’ve sinned – I cry out, “Father forgive me for I have sinned!”. When I walk to the altar to receive communion I repeat the ancient monastic prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”

I am wholly unwilling to accept the curse if I can avoid it – even if I deserve it, even if curses would be just.

My hope is entirely in the mercy of God.

A Community Project

So what do I have to do with people who willingly accept a curse as just compensation for evil deeds?

We could chalk this up to the difference between the old and the new dispensations. You know,  the Old Testament is focused on justice and the New Testament is focused on mercy. But I don’t think any of these people were actually asking for these curses to fall on them. Instead, they imagined themselves to be righteous. They didn’t see themselves as sinners. They accepted the curses as the just penalty for the kinds of sins that they would never do.

It’s about the community. Accepting the curses as just punishment for these particular sins is a way of saying that the Israelites would never accept or condone these kinds of sins. They collectively rejected these behaviors and committed to not tolerate them within the community. It’s their declaration of the kind of community and nation they intend to be as they come to occupy their Promised Land.

So where are the lines for us? What won’t we accept? What will we condemn as behavior that is unworthy of the Authentic Community?

Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,” Gal 3:13