The Myth of Redemptive Violence

Some parts of scripture are difficult because they don’t make sense. Some seem out of character. Some rely on 2,000-year-old unfamiliar cultural contexts. And some have been used for centuries as justification for the hatred and oppression of the Hebrew people. 

One example is Jesus’ "Parable of the Wicked Tenants” from Matthew 21, 33-46. Jesus tells the story of tenants in a vineyard to murder those whom the landowner sends to collect the produce. Those tenants eventually murder the landowner’s own son, in a desperate attempt to claim the inheritance for themselves. The Pharisees and chief priests (whom were the original audience) are adamant that the landowner should replace those tenants with new ones; and they become incensed as they realize the story was about them.

This snippet of scripture is not a historical divine judgment voiding God’s promises made with an entire ethnic and religious group whom God. Not only would that be an erroneous reading of the text, but it would be utterly devoid of good news. 

In this scripture, Jesus reminds us that our call and responsibility to care for God’s vineyard is the expected response to the love, grace, and peace we have received.   

Read alongside the weekend’s events in Israel and Palestine, it can also serve as a timely reminder of the futility of violence. 

Just so we’re all on the same page here, the Palestinian militant organization called Hamas launched an all-out assault on Israel yesterday. This was the latest step in a conflict that has been raging in this form for over half a century; but which can trace its roots back millennia. 

Initial reports are that well over 500 Israelis have been killed as a result of the strikes. Israel’s retaliatory attacks have claimed the lives of over 300 Palestinians. Thousands of injuries. Most, if not all, of the fatalities and injuries on both sides have been civilians.  

Hamas attacked and Israel attacked back. Hamas attacked because Israel had attacked them. Israel had attacked them because Hamas had attacked them because Israel had attacked them, and so on and so on, for years and years and years. Caught in the cycle of violence.

It might seem an absurd situation from an American’s safe and removed vantage point. But, if we’re honest, there’s something tempting about the notion of repaying violence with violence. Something exciting, invigorating, alluring, and even instinctive. It’s a very human thing. Repaying an insult with an insult. Passing and cutting off a driver who cut you off. Wishing some degree of bad fortune on “those people.” Killing people who kill people. Repaying violence with violence…the examples are everywhere. 

Every other movie coming out of Hollywood is about a man, woman, or group of people who had something awful happen to them so they set off to kill everyone who could have had a hand in it. There are so many movies that tell this same story because it is a fool-proof formula for profit. People are willing to pay to watch someone use violence to rectify the world and rid it of the violent people. It speaks to a very human part of our nature. And it is tempting to see this as an appropriate way to engage with the world. 

The Messiah was to usher in a new age of peace and prosperity for God’s chosen people; an age of peace and prosperity that would come about once they have had the chance to engage in all the nasty, violent, angry, evil stuff against their enemies. The people who had endured generations of great suffering, rejection, and death were ready to dish it out in kind, teaching their enemies a lesson. Peace would follow, but only after more violence. It would only be fair and just.

But along comes Jesus, who tells stories about God, himself, and the Kingdom of God, which show that his endgame is to vanquish the cycle of violence by absorbing it all into himself and responding with love, forgiveness, and life.

Jesus, in today’s parable, is the landowner’s son who is killed by the vineyard tenants so that they could inherit the landowner’s vast wealth. The chief priests and Pharisees heard the parable and said, “The landowner should kill the tenants for what they did.” Not just kill, but “put those wretches to a miserable death.” An eye for an eye, as they say.

There is much that needs to be said about the myth of redemptive violence – the idea that violence can be used as an instrument of good. Theologian Walter Wink offers this succinct primer: 

"The myth of redemptive violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational, and primitive depiction of evil the world has ever known…. By making violence pleasurable, fascinating and entertaining, the Powers are able to delude people into compliance with a system that is cheating them of their very lives." (The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium)

Violence begets violence, and violent actions are just as deadly for the perpetrator as the victim.

Jesus on the cross is the ultimate image of the futility of the myth of redemptive violence. The ends of our violent means are so extreme that we can crucify the Son of God. 

The kingdom of God will be taken away from [those who perpetuate the cycle of violence; those who seek to claim the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom through force and cheating] and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.

In Mark, chapter 8, Jesus instructs his followers to pick up crosses and follow him. This is more than just a prohibition against violence. It is an invitation to live a full life that exudes the divine force of peace throughout the world. 

In today’s parable, Jesus instructs his followers to bear fruit. We bear fruit by the footsteps of Christ, by recognizing the inherent dignity and worth of every person, and by cooperating with the ongoing work of God in the world that is expressed in acts of loving kindness and trust in God. 

God made the first move. God’s love is the foundation upon which our lives are built. God’s love and forgiveness is the daily lived-out reality we entered into in our baptism. We have already been promised the inheritance of God’s kingdom. There is nothing for us to strive after except for the fruits of the Holy Spirit: peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

Jesus reframes the law to show that it is possible to live in the Kingdom of God here and now. 

And the Holy Spirit will sustain us on our journeys of vineyard tending and fruit-bearing.