On the other hand, Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda, author of What Buddhists Believe, says on page 374,
"We [meaning Buddhists], must not only respect the law of the country but...strictly obey it..."
A little further on, Sri Dhammananda informs...
"Any Buddhist who chooses to defy the law of the country by committing serious crime will have to be punished by the laws of the country and not by the religious body." (Page 375).
Again from page 375, we read...
"If law stipulates that for committing a serious crime you must pay for it by having your life taken away from you, then the process of law must take its course. Buddhism cannot interfere with normal enforcement of the law."
Human nature being what it is, there were just as many good and bad guys away back when as there are in this day and age (2019). In God's Word, in Deuteronomy 19:21 (NIV), we find God's take on justice...
"Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."
Sounds harsh, right?
The idea of a death sentence is very bluntly put there. Yet God did take mercy on the first murderer ever; Cain, the first born of the first ever man Adam and his wife Eve.
Cain whined a bit and God allowed Cain to live, yet with a mark and a "curse" upon him that kept others from harming him. The curse being if others should kill Cain they themselves have to...
"...suffer vengeance seven times over" (Genesis 4:1-16, esp 4:15 NIV).
I suppose then the people would stay far away from such a man as possible, not wanting to get 'contaminated' or even unintentionally have the curse brought down upon them. This life sentence upon Cain then would ostracize him, putting him effectively in 'isolation'. Lonely existence.
God has more to say on the subject. Take a look at Genesis 9:3-6, esp vs 5 and 6...
"...and for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" (NIV).
These verses indicate a difference between human kind and animal kind. It's the human being who was formed in the "image of God". Therefore those human beings who die at the hand of man or beast are justified in the "life for life" (Deuteronomy 19:21).
The beast that attacks and kills mankind is to be put to death. The man that kills mankind must also face the death sentence. Exodus 21:28-32 is explicit in this. Even the owner of the bull known to have a habit of wanting to gore people and if it actually gores and kills a man, or woman, the bull and the owner of the bull must be put to death.
Yet God in His mercy allows that that owner could redeem his life by paying whatever was demanded by, I assume, the victims' relatives.
Actually, the following verses of Exodus 21:33-36, detail what must happen if the habitual goring bull injures another bull unto death, that 'gorer' needs to be put to death.
God's intent is obvious.
In the previous entry about self-defense we learned of the Cities of Refuge that an alleged murderer could flee to until the death of an individual human being could be ascertained as having been accidental or intentional.
This leads to how justice was served, and one of the criteria of that involved necessitating having witnesses. In Deuteronomy 19:15, God said there had to be two or three witnesses for the crime to be established. There are stern warnings given in Deuteronomy 19:16-19 to false witnesses. Judges had to prove then whether the witnesses were true or false. If false, then what the witness intended against his fellow man, came upon him.
There are further words of remonstrance from Proverbs 19:5...
"A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free."
There is such a thing as "the heat of the moment" that happens to people and they do things they deeply regret later. People get killed.
Another word of wisdom, also from Proverbs 19, and verse 19, gives additional caution...
"A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again."
Beware you are not the hot-tempered person. Beware of keeping company with one.
Can you get a glimpse of how unfair Jesus's trial and crucifixion was?
There were many false witnesses instigated by the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin. Read Matthew 26:59-60; Mark 14:53-61; and Luke 23:1-5.
Jesus the Righteous One; He did no sin neither was any deceit found in Him (1 Peter 2:22). And just think of this...
"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)
This is similar to saying our (human kind's) sin killed Jesus. We should then have the death sentence upon our own heads for that. Nevertheless, God in His grace and mercy keeps us alive, offers us the life sentence--to spend eternity with Him forever upon our physical death on earth. Praise God for His righteousness and gift of salvation.
Another aspect of the death sentence that Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda calls attention to is that...
"Religion cannot sentence a person to death for any fault but the law can." (page 376).
This is an excellent demarcation to note. God gave the children of Israel the rules and regulations for living to please Him (Read Exodus through Deuteronomy for concurrence) . These were given to keep them healthy and law-abiding. God gave them so as to encourage a relationship with Him. He greatly desired that. Yet over time this way of life became a ritual religion and by the time we arrive at the New Testament Jews (Read the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), human beings, added so many burdens to be borne.
This had become a religion for them and the religious leaders of the day judged Jesus by their standards.
Religion sentenced Jesus.
Religion needed the law on their side to carry out their nefarious deeds; to give Jesus the death sentence and carry it out.
Yes it was the chief priests and Sanhedrin who arrested Jesus and carried out His arrest, trial and judgement and sentencing but they needed the Romans to carry it out to it's conclusion.
The Romans, Pilate and Herod, were more 'just' then the Jewish leaders. The two Roman rulers found no fault in Jesus (Luke 23:6-12 esp vs 15). Yet out of their own pride and arrogance they acquiesced to the Jewish leaders. The Roman soldiers were given authority to crucify Jesus. Yet Jesus's punishment, due to false witnesses, did not fall upon any of them.
How unfair. How unjust.
Rather, Jesus took the punishment for them and for the sins and deceit of every single last one of them and of all human beings. Jesus did not interfere with the normal enforcement of the law even though He could have especially in light of the unjust circumstances surrounding His arrest, trial and sentencing as we already saw (Matthew 26:53).
To reiterate what Sri Dhammananda said and that was cited earlier,
"One of the important moral codes of Buddhism is to obey the laws of a country...and we have no choice but to obey the law" (Pages 376, 377).
He further explains...
"If we choose to remain in society then we must be prepared to sacrifice ourselves for the good of that society" (Page 377).
Jesus did that very thing! His death and resurrection benefited not only the society of His earthly walk of his day but all the ages put together. Praise His Holy Name!
If we are to live in our society we too need to abide by the rules of the land that line up with God's Word. We followers of Jesus Christ shouldn't simply go about condemning folks to death and need to be sure that we do not falsely accuse or excuse another. However, when the due course of law is justly enforced we do well not to interfere.
For Christians, we would not want to send anyone to Hell. Our God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. Those brave enough, by God's grace, who are involved in prison ministries need our prayers on their behalf to be able to have opportunities to speak to inmates, particularly those on death row. Pray that the inmates would have hearts and minds willing to hear the message of God's love and to accept the salvation Jesus won for them. May the message of Jesus go forth until He calls us Home to be with Him forever.
Finish off by reading this verse from 2 Peter 3:9 NIV,
"The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
Amen.
~ERC January 2019~
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