Found guilty of killing her former boyfriend, Jodi Arias is now
awaiting sentencing of either life in prison or death. During the trial, drama and
lies permeated her testimony. Immediately after the verdict Ms. Arias continued
the media spin by doing an interview saying she would prefer death to living
the rest of her natural life in one place. She put a spiritual connotation on
her situation by intimating that the eternal was a better option than prison. “Death is the ultimate freedom…I’d rather
have that freedom sooner than later.” I have to wonder if she has really
given thought to freedom…eternal life and eternal death. Certainly life in
prison would be a miserable existence, but anyone who fails to get their spiritual
ducks in a row may regret the rush to eternity. Arias’ thoughts are a stark
contrast to Paul “For to me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body,
this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ,
which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I
remain in the body.” (Phil 1:21-24 NIV)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Paul is the case indicative of God’s ultimate authority. I don’t know how directly involved he was in the deaths of those Christians he hunted. But the blessings of Jewish authorities no more removed those deaths from their true category of murder than the blessings of the Supreme Court do the murders of Kermit Gosnell. “For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” (Gen 9:5-6)
-----Yet Paul was assigned a giant role in forming the community of God’s people into a living body. The love in his ambition to live was pure. He grasped the importance his life meant to others. But his desire to die was as misguided as is Jodi’s. They both would be better pleased for themselves to die. I am proud of Paul for choosing the less self-serving option.
-----Jodi has no higher desire to choose until she learns the purpose for desires: righteousness. Righteousness has become a religious word with as many overhanging meanings as a Southern tree has moss. And most of its overhanging meanings are twice as mossy. So, let the simple word “right” be what it is - right, which is righteousness, and ponder all the times the Bible talks about desiring right and its importance. I perceive desire as being the defining pathway of the soul’s depths. You can do right because it is right to do right, but no matter how much you do it, right is not a part of you until you desire it, too.
----Jodi’s desire to die is like Paul’s. It is about the self. I have pondered my own response to being in Jodi’s situation. I would certainly be challenged to deal with my claustrophobia by life behind bars, but again, that’s about self. People are there. Anywhere there are people there is a need for doing right. Anywhere there is a need for doing right there is opportunity to express your ever forming desire for doing right into a mixed up reality.
-----But there maybe the situation that the need for doing right involves the formula God gave Noah. After all, Kermit, Jodi, and Paul (if only indirectly) unrightfully spilt the blood of others. I think most people see a death penalty as punishment. To desire punishment for what you’ve done might be a bit more admirable if you have no ability to make restitution. But I do not see punishment as God’s main purpose for requiring blood for shed blood. I see it as a valuation of life, just like He said, “...a reckoning.” The value of what you receive is set by the value you give up to get it. But in this transaction of blood for shed blood, the blood you shed is now useless to anyone, being mixed into the dirt, nor will the payment of your blood increase its value to you. For you will also be gone from where life needs value. However, the payment of a murderer’s blood for the blood he shed is for reckoning the value of life for those who haven’t yet died. That is a call to love those who’ve been injured by the cheapening of life murder is. If I were Jodi, I could feel this as a desire to reckon life as valuable for others. But I haven’t heard Jodi express it. She merely wants a better place for herself.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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